Asia’s Animation Industry

Outside of Korea and Japan, other Asian territories are pushing the format – for the first time this year the Hong Kong FilmArt introduced a designated animation showcase as part of the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum. There was also a special Indonesian showcase in collaboration with Jakarta Film Week.

Asian animation studios are increasingly pushing to tell their stories internationally and collaborate with global partners. Particularly in the context of bolstered infrastructure and effective tax creds and co-production schemes from government bodies keen to cultivate the industry and its opportunities.

But how do international producers take advantage of this and what do they need to know?

1 Funding opportunities

Government incentives within Asia have been growing, particularly in the South Korea and China. This isn’t just constricted to kids’ content, but to also help the development of stories for adult audiences. This provides in turn opportunities for co-producers outside of the domestic region to access these via a domestic partner.

Some notable funds include the Asian Cinema Fund, SGIFF Film Fund, Red Sea Fund and the CCCL Film Festival which offer grants from $7,000 to half a million, depending on the type of project.

2 The importance of positioning

Working with the right distributors and sales partners to showcase your projects and position them correctly is key. It is hard to sell in finished tape live-action series and films to an international audience for various reasons, such as cultural differences and even political discourse.

Animation can also be tricky, but it can be localised a lot easier than live action can – dubbing English language content for different territories and languages in Asia and vice versa for example.

Recently there have been animated titles have been received surprisingly well, for example Chinese feature Ne Zha – this year Ne Zha 2 (which grossed $7.2 million on its opening weekend at its LA premier) was met with a great reception from western critics,  scored 96% on film review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, and reportedly made more money than any star wars sequel.

Another feature recently shortlisted for the HKIFF and Annecy was Indian animation Mangal – The Holy Beast, which tells the story of a captive elephant calf that is forced into the circus. Displaying the upsetting yet very real problem of animal abuse is a tricky and a thin line to walk but conveying it through animation allows the message to transcend the borders between language and culture, while educating audiences on a universal topic that might have been too hard to stomach in live action.

Its fusion of K-pop style, supernatural action, and emotional story positions it as a benchmark for future global collaborations in animation.

3 Emerging talent and tech

It’s no secret that series and feature films (even shorts) can cost a pretty penny, even with funding help. Choices of production partner, animation style, length of the project and the talent can all hugely impact cost.

To mitigate this, some are embracing new tech – and we can’t not look at the impact of AI. For some, it has made the animation process faster and cheaper for tasks such as syncing, background generation and generally optimising workflow. Processes such as dubbing can also be more time and cost effective with AI, as it doesn’t require talent to be on set. Saving money here means producers can either spend money and time on other resources.

Some IP banks on success by getting big names behind it such as Robert Pattinson in The Boy and the Heron, and Samuel L. Jackson in the series Afro Samuri.

However, as a visual art form that doesn’t require household faces to win audiences, producers can be adept to finding discovery talent in local markets to voice parts that costs a lot less than Pattinson or Jackson but still guarantees visibility in specific markets.

4 Emerging markets

Pakistan has had big success stories come from animation ventures which are slightly more under the industry radar, with the 3 Bahadur trilogy (left). Each film has performed well domestically, as well as another feature The Donkey King which is currently Pakistan’s highest-grossing animated feature ever, having a 17-week domestic run and gaining international revenue, particularly in China. Football themed Indonesian feature Garuda: Dare to Dream has just debuted at Tokyo International Film Festival.

What will the big names be to come out of this and other more emerging Asian animation markets? There is a lot of opportunity for collaboration with international producers before these reach KPop Demon Hunters levels of impact if multiple territories collaborate to leverage a bigger collective audience.

5 Following the blueprint while carving a niche

Animated shows and films coming out of Asia are not only popular locally but have the potential to be hits on the global stage, from Ne Zha 2 surpassing Inside Out 2 to become the world’s highest-grossing animated film.

Working alongside both established and up-and-coming Asia-based animation teams could help open up the door to further animation, IP and by extension licensing and merchandising potential as a new area of interest for investors. Of course, some aspects of the story and script may need changing due to language and cultural differences to have a larger appeal and understanding across multiple audiences, but ultimately, international cinema is at its heart all about exploring and showcasing different countries’ ways of life.

So, what should producers be doing overall to respectfully and symbiotically work together across continents? Primarily we say don’t just outsource but collaborate – tell original global stories that combine local cultures and expertise to create opportunities and growth within new markets.

Whether that be working alongside with Chinese, Korean, Japanese or Indonesian animation studios in a creative and commercial way – focusing on building relationships and understanding local markets can be a great way to having a massive impact.