Having worked on many releases of American animated movies internationally (for DreamWorks & LAIKA primarily), an interesting extension of this is the reaction of Japanese audiences to American animation. Historically, much highly successful US animation has struggled commercially in Japan (while others have been hugely successful there too) and there’s been much work done (a small amount of it by me!) to understand the issues better.
As an aside, LAIKA’s “KUBO & The Two Strings” is an interesting combination of animation cultures. Different technique as it’s stop motion animation, but Travis Knight, the director, is a great student of Japanese as well as American animation. Working on getting that movie released in Japan was a fascinating experience. Going in, we weren’t sure how the Japanese would react to it but, while no blockbuster, it was picked up by one of the major local distributors and ultimately proved modestly successful and well respected there.
That’s fascinating though, about US animation in Japan. One of the the things I didn’t get into in the piece (and probably should) is the difference in structure and story too - that there are Japanese story structures that are different to the Hollywood three act structure. And especially when you get to things like Miyazaki trying to create a story without conflict in Totoro
I can’t claim to be an expert on Miyazaki’s work, although I’m very conscious of the differences in general, and I can talk at length about that whole issue of the differences and how they may impact on Japanese audiences relating to American movies. The look of characters can be a huge issue too, both human and creatures. It’s fascinating. It was interesting that GAGA, perhaps the biggest local distributor, actually chose to pick up KUBO.
It is indeed distinct, idiosyncratic and brilliant… but interestingly it could also be something of a commercial challenge as a result! KUBO was particularly challenging in some parts of the world.
Yes, absolutely. It’s an interesting conversation to have about the challenges and opportunities in marketing their movies, but that’s one for offline!
Really enjoyed reading this, it gave me more incentive to revisit Ghibli- that sense of pantheism that permeates the films and restores humans to a more natural order of things is fascinating.
Having worked on many releases of American animated movies internationally (for DreamWorks & LAIKA primarily), an interesting extension of this is the reaction of Japanese audiences to American animation. Historically, much highly successful US animation has struggled commercially in Japan (while others have been hugely successful there too) and there’s been much work done (a small amount of it by me!) to understand the issues better.
As an aside, LAIKA’s “KUBO & The Two Strings” is an interesting combination of animation cultures. Different technique as it’s stop motion animation, but Travis Knight, the director, is a great student of Japanese as well as American animation. Working on getting that movie released in Japan was a fascinating experience. Going in, we weren’t sure how the Japanese would react to it but, while no blockbuster, it was picked up by one of the major local distributors and ultimately proved modestly successful and well respected there.
‘Kubo’ is a stunning piece of work, too!
That’s fascinating though, about US animation in Japan. One of the the things I didn’t get into in the piece (and probably should) is the difference in structure and story too - that there are Japanese story structures that are different to the Hollywood three act structure. And especially when you get to things like Miyazaki trying to create a story without conflict in Totoro
I can’t claim to be an expert on Miyazaki’s work, although I’m very conscious of the differences in general, and I can talk at length about that whole issue of the differences and how they may impact on Japanese audiences relating to American movies. The look of characters can be a huge issue too, both human and creatures. It’s fascinating. It was interesting that GAGA, perhaps the biggest local distributor, actually chose to pick up KUBO.
I feel like LAIKA’s style is so distinct and idiosyncratic that it doesn’t surprise me that it travels well
It is indeed distinct, idiosyncratic and brilliant… but interestingly it could also be something of a commercial challenge as a result! KUBO was particularly challenging in some parts of the world.
Oh, I bet. I really loved it, but it’s quite unusual, tbf
Yes, absolutely. It’s an interesting conversation to have about the challenges and opportunities in marketing their movies, but that’s one for offline!
Really enjoyed reading this, it gave me more incentive to revisit Ghibli- that sense of pantheism that permeates the films and restores humans to a more natural order of things is fascinating.
Yes! That’s definitely part of what Paul is suggesting is different, I think