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North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

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Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

#191

Post by dannyphantom »

x0x0 wrote: post #172
exhilaration wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's the most interesting part of the article - that Amazon and HBO projects are being worked on by NORTH KOREAN workers!!! I totally agree with the HN headline and I'm glad it got me to click and read the entire article.

It's also wild that it somehow makes financial sense to outsource a core input into your product. A company that makes animations outsourcing animation makes as much sense to me as a software company outsourcing engineering. Though we do have a plane company that outsources making planes, but that's going some sort of way right now...

Oooh I can try tackling a bit of this (I'll try not to ramble... )

But anyway studios have been outsourcing animation work to Asian countries for a while now.

You might have seen some of the work product from one of the larger Japanese animation studios: TMS Enterainment who has worked on things like Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, The New Batman Adventures in addition to shows like Tiny Toon Adventures and Transformers in the 80-90s.

Some more recent(ish) examples are Cartoon Network outsourcing the animation for Steven Universe to Rough Draft Korea located South Korea and Nickelodeon outsourced some of the work for Korra to a Japanese company called Pierrot.

I'm just rambling at this point so I'm going to just leave a few links below that can do a better job of illustrating than I'm able to.

Wikipedia, Outsourcing of Animation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing_of_animation

[DCAU Fandom Wiki, TMS Entertainment: https://dcau.fandom.com/wiki/TMS_Entertainment,_Ltd.

Reddit thread, Stylistic differences between two studios: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLastAirbender/comments/1m4wbn/st...

AnimeNewsNetwork, American animation outsourced to Japan (2015): https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2015-11-02/.94920

Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

#192

Post by VS1999 »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #92
geraldwhen wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Outsourcing and then claiming ignorance is not a defense against financing North Korea.

It absolutely is a defense. We outsourced to company X, who is bound by law and contract not to engage in illegal actions. Company X, without our knowledge or approval subcontracted illegally.

If this is true, we just need to make companies liable for their subcontractors. They apparently know they can escape responsibility by farming out work they're not supposed to do.

Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

#198

Post by godelski »

constantcrying wrote: post #159
godelski wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think what the other poster is referring to is specifically the practice of companies to have work done by workers in areas of the world where labor is cheap. Sure, but part of what I wanted to (albeit indirectly) convey is the difficulty of creating a meaningful rule about this. Even if you locked work within a country's borders (I imagine this would have terrible consequences too), this concept scales. I unders…

I agree, you actually always have to work with other companies. The alternative is not possible. In general it is very easy and safe to work with companies in the same country as you, as they are bound by identical laws to you and litigation and control is relatively easy. They also can't legally re-outsource to companies you can't outsource to. Similar things are true if the company is in a broadly aligned country.…

> The further away

Yeah, I agree that this is definitely a weighting factor. But neither do I think it is good to return to isolationism. Globalism, despite its many flaws, has clearly contributed to the long peace. Encourages negotiations at the table rather than on the battlefield given that in the end, wars are primarily economically driven. Better to destroy economies than people, even if the former can indirectly result in the latter. (wish there were better solutions and a larger gain, but that's a whole other conversation fraught with far more complexity)

Re: North Korean animation outsourcing for Amazon, HBO Max series

#199

Post by VS1999 »

the_real_cher wrote: post #187

Why is the USA sanctioning the citizens of North Korea? It's not like theyre happy about a dictator running the country doing international crazy stuff and oppressing them. I feel like we should be supporting any capitalistic effort they make so that they can build up resources to combat their dictator from within.

This is normal behavior. We feed our allies and starve our enemies.
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