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Jakob Morgan

Professor Arcy

COMM 360

December 5, 2022

Inanimated; Exposing the True Costs of Animation

Audiences around the world have long been delighted by the heavenly visuals of

animation, but few are aware of the hellish conditions under which these stunning works are

often created. Animation is an artistic medium which involves the presentation of illustrations in

rapid succession in order to create the appearance of motion. In the more than a century since its

inception, animation has evolved from a novelty into a cinematic industry, and perhaps

unsurprisingly it has picked up many of the less than pure habits of any profit-driven corporate

enterprise. In this paper, I will argue that both the foreign and domestic animation industries

have maximized their profits much to the detriment of the animators that make those profits

possible. First I will explain many of the challenges which face animators in the United States

and other western countries, then I will take a look at the problems unique to the animation

industry in Asia, and finally I will look at problems which plague both the foreign and domestic

cases whose universality may indicate their inherent nature.

A variety of challenges have existed in the world of “western animation” for some time,

and many of these continue to plague the industry to this day. For the purposes of clarity, the

term “western animation” will be used in this paper to distinguish itself from what could be

called “eastern animation”, a term which refers to works of animation produced in East Asia,

primarily in Japan and South Korea. Western animation, then, mainly refers to animated works
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produced in the United States, but it also applies to the numerically less common works

produced in Europe, particularly in the vibrant French and British animation scenes. In this

essay, when discussing western animation, we will primarily be focusing on the American

animation industry due to the fact that the tendency for European animated films to receive

government subsidization makes them somewhat of a different beast than their American

counterparts. This should not be assumed, however, to suggest that the problems that we will

discuss do not apply to other western countries, rather that such applications are neither universal

nor perfect in their degree of applicability.

For much of human history, to be an artist was to accept a life of abject poverty. In the

absence of an aristocratic patron, one had either to choose a monastic life of producing religious

iconography or to live on the streets and hope that some passerby might see your pre-

enlightenment busking as worth a few coins. This changed in the era of industrial art, as a

growing middle class with money to spend led to entertainment becoming a viable career path

for an unprecedented number of creative people. Soon movie stars were making more money

than many of the patrons who once towered above the artists of their day, yet this has not been so

with animators. Let’s look at two successful films from the year 2010; Tim Burton’s Alice in

Wonderland and Lee Unkrich’s Toy Story 3. Both of these films grossed over one billion dollars

worldwide, had budgets of around $200 million, and were released by the same distributor; Walt

Disney Pictures (Box Office Mojo). In the former case, the man behind the performance of the

main character, Johnny Depp, was paid an estimated $68 million, around one third of the entire

budget of the film (Business Insider). By contrast, the anonymous animator behind the

performance of Toy Story’s Woody or Buzz Lighter characters likely was paid around the

industry average of just $54,000 (Salary.com). If you consider that a big animation studio like
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Toy Story’s Pixar likely has around 600 people working on their films, that’s around $32 million

total for the animation staff, less than half of what Depp alone was paid for his film (Business

Insider). Why is this? Why are the physical performances of actors valued so much more than

the often times much more time consuming and creatively challenging tasks of the workers that

bring animated performances to life? The answers are simple; scarcity and branding. While good

actors are hard to come by, there are hundred of thousands of animators working in the United

States today who could potentially be swapped around whenever discontent grows at any given

company, rather than appeased through improvements in compensation. And the man who

animates Sheriff Woody will always suffer from less public recognition, and therefor bargaining

power, than the man who lends him his voice.

Other difficulties arise for western animators when we look at challenges to their industry

as a whole, mainly in foreign competition and stigmas within their own market which stifle

creativity. As explained in Understanding Media Industries, many media companies have long

sought to “take advantage of cost savings by using the cheapest labor available,” when searching

for global partners. This has been the case more so in the animation industry than any other.

Many popular works of animation in the western world, particularly those made for television

rather than the cinema, are merely planned by the western studios that produce them and then

actually animated in East Asia. At first, this meant outsourcing animation work to Japan, but as

Japanese animators have begun to demand slightly more compensation, western companies have

moved on to South Korea and Vietnam for this work. These practices have made life that much

more difficult for western animators as they much compete with incredibly low paid foreign

labor. Meanwhile, a persistent perception that animation is for children has continued to hamper

western animators’ ability to tell diverse stories. When viewed in contrast to the types of
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animated works which are seen as acceptable in other markets, from Europe to Japan, the

American animator is comparatively limited in their freedom to express themselves through their

medium of choice. This leaves them not only financially unsatisfied, but very often creatively

unfulfilled as well.

The problems facing animators only grow as we evaluate the conditions facing eastern

animators. Japanese animators are considered to be better off than their contemporaries in South

Korea, Vietnam, and other developing nations which bear the brunt of outsourcing. Yet even

Japanese animators face conditions far worse than those seen in the United States. The average

salary for an animator in Japan is just 4,408,000 yen or 40,000 USD according to a survey

conducted by the Japanese Animation Creators Association (Kotaku). That’s $14,000 less than

the already unsatisfactory figure quoted previously for American animators. This figure gets

even worse when looking at the wages paid to those just starting out in the industry, with

animators between 20 and 29 making an astonishing 14-22 thousand USD per year. These

figures can be attributed to many things. One possible justification is the fact that employment in

Japan is traditionally “for life,” that is to say, being fired from a company or leaping voluntarily

to another position elsewhere is very uncommon. This leads to stability on the one hand, and a

lack of competition and bargaining power on the other. The popularity of the anime industry in

Japan, coupled with the severity of the economic conditions facing animators, has risen to the

level of legislative inquiries. In 2022, Japanese legislator Hiroyuki Moriyama pointed out these

wages to members of the government and asked them “Can you live on that?” (Cartoon Brew).

