7. Read 4 parts (a-d) of Text 6 carefully. Single out the most important sentences in each paragraph.

8. Look through Text 6 once again. Find at least 3 metaphors.

9. Find the following words and word combinations in Text 6. Give the English definitions and translate them into Russian.

Hand-drawn animation; a chief creative officer; to ditch; an exodus; a tax break; incentives; to compete on a level playing field; revenue stream; to be in a bid to; conducive; renowned; a trend-setter; to toil; to churn out; to allocate.

Text 6. Current state of animation industries around the world

A. THE USA

Disney, the Hollywood titan which brought the world classics such as Bambi and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, has admitted it has no current plans to make hand-drawn animated films. “To my knowledge we’re not developing a 2D or hand-drawn feature animated film right now,” said chief executive Bob Iger. “There is a fair amount of activity going on in hand-drawn animation but it’s largely for television at this point. We’re not necessarily ruling out the possibility of a feature but there isn’t any in development at the company at the moment.”

The news upset fans of traditional hand-drawn animation, who had been cheered by the revival of the form under John Lasseter, the Pixar boss who also became Disney Animation’s chief creative officer (CCO) in 2006. Lasseter told a London audience for a 2009 screening of Bolt (a CGI animation) that he had re-hired many of the animators who were ditched by the previous regime because of the emergence of computer-generated technology in the 1990s. “Unfortunately, 2D became the excuse for poor storytelling,” said Lasseter. “The general consensus was that audiences did not want to watch hand-drawn animated films, which is of course completely ridiculous.”

(http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/mar/07/disney-hand-drawn-animation)

B.THE UK

Leading UK animators are warning against an exodus of talent if the industry does not get tax breaks like those enjoyed by animators in other European countries like Ireland and France. “It’s genuinely impossible for us to compete against the rest of the world with all the incentives they’ve got,” said Oli Hyatt from Animation UK, an industry lobby group. While the UK film industry enjoys state support, there is no such money available for producers of animated TV series. Many other European countries support their animation industry, providing at least 20 percent of production costs. Hyatt says that makes it impossible for UK animators to match their output. “All we’re looking for is for the government to give us the tools for us to compete on a level playing field with the rest of the world.” He said.

Animation production in the UK has fallen by more than 50 percent in the past seven years according to Animation UK, and it is already becoming harder for new animators to find jobs. Last year Aardman Animations, the giant behind Shaun the Sheep and Wallace and Gromit, announced they were considering moving abroad due to the UK’s relatively high production costs. “We have in the past been a source of export – The Teletubbies exported all over the world,” said Anne Wood. With each major show moving abroad, the country loses another revenue stream, she argued.

(http://www.dw.de/uk-animation-industry-in-crisis/a-15807779-1)

C. RUSSIA

Russian theater chain operator Luxor and film company Argus Entertainment are joining forces to create a new animation studio, LA Studio, in a bid to make films that can compete with US and European fare. “Hollywood and European projects are dominating the Russian market, and only a handful of well-known Russian companies are able to compete with them,” the two companies said in a statement. “But competition is conducive for the market’s development, pushing up the quality of films that are produced. So LA Studio comes as the market’s natural development.”

LA Studio is to focus on the production of 2D and 3D animated films for theatrical release and television, and it also plans to launch a film school for animation. Although LA Studio plans to center on computer technology, some of the company’s projects are to be based on drawing animation, a tradition in Russia from Souyuzmultfilm (Nu, pogodi!, Winnie-the-Pooh, The Musicians of Bremen, etc). Special attention is to be paid to films based on Russian folklore and fairy tales. The first major project by LA Studio is to be a feature-length animated film based on Ruslan and Ludmila, a poem by renowned Russian 19^th century poet Alexander Pushkin.

(http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/russian-film-company-exhibitor-launch-628924)

D. JAPAN

Japan’s stylized animation that has become hugely popular around the world, helped reshape the country’s image as a cultural trend-setter. But behind the scenes, things aren’t so rosy. Japan’s animation industry is struggling. Anime workers are unhappy, toiling long hours at low pay. Sales have been declining. On top of that, there is fast-growing competition from across Asia. Studios in China and South Korea now churn out high-quality anime-style programs, helped by cheaper labor and, in some cases, government subsidies.

Even the president of Telecom Animation expresses some dismay about the state of the anime world. “The industry has become decadent and fatigued,” says Koji Takeuchi, president of Telecom Animation. The Japanese government says it is trying to support the industry, with plans to increase spending on education and training young animators and allocating more funds toward film marketing. But nurturing home-grown talent has become more difficult as Japanese companies increasingly outsource anime drawing to studios in China, South Korea and Vietnam, where labor costs are lower. Osamu Yamazaki, a 47-year-old director of anime films, worries that moving the production process overseas will diminish Japan’s ability to cultivate creative talent. “People have tremendous power by just being young,” he says. “Without young blood, we’ll lose our ability to think flexibly and creatively.”

(http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703819904574551834260925714)