Thoughts on the Reasons for Outsourcing

"Offshoring" and "outsourcing" aren't dirty words that we need to be afraid of. The driving reason that American animation and visual effects work is shipped overseas is a lower cost and an accelerated production timeline. A side effect of this has been the creation of entire industries in places they never existed before (India, the Philippines, and South Korea, to name a few). If you overlook the unemployed American animators, this even sounds like a win-win for studios at home and abroad. The American market gets filled more animation than it could produce by itself at a far lower price, and overseas animation studios thrive with American work and are provided with the facility to create their own productions. It should work. But then you read statements like this one about the Philippines animation industry:

"The entrance of new players like India and China who work much more cheaply, combined with the Philippines too high wages, has caught the Philippines industry in a squeeze. In addition to this, there is a deep divide between these two cases of the animation industry. The Philippines studios are essentially doing less creative work, and will not likely soon have the opportunity to participate in the conceptualization stage of creative production for global markets" (Tschang and Goldstein).

In addition to the fact that they are being pitted against each other financially, overseas studios have a hard time making even small productions for their home countries. The market that could potentially support their original work is decidedly uninterested.

A contributing factor to the predicament of offshore outsourcing is America's xenophobia - or at least misunderstanding of different cultures.

Writing on the reasons that gave rise to offshore outsourcing, animation historian (and USC professor) Tom Sito wrote: "The animation of other nations was too culturally specific to appeal beyond their own borders or too experimental for the kind of mass audience Hollywood was after... The foreign shorts were good for international festivals and advertising local products, but they would to do for American audiences" (Sito 250).

Not much has changed. This year, there are two foreign-language animated films nominated for the Best Animated Feature Film Oscar: Boy and the World and When Marnie Was There. Haven't heard of them? That's the problem. Both films received critical acclaim but tiny US releases. The other foreign-produced film up for an Oscar is Shaun the Sheep Movie from Aardman in England. While the film received a wide release in the US, it was one of the worst openings for an animated film in recent history (Amidi).

There is some hope though. With Pokemon, Naruto, and the films of Hayao Miyazaki (to name just a few), Japanese anime has permeated mainstream American culture to some extent, primarily with subsections of young adults and children. Still, even the amount of animated films from Japan that receive wide releases in America is miniscule. Anime tv shows are often relegated to late night time slots or niche networks/providers.

It's strange to me that America's appetite for its own entertainment is boundless, but it has seemingly no interest in even the best productions of other cultures. The problems of underpayment and lack of creative control faced by outsourcing firms would no doubt be improved if American producers and audiences were interested in the unique stories that different cultures have to offer.

Works Cited

Amidi, Amid. "'Shaun the Sheep Movie' Opening Is Baaaaa-d." Cartoon Brew. N.p., 09 Aug. 2015. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.

Tschang, Feichin, Ted, and Andrea Goldstein. “Production and Political Economy in the Animation Industry: Why Insourcing and Outsourcing Occur.” DRUID Summer Conference, Elsinore, Denmark, 14-16 June 2004 (2004): 1–21. Print.