U.S. entertainment giant Walt Disney says it would produce cartoons in Japan in tie-ups with the country’s famed animation industry in a rare bid to adapt to regional tastes.
The company that turned Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck into global icons has traditionally distributed the same U.S.-made films around the world.
Walt Disney Company (Japan) Ltd. said it would start by making a short children’s animation series in Japan using three-dimensional computer graphics.
The series, entitled “Fireball,” will feature robots in the distant future and start airing in April, company officials said.
“We aim to provide products that match the taste of the local market,” said Mariko Hisamitsu, a Disney Japan official.
“We have few precedents for localization,” she told Agence France-Presse. “Disney characters are well recognized in Japan and we believe providing contents catering to consumers is necessary to expand the market.”
Joining hands with mid-sized studio Madhouse Ltd., Disney will also launch a Japanese version of the popular U.S. “Lilo and Stitch” series in October, Disney said.
The original series related the bonding between the orphan girl Lilo and a little blue alien named Stitch on the lush Hawaiian island of Kauai.
The adaptation will feature a Japanese girl and be set on a fictional island in Japan’s subtropical southern chain of Okinawa.
While the main market is Japan, Hisamitsu said it was possible that the productions would be exported to other Asian countries, although nothing had been decided.
Programming will be produced in Japan using local animation creators and computer graphics specialists and will not be outsourced to other Asian countries, she said.
Despite the international reputation of “anime” or “Japanimation,” Japan’s rank-and-file animators are facing growing workloads and stagnant wages as they face stiff competition from cheaper labor elsewhere in Asia.
The most celebrated maker of Japanimation is Hayao Miyazaki, whose Spirited Away won the Academy Award in 2003 for best animated feature, Japan’s first Oscar for a full-length work in nearly half a century.
Disney has a longstanding fan base in Japan. Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983 as Disney’s first theme park outside the United States and visits there have almost become a rite-of-passage for Japanese children.
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