Pretenders to the Throne

Show their wares at Cannes.

Cannes: Global Competitors Emerge in Animated Film Market

... When it comes to animation, the big American studios: Pixar, DreamWorks Animation and Blue Sky still dominate the market. Take a look around the Marche, however, and this seems to be changing. The Last Elf of the Orient, Space Dogs 2, Marzipan Spirit, Jitterbug - those are just a handful of the more than 200 projects from outside North America that are looking for buyers and for a piece of the global animated pie. ...

There is plenty of room below that top tier [of Pixar and DreamWorks] for animated movies made outside the states,” said Martin Moszkowicz, head of film and TV at Germany's Constantin Film, who are producing the upcoming 3D animated feature Tarzan, an action-packed take on the classic jungle tale. ...

No nation is probably more eager than China to create the next Pixar. China's Tianjin North Film Group has arrived at the market touting the second film in its Legend of a Rabbit franchise. The first film was a notable flop though. Rather than retreating, the company is doubling down. ...

News flash: There is always somebody doubling down.

When billions of dollars glitter enticingly on the horizon, animation companies big and small swarm into the marketplace. (They'd be foolish not to.)

I've been watching this particular cauldron bubble since ... oh ... 1990, and the plotline seldom changes: American animation companies make big bucks in the world market; foreign cartoon studios then create product that they hope will make big bucks too.

Mostly, they fall on their eager faces.

So far, the closest that foreign companies have come to grabbing the big brass ring is Animal Logic with its dancing penguins epic Happy Feet (although the sequel sagged at the box office) and the French animation studio MacGuff ... which is under the direction and ownership of (American) Illumination Entertainment, so perhaps MacGuff doesn't quite count.

There could well come a day when foreign cartoon features clean up at the global box office. Even now, there are animated features from foreign lands that have made $50,000,000 ... or even $100,000,000 in markets around the world. But no European, Indian or Chinese studio has come close the billion dollar wonders created by Pixar, DreamWorks Animation or Blue Sky Studios.

I wouldn't bet against it happening someday, but it hasn't happened yet.