2010 – The year Indian Animation proves itself?

Well, out of ALL of the Indian animation features announced to release in 2009, NONE got released.Can’t blame Indian animation for that. 2009 was just BLACK. Period. Projects got postponed, paused or canceled due to the global economic crisis. It was probably the worst year Bollywood ever had – ever.

BUT: The good news is several Indian animation features are NOW – April 2010 – ready for release:

- Kireet Khurana’s TOONPUR KA SUPERHERO (Eros/Climb)

- Chetan Desai’s RAMAYANA (Maya Entertainment Ltd)

- Nikhil Advani’s DELHI SAFARI (Krayon Pictures)

- Arnab Chaudhury’s ARJUN (UTV)

How to write an Animation Short Film

What I always tell my students is that the right way to approach a short film is to imagine it was a feature film. Writing, directing short films is the perfect play-ground for experimenting with the principles of story-telling – principles which remain the same on the macro- as well as on the micro-level: In the arc of a Hero’s Journey, in the arc of an act, in the arc of a scene or a short film…

2009 – The Year Indian Animation matured?

2009 will be a year in which not less than 15 (in words: fifteen) Indian full-length animation films are expected to hit the theatres. Since Percept Picture & Sahara One released HANUMAN directed by veteran director V. G. Samant and director Milind Ukey in 2005, not a single great film has followed.

Artefact 8 – Persepolis (2007)

The ancient city of Persepolis is situated 70 km northeast of the modern city of Shiraz in the Fars Province of modern Iran and was the ceremonial capital of the Persian Empire during the Achaemenid dynasty around 500 BC. To the ancient Persians, the city was known as Pārsa, which means “The City of Persians” and thus refers – in a very subtle way – to a time when Iran/Persia was at its height of power and prosperity and – not Islamic.

Artefact 7 – The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

“She was born with magic hands.” — Jean Renoir on Lotte Reiniger

Do you like Animation? Well, then there is absolutely no excuse to miss this magnificent masterpiece, the oldest surviving full-length animation film in the world.

Artefact 6 – The Pixar Story (2007)

Ed Catmull wanted to be an animator and artist but just felt he wasn’t good enough. When he took up Physics and Computer Science, he fell in love with Computer Graphics. Ed’s animation “Computer Animated Hand” featuring his own left hand was years later used in the film FUTUREWORLD (1976) and thus went down in history as the first use of 3D-Computer Animation in a feature film.

Artefact 5 – Walt – The Man Behind the Myth (2001)

This documentary directed by Jean-Pierre Isbouts and with Dick van Dyke as the narrator, opens with the premiere of MARY POPPINS in 1964, showing Walt Disney at the very height of his career.

In many ways MARY POPPINS is a culmination of Walt’s achievements in family entertainment, blending live action and animation in the way Walt experimented with it in the beginning of his career.

The 120 min. long WALT – THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTH extensively features footage from the Disney Archives, early cartoons, interviews and a form of comical short films invented by Walt Disney in the beginning of his career which he called  “Laugh-O-Grams”.