Last week, the 2024 edition of the Cartoon Next event offered an intriguing look at the possibilities and future of animation in Europe. Curated by Vanessa Chapman and organized by Laura Jarka, Cartoon Next is an animation training event run by the Cartoon association in Marseille, and it consists of three strands — keynotes containing presentations by experts and studios, pitches for current transmedia projects by established studios that are evaluated by industry professionals, and a separate pitching competition for students at local animation schools.

Among the keynotes, one of the most anticipated was by Dr. Mhairi Aitken of the Alan Turing Institute, who spoke on the opportunities and risks for children when it comes to the prevalence of artificial intelligence, which has exploded since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, shocking the world — not to mention people actually working in the field of Ethics in AI. The key takeaway was that children must be involved and consulted at every stage of AI research, because they are not the “future,” they are the “here and now.”

Another essential presentation was by Alex Cameron of Parrot Analytics, who has developed a metric to determine which series have a buzz about them and thus which type of shows are most likely to drive viewers to paid streaming services. Meant as an antidote to the current doom-and-gloom in the industry (it’s always encouraging to see brands do massive numbers), it was a fascinating insight into how unorthodox ways of calculating viewer interest are creating demand for certain genres amongst the streamers. You could see some of the audience already thinking of ways to game the system for their own IPs in future, but since Parrot Analytics are constantly refining their methods, that may be chasing a moving target.

Other technical subjects covered were a rare talk from Epic Games’ Ben Minall about Metahuman in Unreal Engine, Spatial Computing presented by Thomas Bedenk, and AI-created animation from The Dor Brothers, the latter presentation having a disclaimer at the start to not ask the obvious questions about copyright, job security for animators or Skynet so that the audience could actually learn about the process. There were some contentious questions at the end but the organizers had cleverly scheduled it to segue into a cocktail party so the enthusiasm to stay and argue was dampened somewhat.

In a presentation on the popularity of anime, Manuel Cristóbal spoke about The Glassworker, the first hand-drawn 2D animated feature from Pakistan, directed by Usman Riaz who is clearly a Studio Ghibli fan and has brought that sensibility to his anime-inspired film. Other sessions included Ariane Suveg and Sébastian Onomo talking about the initiatives in Africa to boost local animation such as the Pan-African Animation Workshop, and talks by broadcasters and publishers on what they are currently looking for and their thoughts on the future.

There were a couple of studio spotlights, one from France’s Bobbypills, which specializes in adult animation, the other from Ireland’s Studio Meala, which animated two of the recent Kizazi Moto anthology episodes for Disney and are currently in production on Doodle Girl, a €2 million series fully financed in Ireland.

Two individual productions had case studies; Hungary’s award-winning Four Souls of Coyote and Samuel, a beautifully-observed series of touching black & white hand-drawn shorts by Emilie Tronche produced in both vertical and horizontal formats to make the most of social media virality.

There were eight pitches showcased at Cartoon Next, chosen for their deliberate transmedia plans. There had already been some feedback given by the experts, and adjustments made, prior to the audience seeing the projects, and the experts then gave live comments on the updated pitches. This ensured a higher level of quality and more valuable insights for both the pitchers and the audience.

Two pitches were based on short films that then had a VR experience attached to them: Fonce from CINÉ-LITTÉ Productions and Green As Hell from 6X2. Both coincidentally had dark themes and serious messages.

Cloudy & Stormy is a project from Poland based on two dogs which will have games and comics developed alongside a TV series, in a similar way to No Pets! Tinies Rule the World, which is an Italian property that won the Pitch Me! contest at Cartoons on the Bay in 2023.

Coming from Finland’s Fiilin Good Films, Joy Eternal is a 13 x 11’ TV series that plans comic books, games and a feature film spin-off. In contrast, starting with a feature film, Sidi Kaba – Guardians of the 1000 Kingdoms by Special Touch Studios is a 2D puzzle platformer game that will be tied into the upcoming movie Sidi Kaba and the Gateway Home, which hopes to bring more awareness of African cultural narrative.

The Broos by Bobby Prod (yes, the people from Bobbypills) is another black & white hand-drawn show — this time a comedy based around two young men having a bromance — created by David Mirailles. The project was formerly known as Les Groos and began life as a comic and then a web animated project, finding success on TikTok and Instagram.

Of all the pitches, Deco’s Records by Ireland’s Wiggleywoo was probably the most transmedia, in that the fundamental concept revolves around a record label with several animated bands, and will indeed be the first fully animated record label. So unlike the other pitches, it’s not starting with an existing series or film. With a consistent style running through all the animation, but different musical genres covered by the various bands, there are plenty of opportunities for a spin-off web or TV series, and a feature film based on one of the bands is already planned.

Each of the pitches was already solid as a standalone concept, some having already proved themselves in their market, and Cartoon Next gives a fascinating insight into the process of creating added value to a brand in the transmedia space.

At the closing of the event, three prizes were awarded for the student Mini-Pitch workshop, judged by local industry figures. The Prix de la Région Sud went to Goli Atefi from École MoPA for Soraya, the Prix Do Not Disturb went to Lucie Donadio from École MoPA for Le Dernier Lancement, and the Prix Cartoon Springboard went to Eurielle De Thoury, Marin Cadin, Lou Moncollin, Angel Knowles & Colin Lagarde from Lycée Marie Curie for Les Archives.

CartoonNext will be returning in April 2025. If you want to know what’s up and coming in the European animation industry, you should check it out.

www.cartoon-media.eu/next

Andy Blazdell is the CEO of popular animation software company CelAction (celaction.com).