The Cat’s Regret (Le Chat Qui Pleure) Directed by Alain Gagnol

Y Alain Gagnol Phantom Boy, A Cat in Paris with imagination. His short Le Couloir The Gorge) was nominated for an Annecy The Cat’s Regret is bound to attract lots of attention as well.

Le Couloir, which was about a man hired to stay seated on a chair all day long to watch over a corridor,” he says. “Now, in have always found it interesting to show immobility in an animated movie. I think

gian studio Lunanime), a young boy who can’t stand his younger brother learns a

The Cat’s Regret, I wanted to tell the story of a boy who has the strong desire to kill his younger mated movie!”

The frequent Folimage collaborator says the short format requires a certain a bit like the difference between a novel and a short story. Creation is all about of stories.”

When asked to name some of his favorite animated shorts, Gagnol is quite ity in short movies and the different kinds of visuals. It’s a format that is very much same kind of art in order to make more money!”

Álvarez says most of the work was done by herself, with the aid of trainees from Brussels’ La Cambre school. She used TVPaint to

but they only worked between one and three weeks each,” she notes. “I did

She says one of her biggest challenges was boiling down all her many trate historical facts without being too didactic,” says the director. “And, of Álvarez everyone knows that animation is not only for children, but it’s also a very interesting way to share ideas and feelings.”

at the same time.”

When animation director Luis Usón was in his early twenties, he toons and, for some reason, always rooted for characters like Wile E. Coy ote or Sylvester who never seemed to catch their nemeses. That’s how the Afterwork was formed.

worked on Afterwork

“Our biggest challenge was creating a classic cartoon character

— There is a very interesting video analysis by him on ARTE channel,

tional value to me, but sometimes they wouldn’t mean anything to

grateful that everything worked out the way it did!”

Iranian animation director Mojtaba Moosavi Mr. Deer faces and have forgotten humanity.

room that had to look like a subway train. “You can see dolly shots in

Mr. Deer as a feature. with Mr. Deer. We are actually in talks to work on the movie with an

Looking back at the last two years, he adds, “Making a short with

A huge fan of Aardman Animations and LAIKA, Moosavi is keen to ies such as The Boxtrolls, Chicken Run and Kubo,” he adds. “I am also a big fan of Wes Anderson’s movies. Fantastic Mr. Fox is awesome!”

a time,” adds Kubota. “Now, of course, everything is CG. The good thing about digital technology with. On the other hand, though, it lacks analog animation’s warmth. At least that’s what I feel.

and movie theaters.

Kimba, Princess Knight, Black Jack, Phoenix and many more of the master’s characters continue rich legacy lives on. For more info, visit tezukaosamu.net/en.

One of Brazil’s hottest animated features this year is Tito and the Birds The End of the Line Cidade Cinza) and André Say I Am Only Seventeen), the movie follows the with his own identity.

The movie features an original score by Gustavo Kur lat and Binho Feffer, who also did the memorable score for Boy and The World

The animation of Tito and the Birds was handled by Monica’s Gang, Yellow Woodpecker Farm, Wee Boom). clude 2096: A Story of Love and Fury , Another Day of Life Noah’s Ark. Produced by Fabiano Gullane and Walter Salles. A retelling of the Biblical story featuring songs by Vinicius de Mo is handling interna tional sales.

City of Pirates. Di rected by Otto Guer world of the cartoonist and his animated characters.

The Foreigner. Directed by Cristal winners Luiz Blog years, but never overcomes the daily struggle to recon cile the differences between her Catholic faith and the mystical world views of the Yanomami.

I sensus is the natural enemy of a good idea. And I’m much better in meetings than at meals.

balabala words that we must say.”)

Bourlon, the founder and CEO of the Bel that one of the reasons Hans bought us was to about a dozen animated shows on all the lead stand China.” I didn’t have the heart to tell Hans that no one understands China, not even the Chi dles, “You know, we Chinese have been confusing ourselves for centuries.”

ron Gomes, the Sin Asia. Sharon under the world better than I, and she’s led the charge for P. King Duckling on Disney Junior in the U.S., and Super Wings

ment agency that oversees all media, will be ground rules for how content is made and dis tributed in China, including international an imation. These reforms have not been widely covered outside of China, but inside China — on social media, and in the local trades — every one’s talking. dia, radio and television; the emergence of a and broadcast; and the network’s ‘management blind side’ have now be ket, but at the same time, they also itive communication from either the tradition led to a decline in government credibility. This

after each of our meetings to ask our Chinese friends and colleagues what they thought folks like us. How would the changes affect tions? Would selling content into China

The GM of one of the bigger global that the government cared about. Now they to work quickly to get new content out. Soon, there will be quotas on everything. The curtain is closing on foreign content in China.” During gesture with both his arms to illustrate a cur tain closing. Everyone in the room swallowed hard.

