John Rice.

It involved around 150 people, most working well into their own time; it seemed everyone at Fil-Cartoons wanted to "do" something, to contribute in some way, to say that they helped in the making of Child Soldiers.

Several months ago, Bill Dennis, then president and general manager of Fil-Cartoons, Manila, received a request from UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) to be a participating studio in a worldwide animation consortium that is producing a series of public service commercials to be aired around the world. The UNICEF Animation Consortium, the organization created specifically for this purpose, has acquired the assistance of most if not all of the world's leaders in animation. Disney, Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera, DreamWorks and countless others were tapped to produce animated features on children's rights covered in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. By popularizing children's needs and rights, the animation industry will assist in making the global television audience more conscious of its duties and obligations to children everywhere. Each participating studio will create and produce a 30-second feature on a specific child right selected in consultation with UNICEF. Bill Dennis accepted immediately, delighted that Fil-Cartoons had been included with such high profile studios.

Fil-Cartoons has, over the years, produced several shows for UNICEF, most notably some of the highly popular and acclaimed Meena series, which deal with the rights of girls in a rural Asia. For this project, there were many "headings" to choose from, such as: A child's right to free speech, to play, to education, to a caring family, etc. We eventually decided on the child's right not to go to war. It was quite amazing to learn how many children and youth are actually fighting in wars across the world, getting killed or maimed. This heading seemed to hold special significance here in the Philippines, as until quite recently, government forces clashed many times with anti-government insurgents that were partly comprised of youths fighting and dying for a cause many suspected they knew or cared little about.

Clown sequence from Child Soldiers.