Editor's Note: For more information on CARTOON, see Heikki Jokinen's article, "Europe Strikes Back," in our October issue, in which he outlines the purposes of CARTOON and its role in Europe.

Business was as usual at the eighth Cartoon Forum in Arles, France held from September 18-20. Ninety-two European broadcasters, along with 82 distributors and other financiers like video and licensing companies, came together to judge the fate of 69 new animation projects. The Cartoon Forum is the annual co-financing event of CARTOON, the European Union backed organization designed to spur on the European animation industry. CARTOON is a part of MEDIA II, a project of the European Union.

This Year's Projects
The proposed projects were mainly television serials for children; exceptions like feature films or television programs for adolescent or adult audiences were rare. The ideas were also often based on comics or children's books, as it is much more simple to introduce a television series, both for financiers and the audience, with familiar and well-known heroes. It helps with possible licensing, too!

The origin of projects clearly show where the stronghold of the European animation industry is: 25 out of the 69 projects were French. France was followed by the United Kingdom with 15 projects and Germany with 10 projects. The CARTOON rules favor countries with small productions, but in the real world big productions are king. Serials from countries with small animation industries that actually go into production are few and far between. The Cartoon Forum exists for business purposes, not to defend European cultural diversity.

By the end of the Cartoon Forum, producers decided that 21 projects "received sufficient interest to secure their interest in the short term." In other words, they received promises for the required money. Among these projects is the television series, The Big Knights, composed of 13-ten minutes episodes. This somewhat naively drawn, humorous series is directed by Mark Baker and Neville Astley. Au clair de la lune (Tune of the Moon) is a French-German co-production with an astonishing 104 five-minute episodes. This cute serial is a bedtime-type story for 2-5 year-old children.

The Big Knights by Neville Astley and Mark Baker. © 1997 Astley Baker/BBC Television.

Another 24 projects received enough assurances of money "to secure their financing in the medium term." Among these was a Finnish television serial by Estonian animator Priit Pärn. The absurd story called The Hare and the Wired Sock combines Pärn's fine lines with 3-D computer animation.

Not all of these projects will be completed though. Usually only 25-40% of the projects presented at the Cartoon Forum are actually finished. In most cases it takes several years.

Diversity and Growth
The Cartoon Forum exhibits another important characteristic of European animation - it isn't only traditional, cel animation. On other continents, the commercial forms of puppet and clay animation are very rare. In Europe, however, the tradition is alive and well, especially in the former socialist countries, and of course, we can't forget Aardman Animations' Wallace and Gromit.