DVDizzy.com

The Walt Disney Company in China, the Ministry of Culture’s China Animation Group, and Tencent, China’s largest internet service provider, have formed a partnership, “The National Animation Creative Research and Development Cooperation,” to advance the country’s animation industry. The organization, announced at a signing ceremony in Beijing today (Tuesday), will serve as an incubator to train local talent and develop original content that will entertain audiences in China and worldwide. “The National Animation Creative Research and Development initiative is focused on nurturing local talent and recognizes the importance of developing original local animation content,” said Andy Bird, Chairman of Walt Disney International.

“Disney’s involvement builds on our expertise and long term commitment to nurture the local original animation industry. As founding partner we look forward to working with this new creative partnership in creating content for the Chinese and international marketplace,” he added. Mr. Bird was joined at the ceremony by Liang Gang, Chairman of the Board for China Animation Group, Ren Yuxin, a senior executive of Tencent, and Gao Zheng, deputy director general, Cultural Industry Department for the Ministry of Culture.

As part of the initiative, Disney will provide its expertise in storytelling from concept creation and story development to market research. Disney will work with the China Animation Group and Tencent to foster local content across mediums, including television, motion pictures and digital platforms, for distribution in China and internationally. Tencent, one of China’s largest Internet service portals, will provide online marketing support.

Good bye Disney jobs for American citizens. Outsourcing ftw!

We (our economy) rely on China so much it's fucking sad.

We (our economy) rely on China so much it's fucking sad.

Perhaps this article explains it a bit better:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/entertainment/a/-/entertainment/13387627/disney-to-develop-animation-productions-in-china/

While we all love our Disney movies in the United States, they're not necessarily universally embraced around the world (though granted, the example offered in this article is a Dreamworks production).

Consider that Disney may be hoping to create Chinese Disney characters in hopes of bolstering attendance at Shanghai Disneyland. It's no secret that attendance at Hong Kong Disneyland has been dismal and IIRC some analysts believe that's because many attendees don't have an affection for Disney characters the way those of us in the U.S., Europe and Japan do.

I'm a lawyer by training, not an economist, but I'd imagine its for the same reason that most companies are expanding their presence in China: opportunity for revenue growth.

It's all about the mighty $. Unfortunately a few short-sighted greedy snobs have just focused on themselves, their personal wealth and their well-being in the near future, not the overall picture and future generations. It's sad to think how much damage they don't realize they are doing in the long run. Like I said in a previous post, trade is ok, but globalization is a failure.

While globalization may not be great for the U.S. (that's debatable, but I certainly understand that it has had a devastating impact on a number of wonderful, hard-working individuals), I'm not sure it's a bad thing for Disney or animation as an art form.

Why can't the next Glen Keane come from China or India or some other country besides the United States?

And if this really is just an outsourcing exercise to save money, Disney has to do it too, or it's going to be left in the dust and unable to compete with DreamWorks and the like. If DW outsources and Disney doesn't, DW will see their profit margins increase on each film, which it can then invest in new films, new technologies, talent, etc. Disney will have a hard time being revolutionary (i.e., like this new technique used in Paperman) and a hard time retaining talent like Ron & John, Alan Menken, etc. who could be lured away by ridiculously higher payouts at DW which Disney can't afford to pay because it's costs in making movies is so much higher than DW's cost.

And while Disney holds a special place in my heart and I always want them to do what I think is the "right" thing, at the end of the day, it's a business, and a publicly traded company at that. If Disney films aren't profitable, shareholders will doubtless demand leadership change that will make the company profitable, even if profitability comes in the form of crap like High School Musical 16.