In article
4ax.com>,
Phillip Thorne comcast.net> wrote:> I'm crossposting to news:rec.arts.animation because this is a
> two-front discussion.
Fairy nuff.
> On Mon, 14 Jul 2008, 8-Bit Star
gmail.com> wondered:>>As a kid, I saw not only some Japanese shows but also many bizarre
>>Belgish, Swiss, Canadian, Russian, and French cartoons, [...] For a
>>long time I wondered, why was there a cult industry around Japanese
>>cartoons, but not [the others]?
> Nit: the terms "cult" and "industry" are mutually exclusive: cult
> usually means "very small, dedicated fanbase." Perhaps "niche industry"
> (minority, but still profitable) is a better term.
Possibly, though a cult can still occur wrt something in an industry, and
cults can grow to be quite large, though it can be argued as to whether a
fad and a cult can be either interchangeable or even compatible.
> Invid Fan wrote:
>>The fact that it was in NTSC also helped,
> As opposed to cult fanbases of British live-action genre TV (Doctor
> Who, Blake's 7, Red Dwarf, Sapphire and Steel, Blackadder, etc.),
> which had to be converted from PAL, but was in English. (Some of
> these, but not all, were available on PBS.)
I think it had more to do with the size of the total American market than
any format consideration. The fact that even a small portion of the US is
fairly large means that there is a lot more room to experiment with shows
that might attract enough of an audience to cover the investment. Bear in
mind also that what you gain in NTSC video formatting, you lose in
language translation costs, where the British shows you mention don't need
translation (much) even if they do need a video translation.
> Mark Jones wrote:
>>[...] in most of the other countries mentioned is that the animators
>>in those other countries are burdened by the tradition that animation
>>is ART ( DAMMIT ), [...]
> This becomes apparent if you look at the examples given in fat
> "history of animation" books (although there may be a selection bias
> by the authors). Animated films based on folk tales... supported by
> Soviet governments... depressing plots... "avante garde" works with
> bizarre visuals.
> (Remember the "Simpsons" ep in which Krusty was forced to replace
> "Itchy & Scratchy" with something Slavic?)
Of course, european toons aren't necessarily restricted to the output of
the Eastern Bloc.
--
//\ // Chika
// \// Mitsuo... Menda... naha naha...
... I can't think of anything witty to say right now.
