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South Korean Animators Protest Banksy Simpsons Opening... Which They Animated
from the the-simpsons... dept
You may remember the attention paid recently to the Banksy-created opening of the Simpsons, which (among other things) portrayed animators working under sweatshop-like conditions, to produce the cartoon. We had mentioned it after Fox issued a DMCA takedown on the video, which had been uploaded to Banksy's account. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but that YouTube video is back up:
That said, what may be more interesting is this story about how the South Korean animators who did, in fact, animate that opening sequence protested the whole thing, and pushed back until at least some of the sequence was changed. I will admit that my first impression on hearing about it was to think that Banksy confused North Korea with South Korea, and that does appear to be what some others have said as well. While it is true that South Korean animators make less than American animators, it's hardly "sweatshop" conditions. Still, in the end, the animators animated the sequence in question, but are making it known that they don't think the depiction is fair.
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; P
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Clearly it was trying to convey the fact that a bunch of Koreans suffer to bring westerners their esoteric joys - the "dark underpinnings" of a bright, fun world like the Simpsons.
Is that true? It has always been my understanding that South Korean animators take their jobs very seriously, that the studios are run by extremely talented people, that a mutual respect exists with the american production houses that hire them, and that the gruntwork of drawing thousands of frames for fairly low pay is simply how you crack into the industry (similar to entry-level jobs in countless other industries in South Korea)
Now, maybe I'm way off too... I really don't know a lot about the issue - and neither do most people watching the Simpsons. So my question is: did Banksy totally misrepresent the situation? Did he exaggerate to communicate a truth, or did he create an entirely false message with that exaggeration?
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Re: down
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Still On Hulu
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http://www.hulu.com/watch/184819/the-simpsons-banksy-opening
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Interesting
What was it Neil Stephenson said many years ago in Snow Crash?
"... once the Invisible Hand has taken away all those historical inequities and smeared them out into a broad global layer of what a Pakistani brickmaker would consider to be prosperity..."
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Fair, life is not fair, get over it
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Re: Fair, life is not fair, get over it
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Re: Re: Fair, life is not fair, get over it
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Fair, life is not fair, get over it
A drunk Newfie was stumbling home one day when he got lost and found himself in the bush. He fell to the ground and noticed a lamp. He picked it up, and rubbed it, and out came a genie.
"You have three wishes, choose them wisely." says the Genie.
The Newfie, looking down at his last, and empty, bottle of beer, smashes it on some rocks and says, "I want a beer that will never run out."
A bottle appears in front of the Newfie. He takes it, looks at it, and downs it. He looks at it again, and to his surprise, it was still full. The Newfie being very content starts walking away.
"Where are you going," asks the Genie, "You still have two wishes left!"
"Well," replies the Newfie, "Give me TWO more of these!"
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Re: Fair, life is not fair, get over it
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Re: Re: Fair, life is not fair, get over it
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Re: Re: Re: Fair, life is not fair, get over it
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Get over it!
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Re: Get over it!
The creators are also very protective of their work. Never before has an outside artist been brought in to work on their opening credits - the extremely iconic opening credits that stood unchanged for 20 years until they were redone in the last season.
Then they brought in Banksy - a highly controversial artist known for his political statements - and gave him nearly-free reign on designing a couch gag for that sacred credit sequence. That, to me, is a statement of support from the creators for Banksy's message.
I would be pretty disappointed in The Simpsons creators if they gave such a rare venue over to a misleading message - one that misrepresents the very people they work with to create the show they are so proud of - just for the shock value.
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Still unsure of your point with this.
Is ONE-THIRD not "sweatshop" enough for you? Or are you just having trouble understanding that the South Korean animators naturally don't want to see themselves as exploited?
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Re: Still unsure of your point with this.
Why the hell do you think Canada pushes to keep its dollar below US parity? Because a lower dollar draws in more US business.
But I'm sure us poor Canadians feel terribly "exploited" too. How dare those snobby Americans use our cheaper labour to bolster our economy!
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Re: Re: Still unsure of your point with this.
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Re: Still unsure of your point with this.
no, the US wages are just over inflated to the point of not being able to compete in the market.
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Re: Re: Still unsure of your point with this.
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Re: Re: Still unsure of your point with this.
This is the inherent contradiction of "capitalism":
The producers of The Simpsons get TENS OF MILLIONS for doing almost nothing yet you're concerned that the LABOR costs which *actually* produce the products sold are too high.
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Re: Still unsure of your point with this.
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Re: Still unsure of your point with this.
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Of course...
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Re: Of course...
Or was that a not so subtle attempt to call liberals communists?
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Either you believe that more government (stronger at the federal level) is good (more services, more regulation, etc) ... or you believe that less government (less services, regulation, intrusion).
Here is an infograph to help http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/left-vs-right-world/
If you don't believe any of this any you're "voting for the person", we might as well have American Idol instead of elections.
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Re: Of course...
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Again, Mike shows you don't have to be Korean to be a blowhard blogger!
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Come to think of it, making fun of anyone that is mentally handicapped is a good thing.
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Come to think of it, making fun of anyone that is mentally handicapped and watches FOX is a good thing.
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fox copyright claim is preventing you from seeing it
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I wonder......
Hmmmmmm....
Probably not ;-)
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Up and Down
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"veteran animator Nelson Shin"
But then reveals
"The iconic cartoon propelled his production company Akom.."
So, the owner of the animation studio is objecting that his company is being compared to a sweatshop. I'm sure the owners of all sweatshops objecting to having it pointed out that they run a sweatshop. Of course at least the employees aren't (probably) being exposed to toxic chemicals.
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Job well done then, Banksy.
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ok...
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