Growing pains of China's animation movie
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The first foreign cartoon introduced to China was Japan's Astro Boy series in 1981. Since then foreign cartoons have flooded into China. Because of their more entertaining stories and better business model, they rapidly took control of the market. That was a low point for the Chinese animation industry.
From 1993 to 2003, China only produced 46,000 minutes of animation. Jin Cheng, a director with the Guangzhou Animation and Cartoon Association, said the main reason for these Chinese films' failure in box office was poor preparation and too much focus on success and money.
"Some animation companies made a film in 9 months. They never paid attention to first-phase layout, not to mention delicate polishing," Jin said.
Many of these films, launched with high expectations and great public relations campaigns, got an indifferent response from the market after hitting the big screen.
To Wang Xin, the movie version of the Plesant Goat was a simple cut-and-paste from its original TV series. "The idea, images, and technology were terrible compared to foreign cartoon movies. The film even didn't have a full storyline," she noted.
She said that today's Chinese-made animation lacks the human touch that earlier Chinese cartoons had.
Many producers prefer to add hot social topics, such as the financial crisis, or popular Internet topics to their movies.
"I feel no sincerity from local animation producers toward their audience," Wang Xin said.
Yin Hong said, under current circumstances, it's reasonable for local producers to avoid competition with their foreign counterparts in terms of technology, special effects and other hard conditions.
"The gap between them is too wide," he said.
Wang Xin blames the gap on the protective policies. "These companies won't make progress without competition. Instead, they will lower the taste of domestic audience as they can only watch low-grade animation. It's a vicious circle," Wang said.
Lu Ming, a cartoonist who publishes his comic books in European countries, said the supporting policy, which regulates how animation producing companies get subsidies according to the time length of their productions, damages the artistic and cultural purchase of producers.
"They became total businessmen, and cartoons were only a tool for them to make money," Lu said.
He used his own experience with his book as an example. Even with well-connected storylines, complicated images, and Chinese cultural relevance, he could not find publishers in the domestic market. He had a stable group of readers in foreign countries.
Yin Hong said at the first stage, the policies did stimulate the expansion of the scale of domestic animation industry, however, the policies only emphasized quantity.
He said the direction should be shifted from competition on cost to competition in quality.
"Instead of getting money from just making out an animation, the producers have to consider more about market response, which will force them to pay more attention to improve the animation's quality," he said.
He also said policies should encourage the integration of companies and the development of brand and reputation.
As they develop the quality of domestic animation, they will attract larger audiences. As the market grows, local producers will have more space to focus on creativity, Yin said.
"That will be a favorable circle," he said.
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