The unique looks of Black Mor’s Treasure may make dreams come true for director Jean François Laguionie. © Dargaud-Marina.

DreamWorks Again
Several European filmmakers, when asked about the reasons for the rapid burgeoning of European animated features cite a more fundamental phenomenon that goes back to the early nineties, with the emergence of DreamWorks and the end of Disney’s domination. This could be considered, in Europe (and doubtless elsewhere), as a long-term psychological “DreamWorks effect.” It is related to mutations the non-Disney animation world has undergone since the turn of the century, which has led to it becoming more confident and ambitious.

However, Rome can’t be built in a day. Fragmented across a multitude of small studios, often economically marginal, in the ‘90s a section of the nascent European animation industry started forming associations with one another to produce TV series. European TV, which hitherto had acquired most of its animation from the U.S. and Asia, gradually began to take on board the existence of local production whose quality was improving at the same time as studios were professionalizing and uniting to offer the volume and rate of production required. Without mentioning the word protectionism, the world of European TV found affinities with these productions that, at times, had the advantage of being closer to European sensibilities and cultures.

The boom in TV demand boosted this developing industry and a number of countries emerged in particular: France, Germany and Spain. This movement was encouraged by European institutions such as the Media program which, without getting directly involved in production, encouraged synergies between studios, as well as training animators, producers, etc.

The result was that for the first time a genuine animation industry emerged in Europe, initially centered on television and fairly “low cost” animation.

With a lofty seven million euro budget, El Cid’s success or failure may determine the future financing of other European features. © Castelao Productions S.A — All rights reserved.

Birth of the Feature Film Industry
The aura surrounding the feature film should not be under-estimated. For many, filmmakers as well as producers, fulfilling their dreams means moving into features and this is what happened in the mid-’90s. Although it is more expensive, financially riskier, and more complicated to get right, the feature film has always exerted a fascination for animation professionals, particularly in terms of the considerable number of individuals it can involve in the long-term and, above all, in terms of morale.

Thus once certain financial and psychological barriers had been overcome, many have taken the plunge.

The ways in which the move into features happens are as many and varied as the projects themselves, although it is significant that most of the teams involved in feature films in Europe have emerged from a background in TV projects.

If one compares the disparate corpus of European animated feature films with what is produced in the U.S. and Japan, one notices that. apart from a common origin, there are some recurrent characteristics. First, the under-financing of projects. The budgets for European features, even the most well-off, are still far lower than those of American blockbusters, Between 1997 and 2002, the number of European animated features with budgets over 10 million euros can be counted on one hand. Most of the others had budgets well below this amount.