Breathing life into characters
SARASWATHY NAGARAJAN
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TOONZ Animation has three interesting projects on the anvil.
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This is a prestigious project for us as we are involved in every stage of production, right from the script... Atul Rao
PHOTOS: S. MAHINSHA
FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING: Rathan Sam George with the drawings for 'Geet Mahabharat'.
TOONZ Animation India, which had entered into an understanding with Impact Vision, a Mumbai-based production house, to recreate 108 stories from the Mahabharat, by combining animation, lyrics and music, has completed the pilot project.
When songs tell a tale
Says Atul Rao, vice-president, Toonz Animation, "We have selected 108 stories from the Mahabharat. There are no dialogues, instead songs in Hindi will narrate the story."
Lyrics by Satish Mutatkar, chief executive officer of Impact Vision, and music by Tapas Relia complement the captivating work of the animators.
"A lot of research was done before we began the work to decide the colours and visuals of each story. We found inspiration in the works of artist Namboothiri whose lines have captured the innate character of many figures in the Mahabharat. Mughal miniatures and Rajastani paintings were studied for the background," explains Rathan Sam George, Development and Preproduction Manager.
The songs will be sung by Sonu Nigam, Shankar Mahadevan, Shaan, Kailash Kher, Vijay Prakash, Madhushree and others.
The result is a story filled with mesmerising frames that narrate a story of the Pandavas. Each five-minute episode narrates the story though the visuals and the music.
TOONZ Animation India, which animated Tenali Rama and rejuvenated him for a new generation of children, has gone back to the storyboard to work on two other interesting projects that promises to open a new chapter in Indian animation.
Each project tests the ingenuity of the animators and their techniques of narration - visual and verbal. While `Wolverines and the X Men' is a prestigious project for Marvel Entertainment, `Dragonlance' is a fantasy with a medieval theme that conjures up images of flying dragons and bravehearts who take to the skies to make the earth a safer place for its denizens.
According to Atul, their work for the `X Men' has impressed the honchos of Marvel Entertainment.
Atul Rao
"This is a prestigious project for us as we are involved in every stage of production, right from deciding the script to its appearance on screen.
"This series is about an entire set of new adventures of the super heroes and it involves a lot of sophisticated special effects and action. Meant for the pre-teens and the teens, it is a very slick presentation as children are exposed to sophisticated animation. It is not just executing the drawings given to us," says Atul.
Toonz would be involved in making 26 episodes in a 2D-3D combination of characters and background, all revolving around the popular character Wolverine, alias Logan.
`Dragonlance,' a DVD feature for Paramount Pictures, is a 90-minute fantasy that is mix of the medieval and the mystical. Directed by Will Meugniot of the `Bat Man' fame, the animated feature film is being co-produced by Commotion Pictures and Epic Level Entertainment. The story has been adapted from the book `Dragons of Autumn Twilight.'
Toonz also has a number of home productions such as `Paddy Pages' and `Frogskool' on the drawing board.
As Atul puts it, "We are expanding and in the middle of a very creative phase."
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