One of Upin & Ipin well-received roadshows
Animasia Studio Sdn Bhd
ANIMASIA which owns and distributes various animated brands such as Bola Kampung, ABC Monsters, Chuck Chicken, Harry & Bunnie and soccer series Supa Strikas through its partnership with Strika Entertainment (South Africa), is also going global.
“A new Harry & Bunnie project will be release next year across cable or satellite channels within Asia-Pacific.
“Also, we have a new animated feature film which is currently in pre-production stage where it targets to hit China cinemas in third quarter of 2018.
“We have two other new IPs that are in development.
“We are hopeful to announce that at Kidscreen Miami 2017,” said group managing director Edmund Chan.
Although the current economic climate is tough, Chan said Animasia’s prospects are still quite rosy due to its strong commitment and good track record.
“Our production pipelines are almost fully booked till the first quarter of 2018.
“We anticipate more growth in North America and China where positive outcomes are budding for some of our on-going projects.
“We have to expand aboard as local market is small to fully recoup our investment,” he said.
Chan also pointed out that the MAC3 co-production funds were helpful for Animasia to co-produce and co-fund animated contents with regional or international producers leading to the establishment of global IPs.
“MDEC’s trade missions have also supported Animasia to widen its foothold globally,” he said.
To date, Animasia has participated in key exhibition festivals such as MIPCOM (France), Hong Kong Filmart, Asia TV Forum (Singapore), Licensing Show (Las Vegas, US), World Animation & VFX Summit (Los Angeles, US), Annecy (France) and Hong Kong ToyFair.
On challenges, Chan said fund raising for new IP (animated concept) development, production and expanding production team were the key constraints.
“On our part, we hope to be able to train or re-train skilled workers to move them to the next level,” he said.
To date, Animasia’s key customer is Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific Inc (a Time Warner Company) that owns and manages global channels Cartoon Network, CNN and HBO.
Its customer Disney Channel, which Animasia has clinched a multi terrritory deal (Asia-Pacific) to license non-dialogue, comedy-driven animated series Harry & Bunnie, premiered on the channel in May.
Inspidea Sdn Bhd
INSPIDEA co-founder Andrew Ooi believed that the animation market is still on a positive trajectory despite the sluggish global economy,
“The demand for animated contents is still pretty high moving forward. Inspidea has been actively involved in animation services for the last three years. We are on a positive trajectory.
“At present we are producing shows for major companies in Europe and America.
“We are developing our original IP too, but that will take a while.
“In Malaysia, we have participated in events that MDEC hosted,” he said.
Inspidea, an MDEC tech company, is a leading 2D animation studio in South-East Asia with 14 years’ experience.
It had created original properties such as Mustang Mama, co-produced a Bafta-nominated series Pet Squad as well as producing shows and TV movies for Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Warner Bros Animation.
Although the outlook is good, Ooi said funding for local production is currently limited.
Animonsta Studios Sdn Bhd
WITH the success of Boboiboy’s first feature film in March, Animonsta Studios (Monsta) is looking forward to the series’ new season, merchandising as well as a theme park.
“We are preparing to launch the next season of BoBoiBoy which will be renamed ‘BoBoiBoy Galaxy’ that will start airing on Nov 25. We are also developing a pre-school animation project with a Japanese toys manufacturer, Takara Tomy.
“If everything goes well, a sequel of the film BoBoiBoy may be launched in 2018.” said Safwan Karim, one of the co-founders of Monsta.
BoBoiBoy’s first theme park is being developed by Movie Animation Park Studios, Perak where it is slated to be open by end of the year.
This is to take advantage of the current Boboiboy mania, which has just ended its third season of 52 episodes.
They have been sold to 45 countries including the Middle East, North Africa and Kazakhstan.
BoBoiBoy’s first feature film entitled BoBoiBoy: The Movie received positive response from movie goers in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Brunei. The movie attracted 1.65 million viewers and achieved RM18mil in sales.
Its success over the years has prompted the company, with a humble beginning of only seven employees in 2009, to expand its workforce to 70 people and move into a bigger studio called CoPlace3 in Cyberjaya.
“Our first product BoBoiBoy was developed in MAC3 and got its first season broadcast by TV3 in 2011.
“Being instant hit, it sparked interest from MNCTV Indonesia and Disney Channel SEA,” recalled Safwan.
“Among the market events that we have attended were the Hong Kong Licensing Fair, Tokyo Game Show and many other trade missions to specific countries like Japan and Indonesia,” he said.
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