Behind the Animation Boom

from makers - Real insight Into Global Production #10

Nordics

Pinocchio © Netflix 2022.

The content boom kickstarted by Netflix and followed by international streamers is felt nowhere more keenly than in animation. Accelerated during the pandemic, soaring demand has changed the economy of animation making new types of shows possible and reaching different types of audiences plausible.

As restrictions on filming during the pandemic impacted live-action, animation industries have seen a huge surge in demand for content – the market is expected to grow from USD354. 7billion in 2020 to USD642.7 billion by 2030.

“The boom is quite spectacular,” says Marc du Pontavice, CEO of French animation firm Xilam. “It really started four to five years ago and I doubt it’s yet its reached peak.”

There are several factors driving the boom. At base are the evergreen characteristics of the medium itself. Animated content is easier to export for international sale, it tends to be cheaper to produce than live action, and as Walt Disney is reputed to have said, ‘Every seven years a new generation of children comes along.’

“There’s always a new market and animation doesn’t age,” says Ralph Kamp, Chairman & CEO of animated feature specialist Timeless Films. “Snow White is as good now as it was in 1937. Animation holds its value. Unquestionably there’s a boom now though where we are on that curve is difficult to tell. At some point it will level out. We are in a very cyclical business.”

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol © Timeless Films.

UNQUESTIONABLY THERE’S A BOOM NOW THOUGH WHERE WE ARE ON THAT CURVE IS DIFFICULT TO TELL. AT SOME POINT IT WILL LEVEL OUT. WE ARE IN A VERY CYCLICAL BUSINESS.

The Doomies © Xilam Animation. The medium is also demonstrably pandemic-proof, less fragile and more resilient than live action which may be why streamers are bolstering their resources.

Perhaps the busiest is Netflix which has been ramping up its inhouse animation division. In July it acquired stalwart Australian studio Animal Logic which is known for making hits like Happy Feet and The Lego Movie.

The two companies are already partnering on The Magician’s Elephant (set for a 2023 release) and Ron Howard’s first animated film, The Shrinking of Treehorn. More than 800 staff in Sydney and Vancouver have been added to Netflix payroll at the same time as Netflix has made dozens of employees redundant.

Karen Toliver (VP Animation Film Content) and Traci Balthazor (VP Animation Film Production) have been tasked with streamlining the animation team but show no signs of reducing output. In the last five years Netflix has had seven Oscar nominees, with a win for If Anything Happens, I Love You and is backing Guillermo del Toro's stop motion feature Pinocchio in the current awards season.

“Streaming platforms have a different model to broadcasters,” says Pontavice. “They realise that animation is not necessarily a motive for subscription but it is a motive for retention of subs.”

In other words, kids will watch it every day. And demand is global.

“When streamers commission a show it is immediately available in 200 countries. This gives a huge boost to the property and enables a much deeper exploitation of the show.” Streamers tend to commission fewer episodes upfront and if the show is successful then commission more. “It is likely you’ll get commissioned for 500 episodes over 20 years as might happen with a broadcaster,” he says. “However, streamers are very flexible in terms of length. You don’t have to divide episodes into perfect segments. They don’t care if an episode of the same series is longer than another one which is great because not all stories fit the same format.”

Budgets are reportedly far superior than broadcast but expectations of quality are higher too. “It is not replacing existing money it is incremental to the business,” says Pontavice. “That means huge progress in terms of the quality that we produce. We earn more money and we can invest in more spectacular, innovative shows.”

Xilam’s 78 x 7 Karate Sheep for Netflix is a slapstick comedy that would normally be made in 2D. “The squash and stretch of slapstick is notoriously hard to do in CGI but with the money available now we’ve dared to make it in CGI.”

The company’s Chip ‘n’ Dale: Park Life for Disney+ is another slapstick but this time made traditionally “with no cut-outs, almost a hand drawn technique that is spectacularly expensive and difficult to make. The budget made it possible.”

NETFLIX DISNEY

ANIMATION

“SHORTER FORMATS GIVE YOU SCOPE TO INNOVATE. INSTEAD OF PLAYING IT SAFE, YOU CAN EXPLORE IDEAS LIKE RENDERING IN A COMIC BOOK STYLE OR PRODUCING IN A 2D/3D HYBRID.”

Adventures with Auntie Ada © Fika Entertainment.

Kamp insists that lower budget don’t make production any less imaginative. “What money buys you in animation is time. You always want to take your time to get it right and that is the key thing.”

Timeless recently delivered musical feature Scrooge: A Christmas Carol to Netflix for which the animator optioned Leslie Bricusse’s songs from a 1970 live action version of Dickens’ classic.

Streamers are not the only clients fuelling the animation boom. “The big thing we noticed was social media content. Content for YouTube is easily on a par with television in terms of rendering quality and narrative format,” reports Pete Divers, Co-Founder and Head of VFX at Australia’s Fika Entertainment. “That was nowhere near the case a few years ago.”

Animated content for YouTube and social media ranges from supporting material for shows on streaming platforms to branded content.

“Toy brands are using narrative animation heavily to market product,” says Divers.

Fika created Ultimate Designer House, a 360° tour for Mattel’s American Girl brand which received three million hits in five days after release.

“You can use YouTube as a stepping stone to prove yourself,” he says. “If you can pull off 52 x 3 then you can start to move into longer form material. Shorter formats also lowers the risk and gives you scope to innovate. Instead of playing it safe, you can explore ideas like rendering in a comic book style or producing in a 2D/3D hybrid.”

Advertising agencies also jumped aboard the animation ship as their live-action options sank in the pandemic. “We had a massive influx of commercial enquiries, specifically from adverts that were previously live-action jobs,” says Sam Gray, head of business development at Passion Pictures and Strange Beast. “Companies wanted to directly translate those scripts into animation, which didn’t work. We helped them understand how animation can work for them.”

Animation is also benefitting from advances in technology. Fika operates a motion and facial capture stage and uses actor performances as the basis for many of its animated production including the series Adventures with Auntie Ada. On a larger scale, gaming studio Nintendo recently bought Japanese CG house Dynamo Pictures to develop animated properties using Nintendo IP. Disney is also using CG and mixed media animation to create stories like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Gaming company Riot Games created the League of Legends animated series Arcane with Fortiche Productions, which it invested heavily in after the show’s first season debuted on Netflix. One-time Nintendo rival Sega has also made big bets on film and animation, with multiple Sonic the Hedgehog products released and in development.

In fact, Nintendo itself signalled that it was jumping into the Hollywood fray with the announcement of the new Super Mario Bros movie, which will be produced by Illumination and star Chris Pratt and Anya Taylor-Joy.

While most animation is still targeted at preschool children, platforms are keen to attract older audiences.

The Doomies, a 22×22 horror comedy in production for Disney marks Xilam’s first project aimed at a teen audience. Xilam has another deal with a significant US showrunner to produce an action adventure for adults. “We expect adult animation to represent 20-30% of our output in the coming years,” reveals Pontavice.

For all the technology most animators believe there is something irresistibly tactile about sitting in a room with a group of people and bouncing ideas around.

“That creativity is the most enjoyable and most frustrating part of the business,” says Kamp. “Every day you come up with something new but you can’t instantly package and repeat it. Many people have tried to make a factory out of animation but if you do the audience will quickly get tired with the product.”

STREAMING PLATFORMS REALISE THAT ANIMATION IS NOT NECESSARILY A MOTIVE FOR SUBSCRIPTION BUT IT IS A MOTIVE FOR RETENTION OF SUBS.