The Four Color Media Monitor: UK animation producer blames Brexit for troubles within his industry

The UK Guardian says one of the chief managers of Aardman animation studios thinks British animation specialists will have to look overseas for places to continue working in the profession:

The head of Aardman, the Oscar-winning British studio behind Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, has warned that the nation’s animation productions for children’s television will have to be made overseas because acute challenges are taking their toll on the UK sector.

Sean Clarke, Aardman’s managing director, said the company is struggling with everything from serious competition from other countries on tax relief to a dire skills shortage.

“Children’s television is suffering and what’s produced in this country will go off the edge of a cliff in the next couple of years, unless something is done,” he said. “The ideas will still be conceived here, but they’ll be made elsewhere.”

Animation tax relief has become less competitive in the UK. Ireland, France, Canada and Spain’s Canary Islands are offering relief ranging between 37% and 50%, compared with only 25% in Britain.

[...] Clarke blamed Brexit for making it harder to bring over European animators and for the loss of access to vital European media funding. He also lamented the UK government’s decision to stop the Young Audiences Content Fund, despite its success in stimulating homegrown production.

Laying blame at the feet of a campaign that was meant to provide the UK with more independence, even financially, is awfully cheap. Especially when the guy won't question whether the country's disastrous immigration policies - which have taken a toll on the country's cohesion, and no doubt, they're costing the UK financially too - ever led to this situation. Also, why rely on overseas animators instead of locals? This suggests a key flaw in their approach to business - failure to build up homegrown talent, which has sadly been a common problem for years.

Recalling a rambling 2021 speech in which Boris Johnson, the then prime minister, spoke of Peppa Pig, Clarke said: “Look at the animation characters that we’ve created in this country – Peppa Pig, Teletubbies, Bob the Builder. None of them are owned by British companies now. Peppa Pig is owned by [US toy company] Hasbro. It is one of the most successful preschool characters of all time. So you have tens of millions of pounds of value leaving the UK.”

Since they mention Peppa Pig, it should be noted that the cartoon's been espousing LGBT propaganda in the past year or so, and one can only wonder what any and all UK animators think of that? If they're unwilling to admit it's regrettable this British-created cartoon's fallen victim to woke exploitation, then who knows if they're really disappointed it was bought by a USA company, much like the Tomb Raider video game franchise was, IIRC? Inability to defend notable products and intellectual properties from politicization and ideologies is another reason why it's obviously sad they wound up owned by USA corporations, who've become the undoing of famous products in the long run. But if the UK-based experts in entertainment won't admit it, what's the use of their complaining, when failure to speak out and rise above ultra-leftism is part of the problem?

Labels: animation, Europe and Asia, golden calf of LGBT, msm propaganda, politics

Say, Avi? Remember when I requested you do a blog about how Batman wiki is blocking any attempts at undoing edits inferring Wertham was right-wing and his acts were a right-wing crusade while claiming Batman in TDKR is gay due to something Frank Miller stated? Well, you might want to really get onto making that blog entry real soon, and not just regarding the situation with Batman Wiki, either: Wookieepedia is currently under hot water because they're now adopting that stupid pronoun nonsense. Not to mention listed of ALL people Luke Skywalker as LGBTQ+. And their "source" for it was a book by Sam Miggs called "Luke on the Bright Side", despite the book giving absolutely NO actual indication whatsoever that Luke had ANY romantic leanings towards the other male protagonist of that story. You can read up on it in the following links:

https://boundingintocomics.com/2023/02/06/amidst-wookieepedia-scandal-luke-skywalker-labeled-as-lgbtq-individual-based-on-2022-short-story-by-activist-writer-sam-maggs/

https://boundingintocomics.com/2023/02/02/star-wars-encyclopedia-wookieepedia-embraces-rejection-of-the-truth-and-deranged-pronoun-usage-on-character-pages/

Probably shouldn't be surprised since Wookieepedia alongside the entire FANDOM wiki sites engaged in extensive bannings of higher ups for engaging in "deadnaming", not to mention another couple of edits I tried to make on Simpsons Wiki with the one-shot villain Sven Golly where I tried to remove the claim he was gay and pointed out his line of "Ugh, where were you [Marge] when I was straight?" could have just as easily meant back when he wasn't a criminal. And similar edits I made regarding Kale and Caulifla on Dragon Ball Wiki.

Posted by eotness | 5:50 PM