Seminar 6: Globalisation

Anime

In August 1996, Disney and Tokum Shoten Publishing agreed that Disney would international distribute Tokuma's Studio Ghibli animated films. Aside from the fact that english dubbing (With some of America's biggest and most well known celebrities) was done for these Western releases, the dubbing actually stayed really faithful to the original Ghibli films (From what I can see at least). In fact, this is a positive example on what international redistribution can do, seeing that the west wouldn't have known or come to appreciate Ghibli's works of art had it not been for Disney.

On a similar topic, a worse off example would have to be "Sailor Moon" and some of the weakest attempts at americanisation one would have the misfortune of laying their eyes upon. Sure, most of us have probably heard of the more childish (I am not going to say awful because it remains to this day a huge part of most people's childhoods) North American localising done by DiC and Cloverway, where a huge amount of the original content was heavily censored or changed completely (Such as changing a certain lesbian couple in cousins instead).

But... did you know that...

They were originally going to go from this.

To this?

This American remake was going to be a half live-action and half Western style animation (You can see here that it looks like any 80s cartoon at the time). Toon Makers produced a 17 minute proof of concept presentation as well as a two minute music video (Which I had wanted to post here had there been a decent quality of it without someone laughing in the background...) that they presented to Toei, whom turned it down as their concept would have cost significantly more than simply exporting and dubbing the anime adaptation.

TV Shows

I feel that the American adaptation of the original BBC series is another considerably positive example. While it initially appeared to be a mere copy of the English version for the first season or two, this version clearly began to grow into its own show as it progressed. As expected, the first season was met with mixed responses from critics, as it was seen as a pale imitation of the original. 

Later seasons however were soon better received by critics and viewers alike as the script began deviating from Gervais and Merchant's own, and when characters began to develop their own personalities that became far more fleshed out than their British counterparts (Though then again the original version only lasted for 12 episodes).

"After a rocky start, The Office improved immeasurably, instantly becoming one of TV's funniest, sharpest shows. The casting of Steve Carell in the Gervais role proved to be a masterstroke. The American Office is that rarest of anomalies: a remake of a classic show that both does right by its source and carves out its own strong identity."
~ .A.V. Club, Nathan Rabin

... I don't know.

Perhaps maybe the same could have happened for the American version of the "IT Crowd", but well, they were never given the chance to get past the pilot, so we will never know... (Frankly though, a shot by shot copy of the original is just never the wisest way to give your pitch for something... it probably wouldn't work as well as "The Office" did in my opinion, seeing how distinctly British the "IT Crowd" was in terms of humour)

Cultural Identity

And so, is there a threat to the loss of cultural identities when it comes to other animations throughout the world? Or do most people simply see America and Japan as the main distributors of animation? And that other countries are too afraid to step up to the plate? 

The opening for "The Triplets of Belleville" presented humorous caricatures of well known figures such as Josephine Baker, Django Reinhardt and Fred Astaire, and was parodying the Rubber hose animation style that became standardised in the American animation industry (Especially in really early Disney shorts back in the 20s). I wouldn't say that the opening is the best example into what a French animation would look like, as it was clearly parodying American animations and subjects at the time.

I believe that it is in the main story where we are truly able to get the distinct French feel of the film. Aside from the unique abstractness and grittiness seen throughout most of it, there is also a distinctly warm yellowish colour palette used throughout (Which seems to be present in a lot of other French animations). "Triplets of Belleville" can be considered a downright scary and weird film, but still retains an amazing amount of hilarity and beauty as well. "The Illusionist" also has a distinctly French feel despite its incredibly different tone and mood, and I think people should just watch these two and compare them after.

Frankly though, I call BS on this matter, because, most people just aren't looking that hard enough. For instance there have been an amazing amount of French animated films that have been nominated as Disney, Pixar and Ghibli films. French, Korean, Chinese, German, Russian animations all have their own unique identities and style (Even "The Simpsons" seems to notice that, seeing that they parody them now and then).

I suppose most people in my class might question then, what is considered to be a distinctly British animation? To me, that is a little hard to figure out (Even though Singapore had provided us with a wide selection of British animations on the local kids channel), as it seems to vary. Though I suppose most people will identify British animations through stop motion, such as the works of Aardman.