Walking onto the floor of this year's MIPCOM television trade show, held September 26-30 in Cannes, was, as usual, daunting; particularly for a small independent animation producer like myself, devoid of expense account, his own stand, or extensive contacts culled from decades in the business. The first thing one notices are the hundreds - no, the thousands - of animated titles jumping out from seemingly every one of more than 100 booths.

Just from the Japanese company Tokyo Broadcast System, I counted 45 different titles alone! The booth of the German company BetaFilm was wall-papered with glossy color brochures for dozens of animated series like Peter of Placid Forest ("Placid no more, the forest is thrown into an uproar when the hungry buzz of the chainsaw announces trouble"), Perrine ("Join a spunky little girl as she fearlessly makes her way across Europe"), and The Ketchup Vampires ("Meet Dracula's quirky descendants - a new breed of vegetarian vampires"). Even in this catsup category there was intense competition. The Australian company, Southern Star was offering an animated series called Ketchup: Cats Who Cook.

The Australian company, Southern Star's animated series Ketchup: Cats Who Cook. The series is now sold or under negotiation in 30 territories worldwide. © 1997 Southern Star Entertainment Pty and NHK.

Cutting Through the Clutter
Some sellers are trying to cope with the glut by branching out into live-action. Sunbow Entertainment, for example, was busy selling its first two live-action series, Deepwater Black and Student Bodies. Others try to stand out with brand names, like Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold, Saban's array of well known super heroes, and the legendary The Smurfs. In fact, The Smurfs, which is on television in 30 countries, had a booth all to itself.

"Everyone is looking for a way to cut through the clutter, and one way is with an identifiable character," explained Chantal Bazelaire, operations officer for a new French company, European Creative Productions, which has obtained rights to the Marx Brothers characters and is looking for partners to turn them into an animated series.

Another constant is the regurgitation of literary classics. There were at least a dozen versions of A Christmas Carol, including an 85-minute feature from the German company IgelFilm.

Many of these projects are brought to MIPCOM in search of funding; sometimes with a full pilot, sometimes with a sample reel of a minute or so, sometimes with just a storyboard. Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) was offering ten animated pilots, six projects in development and another dozen titles in various stages of production.

A number of producers were offering more serious fare, to contrast with the more antiseptic, Western made-for-television series. For example, newly packaged programs from animation-rich eastern Europe attracted a lot of attention. According to Regina Billings, Director of Sales for Films by Jove, at least a dozen deals were closed for Masters of Russian Animation, a re-packaging of classic Russian animation from the '70s and '80s.

"There's still room for unique product," said Sjoerd Raemakers, business manager at the Dutch company Palm Plus Productions which distributes my own two series which are compilations of classic animation from Zagreb Film and the Sofia Animation Studio.

Producers can take comfort, however, from the explosion of new television channels around the world, many specifically aimed at children. Plus, partly due to European sensibilities, and partly because of increased pressure in the United States for FCC-friendly fare, animated offerings don't seem nearly so dominated by robots from outer space wielding big guns as they did just a few years ago.