Local animation studio launches new cartoon
Kelowna studio teams up with animation studio from Colombia
A Kelowna animation studio is starting work on a new cartoon series about the fun adventures of a Colombian condor and a Canadian beaver.
Saturn Animation Studios of Kelowna is working with Colombia’s Signos Studio SAS on The Condor.
“The Condor is passionate and emotional in his Latin American way, while the Canadian beaver is kind and brave. Combined into one person, they would make a splendid character, but perhaps not a very engaging animation. But two characters with such different personalities make an explosive combination — just what’s needed to make a good story,” said Nazim Ragimov, head of the Kelowna studio.
The Canada Media Fund has announced it will support the project under its funding program for international projects.
This is not the first time that Canada’s largest fund has supported animation and digital media projects created by local studio, but there has never been a project quite like this one in the Okanagan.
“This will be a transmedia project. It will be published as an animated web series and as an interactive app for mobile devices at the same time,” said Ragimov.
“Imagine you’re watching a series, then you want to read the story it is based on, and then to meet the main characters online, receive a postcard from them or send a message to them.
“That gives you much more of an all-round experience of the story than if you just watch an episode or read a script.”
The Condor project gets underway in September. The first two episodes are due to appear online and in app stores this December.
Saturn studios was founded four years ago by Ragimov, who is from Russia. The studio has produced 10 interactive apps based on classic children’s fairy tales with original illustrations, animation and games.
“When I took our fairy tales to international exhibitions and showed them to professionals who could appreciate not just the artistic side, but also how they were put together technically, they were all amazed that a small studio had managed to publish 10 stories of such a standard within the first few years of our existence,” said Ragimov. “The fairy tales made by the studio are probably the best work I’ve done in my life.”