But another old friend with ties to the Chi nese government took a more relaxed view. Over a dinner which included several here stay modern. So maybe there will be a few new

B Rich — introduced several female characters ing their heyday. Little Dot, Little Lotta and Little Audrey were colorful and wholesome characters that echoed the standards and

This month, the three girls have been re designed and retooled for the digital age and will be the stars of their own DreamWorks/ Harvey Street Kids. The show follows their adventures as they ex series seems to be a wonderful return to a to their digital devices and sedated with en

to do a show that was really cartoony and centered on three strong, distinctive female artist and writer whose many credits include Disney’s Phineas and Ferb, Mickey Mouse and Star vs. The Forces of Evil. “The take was, what if

on such diverse shows as The Simpsons, Robot Chicken and Dawn of the Croods always feels like it’s summer or the weekend on the show. We don’t have any adult characters, and it’s a total kid society — all set during that time after school or before you go home to din dynamics that are really timeless and universal.”

sionate on the show. Also, in our show Dot is African American, as we wanted to bring di versity to Harvey Street so that it really re

For the show’s visuals, the creative team afternoon” feeling and mood of childhood. “We

Everything old is new again, and Moose and Squirrel are back in a big way this year. Jay Ward, Alex Anderson and Bill Scott’s beloved animated characters Rocky and Bullwinkle, who made their TV debut modern animated DreamWorks series, which began streaming on Amazon in May.

Supernoobs, Big Time Rush, Johnny Test) and Jay Ward’s daughter, Tiffany Mr. Peabody & Sherman, George of the Jungle) follows the adventures of the clever Butera) are there to make their lives more

Fellows, an animation veteran whose many credits include stints on Disney’s Doug and Nick’s The Fairly OddParents, tells us that he Supernoobs and was thinking about what to do next new Rocky and Bullwinkle show. “I thought it was kismet,” says Fellows. “You don’t get of fered to run such a legendary show from such a legendary creator every day. It was truly a

“There are a handful of characters in TV ani mation that are as lovable as Rocky and Bull winkle,” he adds. “Bullwinkle is so sweet and classic best friend who always goes along with They made you laugh, and you always rooted for them. There was also this genuine sweetness under all the humor. Of course, Bill Scott and June Foray were amazing as the voices.”

and a half ago and hit the ground running. collaborative effort between the writers and

cool look created by veteran character de signer and art director Chris Mitchell, who also worked on DreamWorks’ The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show. “Thanks to Chris’s work, we says Fellows. “When I came on board, it was Some of the artists came from the Peabody & Sherman Our goal was to have something that is styl ized, modern and beautiful, and winks at the historic origins of these amazing characters.”

Fallows says he was a huge fan of the Warner Bros’ Termite Terrace artists and the he recalls. “All those classic Chuck Jones and Robert McKimson shorts and the music they used — they’re all in my head. All the great sil liness, wild storylines and amazing characters me through my career at Nickelodeon, too … I much TV these days!”

When brothers Shane and Chris Johns, Michigan, they were used to

Years later, when they moved to New York show called Big City Greens this month on Disney Channel.

Gravity Falls, My Life as a Teenage Robot), follows the trials of a mischievous coun try boy named Cricket Green who moves to the big city with his sister, Tilly, and their family.

dreams and situations,” says Shane. “Kids can feel like an outsider and alone at some stage in their won’t always be new and unfamiliar to you.”

and that’s what we wanted to bring to the show.”

Chris and Shane were working on the Nick elodeon series Harvey Beaks when they started to think about ideas for Big City Greens. That’s room at Disney, where the writers lay down says Chris. “Then we work closely with several with so much creativity. It’s a very collabora organism that evolves with each take.”

The brothers, who are also known for creat Reed Gunther cowboy), tell us that working on an animated

A FLCL Fooly Cooly) FLCL Progressive and FLCL Alternative. Progressive

FLCL, it blew us away,” says Jason DeMarco, senior VP and creative FLCL for the current generation, we couldn’t resist the challenge.”

Director Kazuto Arai’s involvement with the new series grew out of what he thought was Six Hearts Princess, I met character designer Chikashi Kubota, who asked if I wanted to work on the storyboard for the new FLCL,” Arai recalled in

lar as FLCL won the original its fans, yet break enough new ground that it doesn’t feel like a rerun. of Progressive vince the fans that it is a sequel to FLCL, but sode the original FLCL focused on ‘deviation from the everyday life.’ traordinary world.”

Fooly Cooly had a freewheeling nuttiness When Arai talked to the original director, Ka zuya Tsurumaki, the older artist urged him to follow that model. “Director Tsurumaki said that he wanted the new FLCL to be made with a young creator’s instincts. When he made the original FLCL same in the new FLCL.”

The original Fooly Cooly about the dreariness of life in his hometown here. Only the ordinary.” Minutes later, all hell

Théo de Marcousin) about an imaginative boy’s friend truly dumbfounded that he story, which is called Oscar and Hoo,” recalls Erbes, who national children’s media became a bestseller in the U.K. and asked for a Oscar and Hoo Forever).”

