Cartoons Hither and Yon

What's forgotten when the focus is on animation in the United States, is that there's a whole lot of cartoons being made in various parts of the world that residents of the U.S. seldom hear about. Like for instance south of the border ...

... Animators in Latin America are mining indigenous elements – rites, mythological characters, lush landscapes – to create animation which highlights key issues – ecology, diversity – in a region where animation is seen as part of a natural culture while setting their works apart in industrial terms from Hollywood blockbusters. ...

Select Latin America’s animated features are breaking out to standout box office results. Mexican title “Un gallo con muchos huevos” grossed $9.1 million in the U.S. for Pantelion Films and $10.0 million for Televisa’s Videocine in Mexico. Alberto Rodriguez’s Mexican feature “La leyenda del chupacabras” near bested ‘Ouija: “Origin of Evil” in its opening weekend on Oct. 21. Argentina’s new Promotion Plan for Cinema offers development and production support for animation.

“The challenge is now how companies which are about to complete a first project set up a permanent structure to sustain a slate of productions, and how they strengthen a still-developing sector,” Animation! co-ordinator Silvina Cornillon. ...

Or Britain ...

David Sproxton of Aardman Animations: Animation as we knew it was kids’ stuff, mostly American imports. But there was this small slot on TV, a buffer between BBC kids TV and the news. We thought that’s the height of our ambitions. In the 70s, it was a very tiny world. ...

Aside from British films like Animal Farm and Yellow Submarine, only Disney made feature films, as far as we were aware. And it was all drawn animation. That’s the way the world seemed to be. We didn’t dream of making a feature film for a long time. We actually had a meeting with Disney when they were the only game in town, as they were at pains to point out to us. ...

We have no doubts about what we do because we do it really well and we love it. I’m realistic to know that in the corridors of Hollywood we’re obviously regarded as small scale – good, classy, but small-scale because no stop-motion film has ever made as much money as any of the big CG films. ...

We always knew there was a more European interest in what we were doing. If you can find someone with the clout and the risk taking and the money, it’s going to be a happier marriage for us than trying to understand Middle America. We do know our European audience. ...

And the Middle East ...

Turkey’s animation industry is blooming—the country currently counts over 30 animation studios, 13 feature-length animated films produced to date in the country, and four festivals dedicated to animation. ...

Also, too, Russia ...

Russian animation producer Wizart has signed a raft of agreements for its animated feature franchise Snow Queen and cartoon movie Sheep & Wolves in early sales activity at the ongoing AFM in Santa Monica.

The Moscow-based company has sold home entertainment rights to Sheep and Wolves to Germany's Koch Media for Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the South Tyrol. It also sold the film to Denmark (Angel Scandinavia A/S) in the first Scandinavian deal for the franchise. ...

Animation is a network of interlocking enterprises girdling the globe.

There are the big player with the big grosses (Pixar, DreamWorks, Disney, Blue Sky). There are subcontractors armed with government subsidies (players in Canada, Britain, France, etc.) And then you have regional studios. The companies in Russia, China, India, Brazil, France, and Argentina create less expensive home-grown home-grown products that do well in their home markets and get limited distribution around the world, and end up making small but tidy profits. (And sometimes losses).

Beyond the animated features, animated shorts, and animated commercials being produced, there are video games and visual effects that utilize some of the same talent pool, the best of which move to wherever the highest-paying jobs are.

Animation, more than ever before, is an art form that gets created in all corners of the globe at widely diverse price-points. That reality will only increase over time.