With a history of more than 60 years of development, especially in the context of the global animation industry booming strongly, with many big competitors appearing, the domestic animation industry is facing many challenges. In fact, although it has transformed and made a certain mark, domestic animation has not yet created a breakthrough development, not attractive enough to attract audiences.
History cartoon Vietnam started in 1959 with the first film “Deserves the Fox”, but up to now, the number of outstanding works can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Thousands of animated films have been produced and released, but the quality and influence are still quite limited.
In conferences and seminars, the efforts of the animation industry are still recognized with new projects, with the participation of young directors and scriptwriters, contributing to improving the quality of form, theme, and content. For example, in 2023, Vietnam Animation Studio produced three major historical animated films with a duration of 30 minutes, including: "Dinh Tien Hoang De" (computer-cut paper film), "Tieng gong Nui Nua" (2D film), "Anh hung Nui Tan" (3D film). All three films are evaluated to have attractive scripts, investment in research, and elaborate design. In addition, there are humorous and witty animated series that have become close friends of young audiences over the years, such as: "Hiep si Nghe Vang" (Golden Calf), "Chien binh Meo no Do".
Recently, Sconnect - a young animation studio has officially won two records, including: "The unit owning the largest number of copyrights related to Vietnamese animated films (127 copyrights)" and "Wolfoo - Vietnamese animated film released in multiple languages on the Youtube platform with the most episodes" in Vietnam. Vice President of the Vietnam Digital Content Creation Alliance Pham Thi Quyen commented that the initial achievements in the field of animation have affirmed the remarkable marks and efforts of Vietnamese animation, arousing pride and can become a driving force for individuals and units to continue to strive to bring more value to the animation industry in particular, digital content in general. Currently, there are many private units applying diverse technologies to animation production, such as: 2D, 3D, 2D Frame by Frame, Stopmotion or Live-action, Sconnect is currently
owns 13 animation IPs (intellectual property assets) along with an ecosystem of thousands of distribution and distribution channels. Another animation production unit, Alpha Studio Company, was honored to receive the Vietnam Digital Content Creation Award (VCA) chaired by the Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA) and organized by the Vietnam Digital Content Creation Alliance (DCCA). This is the second year the unit has participated and also the second consecutive time receiving the trophy of the Vietnam Digital Content Creation Award.
Despite its enthusiastic participation, domestic animation is still far behind the international animation industry. In fact, the world's animation industry is currently developing rapidly, reaching a value of about 400 billion USD by the end of 2024; markets such as North America and Asia-Pacific are leading, with Japan and China dominating.
Explaining why Vietnamese animation is still unattractive, industry experts say the key issue lies in the lack of investment in both finance and human resources. The issue of training professional personnel, developing techniques, and creating works with unique identities is still a gap.
Director, Meritorious Artist Trinh Lam Tung shared: Taking the audience as the core, analyzing the target audience file and effectively using the distribution platform are some of the important keys to change and innovate. No matter how new or creative the form of expression is, the work must have real enjoyment value to be sustainable and serve as a foundation for long-term development. In addition, it is necessary to foster the mutual relationship between filmmakers and audiences to become more professional and stronger through innovative creative works; strongly exploit the creativity of young people to have good materials, reduce the aging of thinking from the beginning stages of a product or work.
In addition, we need to constantly learn from the world's developed animation industries, even other entertainment products that are competing fiercely every day. Sharing the same point of view, director Pham Minh Tri believes that if the domestic animation industry wants to have truly outstanding and highly competitive products, it must have systematic investment and innovative thinking. If it cannot find a representative cartoon character, this industry will forever be on the sidelines and cannot be compared with major competitors in the world.
In 2025, Vietnam will participate in the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, a large-scale and prestigious event in the world animation industry, considered an opportunity for Vietnamese animation to introduce products and connect with international investors. However, to achieve great strides, filmmakers need to have a long-term strategy, invest in technology and human resources, as well as actively participate in international events to learn and improve product quality. Experts say that the domestic animation industry still has many opportunities if it knows how to take advantage of its own strengths, especially the unique folk tales, fairy tales, and fables of the nation. The identity factor completely becomes an opportunity to reach out to the world in a creative, unique, and humane combination.
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