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TOKYO (AP) - Entertainment giant Walt Disney Co. will team up with several Japanese companies to produce animated features in Japan, a leading market for such films, a Disney official said Thursday.
Disney will work with Toei Animation Co., Madhouse Co. and Jinni’s Animation Studios, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk to the media.
The Nikkei, Japan’s leading business daily, reported the move was aimed at bolstering Disney’s efforts to gain wider acceptance of its animated programming in Asia. The company official declined to provide details.
With Madhouse, Disney will produce a TV program “Stitch!,” an offspring of the Lilo & Stitch series, to be aired in Japan, the official said. With Jinni, Disney will make a short animation film “Fireball,” she said.
The official could not provide further details on programming, referring queries to a public relations official who was not immediately available.
The Nikkei said the partnerships would allow Disney to tap local talent and computer graphics technology to produce programs targeting audiences in Japan and elsewhere in Asia.
These programs will be broadcast via satellite and terrestrial channels, but Disney will also look into delivering content to mobile phones, the report said.
Disney has its own animation and movie channels in more than 100 countries, including Japan, where it launched Disney Channel in 2003. The company also started offering a cellular phone service here this month.
The Nikkei said Toei Animation will tap Disney’s distribution network to expand its overseas reach.
Disney, based in Burbank, Calif., will continue to look for partners, but it doesn’t have plans for any acquisitions or capital tie-ups for now, the Nikkei said.
For Disney, a longtime producer of hit shows in the U.S., this will mark the first time that it has gone offshore with the core production processes for major programs, the report said.
The studio has tried to penetrate the global animation market by exporting programs, but has concluded that production should be localized from scratch so that its shows will be widely accepted in different countries and cultures, according to the Nikkei.

by AOL

TOKYO (AFP)–U.S. entertainment giant Walt Disney said Thursday 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 US-made films around the world.

Walt Disney Co. (Japan) 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 in charge of the television business.

“We have few precedents for localization,” she told AFP. “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.

Films will be produced in Japan using local animation creators and computer graphics specialists and won’t 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.

Japan’s top art school, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, is to open a two-year graduate course in April in a bid to “nurture revolutionary creators” for the nation’s animation industry.

The course, the first at a state-run Japanese university focused on “manga” cartoons or animation, drew more than twice as many applications as the maximum 16 seats available, according to the university.

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.

Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli - which also produced international hits such as ” Howl’s Moving Castle” - said it was aware of the move by Disney but had no comment.

Disney has a long-standing fan base in Japan. Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983 as Disney’s first theme park outside the U.S. and visits there have almost become a rite-of-passage for Japanese children.

Seeking to take advantage of Disney’s popularity in Japan, the company entered the tough cellular phone market this month in cooperation with Softbank Corp.

The mobile service, which features Disney characters, comes even though Disney withdrew from the cellular business in the U.S..

Hisamitsu said Disney has yet to decide on any cooperation between the localized animation series and mobile business.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires 03-06-08 0247ET Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
by CNN