TMCnet News
Animation in Malaysia: A brief history(New Straits Times Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) 1946 Malayan Film Unit (MFU) established. The country's first film studio, it is now known as Filem Negara. Its first art director was Gillie Porter, formerly an English combat cameraman, who taught Malayans to use a Bell and Howell animation camera, puncher, rostrum stand and animation discs to create titles and animation artwork for Cathay Organisation and Cathay-Keris. Goh Meng Huat was Potter's assistant and the first Malayan animator. 1978 Hikayat Sang Kancil, Malaysia's first animated short film was completed by Anandam Xavier, a set designer at MFU. It was only screened in 1983. The subsequent Sang Kancil animated fables, starting from Sang Kancil dan Monyet (1984) were animated by Hassan Abd Muthalib. 1984 Mekanik, directed by Othman Hafsham, featured a five-minute opening sequence animated by Hassan. 1987 FilmArt and Lensamation became the first two privatised animation service providers, often handling offshore work. Lensamation was contracted and trained by Toei of Japan to ink-and-paint and thereafter work on in-between scenes for Japanese cartoons. 1990 Mat Gelap, directed by Zarul Al-Bakri, was the first Malaysian film to juxtapose animated characters against live-action sequences. Characters designed by Imuda were animated by Hassan. 1995 Usop Sontorian was the first local animated series to be shown over private television. 1998 Theatrical release of the first local animated movie, Silat Lagenda, directd by Hassan Muthalib. A combination of hand-drawn and computer-generated visual effects, it took three years and cost US$1.2 million to make and grossed US$200,000 at the box-office. 2000 Malaysia's first full 3D-animation feature, the Chinese-language Nien Resurrection by Young Jump Animation, was released straight to VCD. 2006 Saladin: The Animated Series won the Best Technology Pitch at the Seoul International Cartoon and Animation festival. Originally, it was pitched as a feature-length animated film. The current idea is to keep it for after the production of the animated TV series. Copyright 2006 The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad. Source: Financial Times Information Limited - Asia Intelligence Wire. |