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Toon tamasha in Tamil
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Walt Disney Television International-India has recently launched the country's first 24-hour Tamil cartoon channel
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UNCLE SCROOGE snatches back a bunch of dollars from his nephews yelling, "Yevalo dollars selavazhippinga?" You take a few minutes to understand the scratchy voice, and wonder if the impish little ducks would've spent the dollars on sundal or burgers. Then Aladdin's genie flies by singing "Araaaabian raaavil... ," distinctly sounding like Shankar Mahadevan. Just as you think you should probably get sanity tests done, you notice the little red Mickey Mouse's ears popping out from the left corner of your TV screen. Phew, it's not you. It's the toons that are loony.
Walt Disney Television International-India has launched Toon Disney, the country's first 24-hour Tamil cartoon channel. Yes, we hear your first question. And no, ye CAS tortured souls, Toon Disney ain't free to air. But if you just scoffed at this piece of info because you have been watching the channel without a set top box since December, you should know that it was the 30-day sampling period you benefited from. As you read this, your friendly neighbourhood cable guy is adding Toon Disney to his list of pay channels.
It sounds strange
Years ago, we did hear Mowgli yell "Bageeraaaa! Bachao, bachao!" in the Jungle Book series without wincing. It seemed perfectly acceptable that a boy born in the Indian wild should screech away in an Indian language. But chirpy squirrels, Chip and Dale, dishing out complicated instructions in high-pitch Tamil to a group of animal characters solving the mysteries of the human and animal world? Ahem. Cute, yes. Strange, definitely.
Rajat Jain, Managing Director of WDTVI-I, says they assessed the gaps in kids' entertainment in the country, and "it was clear we needed to cater to the under-served needs of the Tamil Nadu audiences." To give them credit, they have not just translated the original English dialogues into Tamil, but even the script and editing have been changed to make it less jarring."
So that means no mouth will close as the voice still talks, and Aladdin won't walk off midway when Jasmine is still expressing her undying love. Disney has already dubbed 1,800 hours of cartoon programme to last them for a year, and the dubbing and re-scripting process still continues.
Apart from the classic Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck, there will also be a series inspired by Disney animated films, for instance, The Legend of Tarzan, Aladdin, Timon & Pumba. As the sun goes down, there will be an action-packed section called JETIX, where aircrafts will whiz past at faster-than-light speed, and enemies will have dens in Jupiter or Mars.
"Cartoons don't have a language," Rajat untiringly says over and over again, and as you catch yourself chuckling at Goofy tripping over himself for the umpteenth time, you know he isn't far from the truth. But we've seen the hugely popular Power Puff Girls and Popeye lose out to the real life villain, the sharp-toothed CAS. As soon as Cartoon Network became a pay channel, Pogo emerged as the new addiction. So, the question is will people without set top boxes be eager enough to turn subscribers?
"It is a risk, of course," says Rajat, "But we're not looking at just Chennai. CAS is not an issue in other parts of Tamil Nadu, and we know there'll be strong viewership there." Hema Govindan, Marketing Head, WDTVI-I says local language cartoons are "more likely to be accepted in non-metro cities and towns". Disney also plans to negotiate with free-to-air platforms such as Sun TV and SCV for cartoon slots. They also have an English feed for Toon Disney.
However, whether Spiderman will swear "I'll get you!" or "Naan unnai pudippen" is up to your cable distributor. Whatever else it might be, toons in Tamil have to be certainly entertaining. Now, the next time you hear playback singer Karthik croon "Mayangal seiya varum heeeroes!" don't be too sure he's singing about our Superstar. It's probably about a mouse in a suit.
ROHINI MOHAN
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