Italian Cartoons Seek Their Place In The Sun

From C21Media:

Italian toons seek their place in the sun

Italian animators face an uphill battle to finance and produce their shows and the international industry still offers the best route to market. Jesse Whittock reports from Cartoons on the Bay.

The contrast between the serene beauty of Rapallo, the Mediterranean seaside resort that this week plays host to the Cartoons on the Bay (COTB) festival, and the explosive mood of the Italian animation industry could hardly be more pronounced. The calm of the town contrasts with the continued clash of local producers and commercial broadcasters.

Every year, Rapallo is transformed into a mini Cannes (complete with elderly ladies in expensive velor walking tiny dogs with ludicrously short legs along a sunkissed promenade). This edition, the festival’s 16th, began yesterday at the stunning Excelsior Palace Hotel with hundreds of delegates representing all sides of the local toon market.

COTB – a Rai- and IVDC-backed event – mixes screenings, conference and pitching sessions, international debate and the much-lauded Pucinella award ceremony to highlight the best in Italian (and global) animation. Themes this year are as diverse as sport-based action toons, the rise of gaming and how Italian cartoons are leading the fight against the influence of the Mafia.

But despite the hazy spring sunshine warming the hoard of delegates, including those from Indian firms such as Toonz Animation and DQ Entertainment (DQE), the underlying message is the same as in previous years: animation producers here face extremely tough conditions as they have almost no support from the local children’s networks, with the exception of pubcaster Rai.

In most cases, without the backing of Rai’s coproduction arm Rai Fiction, ideas rarely get off the ground. There are simply no budgets elsewhere for development. This is despite Italy being one of the most competitive broadcast markets in the international children’s television business, with the likes of Turner Broadcasting’s Boing and Cartoonito, and Disney networks duelling with Rai’s public channels Yoyo and Gulp.

Furthermore, the Italian digital free-to-air switchover completes this year and this has already led to the creation of newer commercial operators such as Switchover Media. But it hasn’t, in turn, led to a boost in commissioning, and local production remains in flux. A global approach to development is therefore vital.

“We have to first think about ourselves as an international producer, and we have always thought about ourselves that way,” says Misseri Studio’s co-founder and producer Gian Maria Misseri. “Though we are based in Italy, we almost have to based everywhere.” He adds that Rai “plays an important role on development, especially with our new show, Mofy.”

Mofy (5x26’) is coproduced with Rai Fiction and Japan’s Sony Creative Products. It comes from a series of Japanese books that launched in 2008 about a shy female rabbit and currently has more than 20 licences in the territory. Among its scriptwriters are UK net Channel 5′s former director of children’s programmes Nick Wilson and Emmy winner Robert Vargas.

Misseri Studio, which is due to be awarded the Pucinella award for best Italian studio in Rapallo tomorrow for its unique multi-media output, has found further international work with Sesame Workshop in the US (to coproduce a stop-motion version of Bert & Ernie), NHK in Japan and Channel 5 in the UK. “We like being based in Florence but we have a global mind,” adds head of business development Sandro Pollini.

Italian producers have long complained that commercial broadcasters in Italy shy away from local development. Giuliano Tranquilli, Switchover Media’s partner, programming and content development, explains the predicament: “We are open to coproduction and we are talking to partners in Europe, but when it comes to Italy it is difficult because there is no system [of production] in place.”

But another new Italian kids’ broadcaster, De Agostini Editore-owned DeA Kids, is looking at local production for its pay and digital free-to-air channels, primarily tapping into its relationship with De Agostini stablemate Zodiak Kids. “We are coproducing with Télé Images, the French Zodiak company, on the tweenage series Secret Ranch, but also with Magnolia from Italy,” says DeA Kids and DeA Super channel director Massimo Bruno.

An example is Magnolia-produced Missione Cucciolli (aka Project Puppy), which scored ratings five times the slot average when it ran in 2010. “These types of shows are huge in terms of ratings and important because it helps us to be in touch with local talent with on-the-ground activities,” says Bruno.

There is a wealth of exciting young producers emerging from the territory and “talented and experienced” older producers, notes Switchover’s Tranquilli, but they all suffer from there not being a standardised route into animation production. This, inevitably, leads commercially driven broadcasters away from risk. In Portugal, start-up Sport Stars Media has noticed the same problem and is attempting to create an industry from scratch. Which is much easier said than done.

Tax breaks are one solution. In the UK, the animation industry is buzzing with excitement after the government this week announced it would introduce long-awaited tax relief to help keep production in the country. This will put the territory in line with Ireland, France and Canada, all of which implemented similar systems years ago to create some of the world’s finest production industries. Tranquilli wonders if such a system could be implemented in Italy.

“I don’t know if they need government action or if the industry itself needs to do something. It goes beyond the simple financing question,” he says, adding that European laws requiring broadcasters to show set numbers of European productions must also be factored into any decision.

Three-year-old Switchover – the group that emerged through the 2009 management buy-out of Jetix Italy’s channel assets from The Walt Disney Company – has focused on acquisitions and today unveiled its latest purchase, live-action Jim Henson puppet show Me and My Monsters, along with distributor BBC Worldwide. The series is coproduced with Sticky Pictures and Tiger Aspect and has the likes of the BBC, Network Ten and ZDF attached. It’s fair to say even Italian producers were impressed by the screening.

One thing producers and broadcasters do agree on is the need for international coproductions. It’s something that has proved exceptionally lucrative for India’s DQE, which will be awarded the Pucinella for best international studio following its success with coproduced shows such as Chaplin, Peter Pan and The Jungle Book.

Chairman and CEO Tapaas Chakravarti explains: “It’s very clear – from the day I founded my company, I said we were going to produce top-notch, Disney-quality animation shows at low Indian prices for Western markets – Europe, Australia, New Zealand and North America, and we even include Japan and the Latin belt in that.” It’s that kind of thinking that broadcasters want Italian companies to adopt.

Indeed, the country has found success through companies such as Rainbow, which created the global Winx Club franchise that now airs on Nickelodeon. Atlantyca Entertainment is also rights owner and coproducer on Geronimo Stilton, the Rai 2 show that has been sold around the world to the likes of Nick, Minimax, CBC and Cartoon Network and spans two seasons.

For channels such as Disney Channel, Disney Junior (which launches today in the US) and Disney XD; Turner’s Boing and Cartoonito; Switchover; and Nick Italy, any show commissioned must have global appeal, meaning the quality of production must be high.

One source at a commercial broadcaster claims another factor affecting the shape of the commissioning market is that “Rai simply has a lot of money.” It is understood from those close to Rai that children’s programming has been largely ring-fenced against coming cuts aimed at reducing a multimillion-euro deficit. But as Maria ‘Mussi’ Bollini, deputy director of Rai Ragazzi/Rai Gulp, told delegates today: “We should stop thinking about Rai as a single organisation.”

C21's commercial broadcaster source adds that some international coproduction executives are, in any case, making more trips to Italy, as it has been identified as a creative hub of some potential. But for now, the situation remains as it has been for decades.

As the sun sets on Rapallo ahead of the COTB awards tomorrow, the future of Italian broadcasting remains a Mediterranean secret. Whether the fledgling digital FTA market will result in more local commissions is unknown, and for now Rai remains the key player in animation production.

Jesse Whittock
23-03-2012
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