Montreal: Shut out of key time slots by ever concentrated media conglomerates in the u.s., transatlantic partnerships have emerged to supply a seemingly insatiable demand for animation series product in Europe.

With their combined financing, distribution and creative resources, European and Canadian animation producers are developing quality, often literary-based packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The upshot is that by supplying their respective domestic markets with non-syndicated, non-Disney type product, producers in Canada and Europe will ultimately be better positioned for a real run at the lucrative stateside market.

A prime practitioner of the new business strategy in the animation sector is Montreal-based Mediatoon, an Astral Communications/ Editions Dupuis joint venture launched in early 1996.

For its 1996/97 slate, Mediatoon has ‘packaged’ six coproduced animation series worth some $60 million in production.

The package has blossomed under a new joint-venture production and distribution agreement between Mediatoon and Europe’s CLT Multi Media (Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Telediffusion).

Based in Montreal, Mediatoon is a ‘facilitator’ style operation, a transatlantic linchpin aimed at stemming the high tide of American export. Its essential role is to bridge talent and distribution opportunities in Europe and North America, says president David Patterson.

The company brings together valuable assets ­ the distribution, specifically broadcasting, and financing resources of Astral and the resources of Dupuis, the leading publisher of French-language comic books in Europe.

(Dupuis is owned by Bruxelles-Lambert, with financing coming from Albert Frere.)

‘Mediatoon is a developmental partner in terms of creative development with producers and the property owners, and also a packager of the financing,’ says Patterson.

‘That is to say, we bring together parties with coproduction financing and distribution financing, which we supply, and ultimately, investment in the project from a deficit-financing viewpoint.

‘We always make an investment in return for an equity position, and it is the library value of this material which interests us primarily.’

Coproduction with France is the mainstay of Mediatoon strategy, says Patterson.

‘The basic objective (using the official Canada/France coproduction route) is to qualify the resulting series as fully national content in each of the coproducing countries. We’ve chosen to do it in conjunction with Canada and France because there are significant benefits available to national productions in France (perhaps compared to certain other European countries where the benefits are less attractive, particularly the benefits associated with cnc and Les Fonds de Soutien).’

In Canada, and in Quebec where there is a separate fiscally based production incentive, animation series qualify for both provincial and federal tax credits, in exactly the same way as live-action film production, says Patterson.

The product

All ’96/97 Mediatoon packaged tv series are produced as 26 half-hour installments with budgets in the $300,000 to $350,000 an episode range, increasingly comparable in cost to other forms (live-action) of half-hour tv.

Mediatoon’s entry into animation and multimedia children’s programming starts with Flash Gordon, which airs this fall on ytv in Canada and France 3 and Canal+ in France. Hearst Entertainment is the series’ American syndicator, with Ottawa-based Lacewood Productions in the role of ‘lead producer with final creative control and authority.’

A sci-fi action concept, Vor-Tech is being developed in association with Universal Cartoon Studios.

Another entry, Carrot Top/Poil de Carotte, is a cgi effects-laden cartoon series from Montreal’s Productions Roger Heroux and France’s Carrere Television. It’s on track for delivery in spring ’97 while a third series, Red Beard/ Barbe Rouge, matches Carrere with Medver, the new animation arm of Verseau International.

Another new series is The Adventures of Papyrus, one of Dupuis’ most successful bd titles.

Two additional titles, Nanook and Matthew and the Midnight Adventures, have been developed and financed using the coproduction twinning formula, an approach which allows for separate creative development while retaining the advantages of official coproduction.

Storylines are compelling and largely anchored by long-term print distribution.

In The Adventures of Papyrus, targeted at boys and girls aged six to 12, a young lad with a magic sword becomes a reluctant hero in ancient Egypt. ‘It’s not a super-hero, he-man North American approach to the subject matter,’ says Patterson. Papyrus’ producers are Audiovisuel Dupuis in France and Lacewood and Medver in Canada.

As for Nanook, it’s the story of a young Inuit boy and has been primarily developed in France by Elma Productions, a company affiliated with Canal+ and Ellipse Animation. Nanook is slated for a spring ’97 delivery, while Matthew g’es into production at Lacewood in October.

U.S. and European model

Patterson says animation product like Flash Gordon will perform in both the u.s. and Europe.

‘We want to do more of that kind of model,’ he says. ‘It has to do with our ability to bring together the right partners and manage the situation in a way where the resulting programming is effective for both (markets). But at the same time we’re doing things which have their primary market in one or the other, Vor-Tech, for example, which is primarily a u.s. product; Poil de Carotte, the reverse (Europe).’

Mediatoon’s distribution agreement with clt relates to worldwide distribution outside the coproducing territories, typically, French-track Europe and Canada. However, the agreement d’es not preclude the North American rights being held by the Canadian packaging investors, says Patterson.

He points to Mediatoon’s involvement with Universal Cartoon Studios on Vor-Tech. ‘That is an example of where we have been primarily involved in the overall North American situation,’ he says.

CGI adds value, economies

Many of the series are enhanced with cgi elements used in various ways and for various motives, says Patterson.

For example, all the weapons and spaceships in Flash Gordon are cgi-generated while Poil de Carotte’s 3D cgi production is used to create the interior of a young boy’s house.

‘(The house) becomes an added-value production tool, creating a virtual set where we can move the camera around, change the time of day, move the furniture at will and stage scenes.’

On Red Beard, the principal ships and the ocean are cgi imaging.

The 2D cgi on Nanook sounds particularly promising. The producers are using a well-known homegrown Montreal product from Discreet Logic called Flame as the primary post-production tool for compositing the series, ‘a departure from the normal animation production approach,’ says Patterson.

The process allows for more flexibility in layering the series’ magnificent Far North setting (arctic storms and aurora borealis) into the action component, he says.

Three or four additional projects are in development with Canadian, European and u.s. producers.

Competitive issue

Patterson says the arrival of teletoon, the newly licensed all-animation Canadian specialty service, is good news for the industry.

‘We sorely needed an outlet for animated product in Canada which allows Canadians to deal as effectively in their own territory as we are able to deal elsewhere ­ the demand in Europe for animation seems to be virtually insatiable,’ says Patterson, adding: ‘Demand in the u.s. is heavy, but product in the key time-slot is concentrated in the hands of major interests (the networks and studios), a major competitive issue for us.’

Clearly, spurred on by the success of American players like The Cartoon Network, and the overall drive of entertainment conglomerates to go global, Mediatoon’s coproduction formula not only widens the playing field by providing partners to less capitalized producers and broadcasters, it arguably allows for the production of more national-style, and thus better-targeted, programming.

‘If properly produced, experience shows that (national coproduced) programming tends to be more successful than the exported kind.’

In Europe, for example, Patterson says Spirou (produced in Canada by Cine-Groupe) regularly beats out a u.s. syndicated-style block followed by a Disney-type block.

Within a market setting, mipcom, mip-tv and natpe are the primary venues on Patterson’s busy travel agenda.

‘As you might gather, we are not exactly going to mipcom this year looking to acquire new product but rather to solidify new relationships and lay the groundwork for product which will follow, but probably more like 18 months down the pipe.’

Patterson says quality projects and sharing the risks is the way to build a valuable evergreen library.

‘There’s lots of experience to show that after the expiration of the first seven- to 10-year licences on animated programming ­ if properly produced and carefully chosen ­ the value of the second-window licence is equal to the first.’