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Domestic-Only Cartoon

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Simply put, a Domestic-Only Cartoon is an animated series or film which is animated/inked and painted entirely within the country of origin, with no outsourcing involved. This practice used to be standard in the days of theatrical animation, but lower budgets brought about by television forced productions to cut quality, and later outsource their cartoons to overseas studios where the cost of labor is cheaper. Even anime does it nowadays, sending most of their productions to Korea, China, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia for inbetweening, backgrounds or CG. Nevertheless, domestic-only productions still exist, even if they’re less frequent than they used to be.

The frequency of domestic vs. foreign animation depends a lot on the medium: traditional, domestic animation for TV has been unheard of (if not nonexistent) for decades, but animation in newer mediums such as CGI, Flash, and Harmony is outsourced far less frequently. In particular, this is the norm for Stop Motion animation since it's impractical (if not outright impossible) and pointless to ship physical sets and figures overseas (a notable exception being Rankin/Bass). It's also standard for cartoons occupying a 15-minute timeslot.

(NOTE: For obvious reasons, web animation by independent animators will not be listed here because it’s a given that it will be produced by whatever country the creator lives in. It also should be noted that what constitutes "domestic only" is getting increasingly muddled, since animators can work from home more than ever, so even if an animation studio is located within the same country of the main production studio, they could have independent animators working from home in other countries. There are also situations where a production company will have divisions in other countries (see Titmouse, which has operations in the U.S., Canada, and England).)


Examples, listed by country of origin:

    open/close all folders 

    Australia 

    Argentina 

    Brazil 

    Belgium 

    Canada 

    Chile 
  • Diego and Glot
  • Ogú y Mampato en Rapa Nui

    China 

    Croatia 
  • Majority of animations made by Zagreb Film such as:

    Czechia 

    Denmark 

    France 

    Georgia 
  • The Samsonadzes

    Germany 

    Hungary 

    Ireland 
  • Nella the Princess Knight

    Italy 

    Japan 

    Poland 

    Mexico 

    Multiple countries 

    North Korea 

    Russia 

    Serbia 

    Spain 
  • Dad'x
  • Delfy and His Friends
  • Dougie in Disguise
  • Football Stories
  • Jelly Jamm
  • The Mozart Band
  • Pocket Dragon Adventures (the first few episodes were animated in Spain by D'Ocon, one of the co-producers on the series)
  • Problem Child (season 1 only, which was co-produced by D'Ocon and animated there, along with various Spanish supporting studios)
  • Rinky Dink (co-production with Stretch Films, animated entirely in Spain)
  • Sea Princesses
  • Tork
  • Twipsy
  • The Untouchables of Elliot Mouse
  • Wrinkles

    South Korea 
  • Cheolin samchongsa
  • The Cosmos Conqueror
  • Defenders of Space
  • Protectors of Universe
  • Raiders of Galaxy
  • Savior of the Earth
  • Solar Adventure
  • Space Thunder Kids (see the Japan folder above)
  • Space Transformers
  • Super Kid

    Sweden 

    United Kingdom 

    United States of America 

Bonus section: U.S. cartoons outsourced only to Canada

While these cartoons were technically outsourced to another country, they weren't sent overseas, they're right across the border, and both countries speak English. It's about as close to "domestic only" as you can get.

    List 

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