Jun 15, 2023

The rights holders of "Spider-Man", "Paddington", "Smurfs" talk to adapt IP for the modern audience.

We like to think of art as something that lasts forever, but stories can be perishable. Popular properties in the 1950s have not always translated into modern standards of expression, storytelling, and relevance. Stories need to change over time, or they simply stop being told.

Annecy's panel on adapting the famous IP brought this idea to the forefront by organizing a group of producers that retained the rights to the decades-old Ip. Françoise Guyonnet of Studiocanal vp Americas business management, rights owner of Paddington; Lila Hannou of Ellipse Animation, based on the popular French character Marspirami, Katie Baron of Sony Pictures Animation, the rights holder of Spider-Man, and Nele De Wilde of IMPS, the licensor of Smurfs, discussed how their classic Ip has survived to the present day.

Paddington's recent film outing has garnered critical acclaim like a magnet, proving a smash at the box office. Studiocanal won the full rights of marmalade-loving Peruvians after an outing with the character in 2014. According to Studiocanal's Guyonnet, "The safety of long-term relationships and the long-term strategy of our IP" appealed to the company. Being able to use such a well-known IP can guarantee the future of the studio. Planning multiple movie releases over a 10-year period, centered around characters with a built-in fan base, gives us some stability in an industry that can shift with the mildest gusts of wind.

However, the built-in fan base is not a guarantee of success. Taking care of the original value of IP while updating it for the modern audience is a tightrope that many could not walk. Gayonet found it helpful to go back to Paddington's base text. "We tried to highlight the elements of the original story that remain contemporary," she explained. "Paddington is from South America, so the people around him are diverse and have a lot of strong female characters.

The South American setting was also adopted for the latest adaptation of Marsupilami. The origin of the comic book of the characters, they see hail from the continent, but many subsequent adaptations felt the Euro Center, more attractive to the European fan base on the mainland, spanning France and Germany. Hannou, Vice president of Creative Development and Strategy for Elliptical animation, highlighted the desire for an "international perspective" when developing new stories based on these characters. While this shift will help brands reach an international audience, shows and movies will be able to speak more directly to a minority within the region where IP is most popular.

The fact that Peter Parker is the face of the Spider・Man franchise is somewhat counterproductive from a business perspective, something like Into The Spider-Verse. This means that you will be able to get the most out of it. But Baron, Vice President of Creative at Sony Pictures Animation, saw switching the protagonist to Miles Morales as "something that gives purpose to the story."The Spider-Man character was reinvented in comics by Marvel's Brian Michael Bendis in the 2010s. Miles Morales is an afro-Latino teen, constantly monitored by helicopter parents, adding a different dimension to Spider-Man-ing's tribulations.

Sony's animation Spider-Man appeared on screen thanks to the efforts of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who agreed to sign on only if Sony allowed Miles to be the main character. Another decision Sony had to make was whether the movie should be animated at all. Spider-Man movies have a rich live-action box office history. Again, there was no real commercial reason to switch it. For Baron, the main purpose of the Spider-Verse film was to "bring comic books to life."

Just as Guyonnet looked back at the paddington catalog and found diversity and contemporary themes, Baron said about going back to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's initial intentions in creating the character, the phrase "Anyone can wear a mask" was a key part of the film and its marketing, the core of the character. There is little more to Spider-Man than that repeated across deeply contemporary emotions rooted within.

The origin of comic books is common among animated Ip, and Smurfs are 1 of such characteristics. Franchises are often handled by many different studios that are trying to achieve a more modern version of the character. Sony Pictures had a crack in 2011, and in 2025 Paramount takes its turn in character. For De Wilde, chief Commercial officer of IMPS, the Smurfs' most obvious problem was the dire lack of female representation in a world where 100 male characters live in villages. For their latest iteration, more female characters will be introduced.

De Wilde also explained that many who had previously worked on the franchise assumed that the blue skin of the smurfs allowed people of all races to project themselves on the character. But the encounter with Nigerian fans changed her perspective when she woke up to Smurfs' euro-centric hairstyle and clothes. Even if they are not physically white, their appearance is always European-coded. Making changes to characters that the studio doesn't fully own is a gambit in itself. The Devil is bumping against the estate that owns the Smurfs over seemingly innocuous details. For example, it is strictly forbidden for a smurf to take off his hat or share a house with another smurf.

For all these franchises, visual updates were essential to keep the franchise alive. Paddington, Smurfs and Mass pyramids went for the clean, realistic and cute cg models that modern audiences are used to seeing at this time. Many of these franchises are leaning towards younger children, who are not at risk of alienation due to disruptive art styles.

Spider-Verse didn't care about that fear. Redefining what Western animated films look like is at the root of what Lord, Miller and company want to achieve in their first film, and that ambition is being pushed to new heights in their 2nd film. Spider-Man has a strong enough position in modern pop culture and a stable enough foundation to become an innovator in animation.

While audiences often claim to want more innovation, such as those seen in Spider-Verse, many classic Ip will rebuild a new generation of viewers and fan base, and perhaps Spider-Verse and other risk-taking franchises could serve as a factor in breaking this norm.

It's easy to sit in the audience of this Annecy debate on Ip and wonder what a panel like this will look like in a few years from now. Will the larger industry catch up with the experiments that exist in movies like "Across The Spider-Verse," "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish," or Netflix's next film, "Nimona."