Eastern animators have also faced an increased workload in recent years, while not seeing

their wages increased. In a now somewhat out of date 2014 article in Pacific Affairs, it was said

that anime “in the United States had generated considerable economic revenues, reaching a
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formidable peak in 2003 with more than US$4.84 billion in sales.” The popularity of anime in

the US has only grown since then. As eastern animation, particularly Japanese anime, has seen a

meteoric rise in popularity in the United States and other western countries, demand for such

works has only increased. This increased demand has made “Japan’s animation industry a global

juggernaut,” but has also made it a “notorious reputation for poor working conditions.” (Areo).

With an unprecedented number of projects in production at one time, many Japanese animators

now work eleven and a half hours per day, five days per week for a total of two hundred and

thirty hours weekly (Areo). That level of work has led to high levels of fatigue, burnout, and in

some cases, suicides (Areo). While Japan has been attempted to catch up in terms of protections

for their animators, partly through the advocacy of groups like the aforementioned Japanese

Animation Creators Association and partly, though much more slowly, through advocacy within

the country’s parliamentary Diet, other countries have been less likely to do so. Animators in

China, Vietnam, other less developed countries and, to a lesser degree, South Korea, face the

same challenges as their Japanese counterparts but are afforded even less protections from their

governments. This is a fact that is understood by the companies which outsource their animation,

and it is a big reason why they choose to do business in such countries. In this modern era of

outsourcing and animation colonization, “cultural globalization (will) inevitably create

differences between people working in the center and those working on the periphery… it is a

strategy for big transnational companies to search for the cheapest locations to ‘manufacture’

cultural products using low-cost, labor-intensive processes in developing countries.” (Fung).

With these challenges laid out, it becomes clear that while each branch of the animation

industry has their own contexts and perceptual spins, the root problems facing most animators

are the same. This, therefore, can lead us to assume that these problems are either structurally
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enshrined in the common entities which transcend borders, or are in some ways inherent to the

medium of animation itself. This creates two possible ways of looking at the challenges of

animation. One can either view these problems as impossible to solve due to their universality, or

one can view them as being easier to solve due to the unifying possibilities presented by a

problem which effects all animators regardless of nationality.

One persistent issue in the animation industry is, clearly, low pay. From the “heights” of

the American animation salary spectrum to the lows witnessed in the developing countries which

serve as depositories of outsourced work, nobody appears to be being paid as much as they

should. Why is this? One reason is the increase in production costs (Areo). As studios have

begun taking on more and more projects, and competition has pushed them to raise their

standards of animation higher and higher, productions have become both more risky and more

costly. This has incentivized studios to keep labor costs as low as possible. Likewise, foreign

outsourcers have also been incentivized by their corporate structures to seek cheap labor for their

productions. Another, more inherent, reason behind the low wages of animators can be seen

through the challenge of increasing your perceived individual value as an animator. Unless your

individual contributions become well known throughout the industry via word of mouth, it is

difficult for any one animator to raise their own value and thus have the necessary capital to

demand higher compensation. Without that leverage, an animator is left at the mercy of their

employer. This leaves one to ponder whether unionization, or more proactive union

representation, would benefit animators as some collective action appears necessary in order for

them to hold any serious negotiating power.

Another serious issue common both to the foreign and domestic animation industry is

what is commonly referred to as “crunch time”. This is the stated need for animators to work
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long hours in order to finish a production. This can be seen particularly in television animation,

as many programs are still under production while they begin to air, leaving tight deadlines

which can not be missed. This leads to animators working long past their scheduled hours,

something that can be detrimental to their mental and physical wellbeing. This difficulty is often

brushed aside as merely being part of the job. Animators are creative, passionate people who are

often more than willing to do whatever is required of them to see the projects they care so much

about to completion. This genuine, passionate spirit appears to be exploited, perhaps purposely

so, as issue like crunch time are so commonplace that they are likely less of an accident and

more of a part of the expected structure of a project.

Both the foreign and domestic animation industries have maximized their profits much to

the detriment of the animators that make those profits possible. We have looked at many of the

challenges which face animators in the United States and other western countries, then the

problems unique to the animation industry in Asia, and finally the problems which plague both

the foreign and domestic cases alike. In the end, it is clear that a lack of public knowledge of the

animation industry contributes to the problems of animators, as well as a lack of proper

protections for the rights of animators. It is my recommendation that, in light of the persistent

challenges being confronted, that animators should unionize. They are skilled laborers yet lack

the strong individual leverage necessary to negotiate for better treatment. This makes them an

ideal candidate for unionization. Many animation studios currently do have unions, but many do

not. Animation needs more, and stronger, unions. I also believe that animators would be better

served working in smaller, employee owned studios which can contract themselves to larger

productions or focus on smaller works.

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