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Children’s animation losing Australian kids’ voice

Australian Kids' TV is becoming dominated by animated projects that "don't look or feel Australian," claims new book.

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Anna Potter and Janet Holmes à Court.

Children’s television produced in Australia is becoming dominated by animated projects that “don’t look or feel Australian” but qualify for funding because their producers are Australian, according to a new book launched this week.

Creativity, Culture & Commerce: Producing Australian Children’s Television with Public Value by Anna Potter was launched by Janet Holmes à Court, Chair of the Australian Children’s Television Foundation.

The book looks at current challenges for Australian-produced Children’s TV in the current climate.

“The film and television industry is in a period of enormous change and perhaps audiences have more choice than ever, but not if the reality is that this choice all looks and sounds the same and comes from a few enormous global corporations,” Holmes à Court said this week.

“We need to ensure that we celebrate our independence, that we carve out a space and nurture our stories and ensure that children get to find them and own them. I believe that most Australians from all walks of life and all points of view really want that for our children. And I think that policy makers and governments of all persuasions want that too. I just don’t think they know how hard that is to achieve.

“But as the sands in the media and entertainment industries shift, we need to ensure that the fragile way our support for locally produced children’s television is held together is reinforced and made stronger. And we need to ensure that we design our public support for children’s content in a way that achieves genuine public value.”

Holmes à Court says Potter found that there has been a diminishing quality of programs that were being classified as children’s drama on the commercial networks.

“She pointed out that because the licence fees that the commercial broadcasters were paying for Australian children’s programs were so low, many of the programs that were being classified as Australian children’s drama were animation programs that didn’t even look or feel Australian, but qualified as Australian because their producers were Australian. She was concerned that live action children’s drama, which clearly situated children within their own culture, was in danger of becoming extinct.”

Potter is a senior lecturer in screen and media studies at the University of the Sunshine Coast, QLD.

Creativity, Culture & Commerce: Producing Australian Children’s Television with Public Value is published by Intellect Books.

4 Responses

  1. They clearly don’t a clue about local productions of cartoons series, there is no good reason to require an Australian focus in cartoon series, rather than offer more variety. There have been Australian elements in many local cartoon series over the years, like The Adventures of Sam, Blinky Bill, The Silver Brumby and the more recent Wakkaville. Also there are many local cartoon series based off Australian books too, like The Day My Bum Went Psycho, Gasp!, Hairy Legs and Tashi.

    The main reason most cartoon series are co-productions is to spread around the amount of work required, and the costs.

    1. Having attended this launch I think the point was networks are focussing on animation over drama, but animation has fewer Aussie ‘voices’ in the storytelling. Thus there is diminishing presence of Aussie stories for kids.

      1. There has always been more live action series for children in development locally, compared to animation. I don’t see that changing anytime soon, with still only a few local cartoon series in production each year.

        I hope this isn’t just another case of trying to protect the local industry, three of the examples I provided (The Day My Bum Went Psycho, Gasp!, Hairy Legs and Tashi) were recently shown on TV for the first time.

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