Of course, the book’s beautiful story and lush illustrations made it a natural for a TV the studio’s creative team, which included show as a children’s series. “We changed the lives next door, and renamed it Ella, Oscar & Hoo the CNC and PROCIREP/ANGOA, we were all

Discovery MENA — and many other broad

Ella, Oscar & Hoo by Normaal, at their Angoulême and Paris stu feelings and the energy of childhood.

ing from Michael’s use of wide frames and size ratio between characters and backgrounds. The essen We also introduced in each sive, abstract sequence to moment — an homage to Michael’s other shorts such Father and Daughter and The Aroma of Tea — which is what many call the lost emotion and each day is a new adventure where Ella, Oscar and Hoo are learning from each other,” he notes. “Because when you’re a

The team behind Ella, Oscar & Hoo yond the limitations of their room and elec level,” notes Erbes. “The nature around them discoveries, big emotions and fun daily adven tures, which are a mixture of reality and kids’ out in the sky.”

“Hollywood and the big animation studios are looking to see how it these formats — virtual reality, augmented reality, extended reality? You have ing the stories when you know it will be interactive? All of these different formats have different ways to bring the same ideas and feelings to the

how these stories interact with the audience so that it’s believable, and doesn’t show the machinery the audience, while retaining the belief in the storytelling by the artist and the author. The way the a storyteller would change the way a story is told to match the audience. Piggy

I tive Doodle, celebrating the magic and genius of French age to the trailblazing artist and illusionist on the release À la conquête du pôle The Conquest of the Pole

Directed by Hélène Leroux frequent Google Doodle animator) and François-Xavier “Fx” Goby The Story of an Idea, To Build a Fire), Back to the Moon is also one of the VR shorts showcased at Annecy

“Google’s Doodle guidelines are to educate Trip to the Moon). He was a true search his work. We also want to entertain audiences, so most of his backgrounds, so for the designs I wanted to the narrative is set in a toy store. We didn’t want too many tiny details, so you can clearly follow the actions and ex

Leroux and Goby referred to the work of the great ani Puppetoons. “He had

you notice that all his designs and creatures were very ic way of designing characters. They are charming as well.

When asked about the methodology of their creative called Rain or Shine at Nexus,” he duction, design, research, story ed when we add layers to it. Once

ering all the various levels of interactivity, trying to answer exactly all the different things and beats that you going to the same time.”

similar software to what they use to create regular CG an imation. “We use all the tools that we use in our studio;

Leroux and Goby believe more collaborative and deliver es in the future. “Those tools already exist in the VR world,” sayd Goby. “However, as long as these worlds by themselves, they still miss the excitement that you can have when you watch a movie in a big theater ence anymore.”

going to work or coming out of a train station,” notes Leroux. connect with the story. He used all his magician tricks that understood back then that technology was there to serve

no. They’ve gone from that to Space Explorers: A New Dawn

Right now, they’re not able to divulge much

Malaysia has been switching up gears and increasing its pace of development with the creative content industry — which is rapidly growing stable sector. The goal has always been about establishing Malaysia as a regional Creative Hub: one that nurtures both the talent and industry to serve regional and global needs.

To date, there are about 11,000 professionals working in the Malaysia’s creative content and technology industry. Most of them are providing in-depth coverage within key creative segments, such as animation, games, visual effects & new media, multimedia assets for apps, and content-enabled delivery platforms. Companies in Ringgits ($302 million) in 2016 alone, making it the fastest growing technology marketplace in the last three years.

Deep diving into any of the industry sub-segments will bring up some surprising insights. Take the animation sec are mind-boggling — market revenues for animation and related efforts have reached 187.7 million in 2016, translating to an estimated 11.2% boost from 2014 to 2016. Equally as impressive is the games market. From a consumption - lion revenue forecast in 2017, adhering to a year-on-year growth rate of 16.3%. In terms of market size, there are 14 million Malaysian gamers, and 7.8 million of them are paying customers. Taking this data into account alone suggests that one out of every two Malaysians are gamers and voracious consumers of quality digital content and services related to these immersive materials.

Malaysia is keen on further accelerating the creative development segment and the massive pool of talents is ready to delve into this new marketplace. This includes building new digital technologies, growing the ecosystem, and ensuring that its effects are translated to give value beyond the digital space.

- troduced to empower talents was the Intellectual Property Creative Challenge (IPCC). A platform like IPCC — which has now become a must-attend event for potential creatives — has opened another door into animation and videogames development. IPCC has offered many professionals the opportunity to create industry milestones.

Another step includes establishing the Malaysia Animation and Creative Content Centre (MAC3), an incubation and accelerator initiative which gives the creative development sector another boost and opened many doors. The latest of these efforts is the public-private sector initiative between MDEC and UOA with industry partners in launching a premier games incubator known as LEVEL UP Inc.

This move allows MDEC to leverage the tremendous potential Malaysia has to offer as an investment location as well as offer a talent supply line for the creative content industry. There is a need to provide support for local content development efforts and to feed further growth of the ecosystem. This is important for digital games development: This is the primary reason such spaces are essential.

Malaysia is no longer taking baby steps; It has now grown into a champion for the creative content industry. While there is much more to be done, there is no doubt that things are now in place and moving in the right direction. It is now a matter of building more pace within the content ecosystem and matching this to the speed of growth of other engines of innovation and economic development in Malaysia. For more info, contact Michelle Sta Maria, Head of Business Development @ michelle@mdec.com.my