WB Animation overusing DongWoo Animation Co. Ltd?

[wileyk209]

I wonder if I was the only one that noticed this, but it seems since around 2001-2002, Warner Bros. Animation has been outsourcing most of their work to DongWoo Animation Co. Ltd in Korea. This stumps me because while they do use other Korean studios (such as Lotto Animation, Digital eMation, Saerom Animation, Starburst Animation and Yearim Productions), they seem to most prominently use DongWoo Animation most of the time. In fact, if you look at almost 80% of their shows made since 2002, you will noticed that at least one episode has been animated by DongWoo Animation. Even many of their direct-to-video productions had DongWoo Animaton involved! I also just recently watched the latest SD:MI episode, "The Gathering Gloom." And guess what overseas animation studio was listed? DongWoo Animation Co Ltd.

Now, I am not criticizing DongWoo's work, but it does seem WB has very little variety in overseas animation studios these days. Usually it's DongWoo and sometimes Lotto Animation, but that's it. I've seen Wang Film Productions/Cuckoo's Nest Studios do better work (WB stopped using them around 2003-2004), and Rough Draft is also pretty good, but they must be more busy than the competition (WB so far only used Rough Draft for a couple second-season episodes of SD:MI, "The Looney Tunes Show" and those awful Looney Tunes shorts from 2003.) The only WB show I know so far that has NOT used DongWoo is "The Looney Tunes Show," which surprised me.

I did happen to notice DongWoo is actually pretty good with animating rubber masks being peeled off; it looks more like real life (such as in the Scooby-Doo Valentine's Day special from 2005):


Did anyone else notice this too?

[Doo]

Yeah, I have.

[j3h]

I don't have the Blurays in front of me to check for myself, but has Dongwoo been responsible for the last several direct to video Scooby films from Abbracdabra Doo to present? I really like the current animation work and style on those, especially Camp Scare.

[wileyk209]

Aug 8, 2012 21:43:27 GMT -5 j3h said:

I don't have the Blurays in front of me to check for myself, but has Dongwoo been responsible for the last several direct to video Scooby films from Abbracdabra Doo to present? I really like the current animation work and style on those, especially Camp Scare.

No, those were by Digital eMation (same company that also does overseas animation for the recent Family Guy episodes.) They do a pretty good job. They also animated "Scooby-Doo: Spooky Games" and three second-season SD:MI episodes so far.

DongWoo animated all the 2004-2006 direct-to-video movies, though. The 2007-2009 movies were animated by Lotto Animation.

[wileyk209]

Well, we've got yet ANOTHER episode animated by DongWoo Animation Co. Ltd: "Night Terrors."
At this rate, Warner Bros. should just buy out DongWoo and rename the studio as Warner Bros. Animation South Korea (like Disney did, opening studios in France, Japan and Australia.) After all, "The Looney Tunes Show" is the only WB show since maybe 2003 that hasn't been animated by DongWoo or Lotto Animation.

[j3h]

I think they did a pretty good job with Night Terrors....maybe a little too much border blurring in the "smoke" nightmare sequences, but no real complaints here.

Thanks for answering my above question about the dtv s.

Do you know of anything animated by DongWoo that is NOT by WB?

[wileyk209]

Aug 10, 2012 16:10:56 GMT -5 j3h said:

Do you know of anything animated by DongWoo that is NOT by WB?

Hmm, there was some stuff by Sony's television animation studio, Adelaide Productions, that DongWoo animated for (Adelaide was responsible for production of "Men in Black: the Animated Series," "Dragon Tales," "Jackie Chan Adventures" and "The Boondocks.") Sander Schwartz used to work for them before he took over Warner Bros. Animation and turned it into an Adeliaide Productions clone until 2008.
DongWoo also animated the newer Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series that 4Kids produced.

Now Lotto Animation, on the other hand, works almost exclusively with Warner.

As for DongWoo's good animation, like I said, they did some pretty realistic animation of villains' masks being pulled off (especially in "A Scooby-Doo Valentine" and "Web of the Dreamweaver," they looked almost like in real life!)

[wileyk209]

Thread bump! I am now pretty sure that DongWoo A&E Co. Ltd (the new name for the company) has animated the most episodes of SD:MI over the other Korean studios, including Lotto Animation (Warner's other main provider of overseas animation), SaeRom Productions (first season only), Digital eMation (second season only, also animating the 2009-present DTV movies and specials) and Rough Draft Korea (only the "Crybaby Clown" two-parter.)

[CaptainBuck]

Screw most of them, give me Mook Animation for their work on CyberChase, Alien Invaders, Zombie Island and Witch's Ghost, and Transformers: Animated, Real Johnny Quest, S.W.A.T. Kats... etc.

[wileyk209]

Yeah, Mook Animation was good. Of course, Sander Schwartz instead preferred using DongWoo and Lotto Animation for all overseas animation. The only thing I know DongWoo did NOT work on since then was "The Looney Tunes Show" (which instead uses Rough Draft Korea and Yearim Productions.)
But Lotto Animation can animate the Looney Tunes characters pretty well, though...