Those grumpy Chinese censors are at it again. This time they've banned the practice of live actors appearing in the same scene as animated ones.
China has announced a ban on TV shows and movies that blend animated elements with live-action actors, a move aimed at nurturing local animators and apparently curbing the use of foreign cartoons.
Besides Roger Rabbit, the 1988 feature film in which actor Bob Hoskins performed beside several animated characters, popular children's TV shows featuring human hosts and animated elements such as Blue's Clues from the United States and Britain's Teletubbies could be included in the ban. And Space Jam, the 1996 film featuring basketball great Michael Jordan alongside Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck could also be shelved.
The government's main television and film regulator sent notice Feb. 15 to broadcasters and theaters that such films and shows could no longer be shown and that violators would be punished. It did not say what the penalties would be.
It also did not give examples of banned programs but described them as "so-called cartoons that mainly feature real people and only occasionally have computer-generated elements."
Communist authorities are eager to expand the country's animation industry and also are worried about the influence of foreign pop culture on Chinese children.
The cartoon ban is intended to "promote the development and prosperity of the cartoon industry in China," said the statement issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
The censors claim that the move is to protect Chinese children from the corrupting effects of subversive Western cartoons such as Blue's Clues, but it may be that something more sinister is really going on. After all, allowing human-cartoon interaction is just the first step towards the creation of some kind of cartoon cyborg. And no one wants that.
