The miracle of french animation

Twenty-five years ago, French cartoon production did not exist. However, following the huge success of the Japanese series Goldorak, the 'powers that be' boldly decided to develop it. They worked hard to produce an industrial sector of animation which was small, but well structured around SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises), distributors, and training schools. French producers discovered the requirements of the national market of television programmes and their programmes are now very popular internationally, second only to American and Japanese productions. After television, they are now expanding into the field of feature-length animation films. For the international market, the drawings are roughly the same but the scripts, the audience, and the organisation of the value chain are different. The American giants remain dominant in this area.