Singapore Animation Fiesta '98

Singapore's Animation Fiesta is making a unique place for itself after just two events. Mark Langer describes this exciting newcomer.

By Mark Langer | Saturday, August 1, 1998 at 12:00 am

Jubilee Hall. Photo by Mark Langer.

I settled back into my seat on the flight to Singapore, happily anticipating the second Animation Fiesta. The previous Fiesta was the first international animation festival to be held in South East Asia. Singapore is a movie town, and the event had been a success, with enthusiastic audiences. But with the dramatic downturn in Asian economies, would this year match up to the high expectations created by the last festival?

The Singapore economy might be languishing, but you'd never know it from attending Fiesta `98. Most shows were completely sold out, with the restored turn-of-the-century Jubilee Hall venue in the historic Raffles Hotel filled to the rafters with locals and animation professionals from around the world. As many as five programs a day were presented at this three-day event, although only a few of the highlights will be discussed here.

Screenings and Lectures
The Animation Fiesta is distinguished from most animation festivals in its policy of accompanying almost all screenings with lectures, giving programs more substance and context than the norm. The festival began on Friday, June 19 with a program of Warner Bros. animation presented by Kathleen Helppie-Shipley, senior vice president of Warner Bros. Classic Animation. Helppie-Shipley talked about the impact of television, video, CD-Rom, cable, theme parks, etc. on Warner Bros. animation since the films were first broadcast on television, accompanied by examples of Warner animation from early theatrical cartoons to recent commercials and other productions. Helppie-Shipley ended her presentation with samples of other animation divisions' work, such as the Feature Animation and the Television Animation divisions.

Kampung Boy was shown. Kampung Boy is based on the work of Dato' Mohd Nor Khalid, who is better known as Lat. For over 30 years, Lat's comic books and cartoons have been wildly popular in Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere in South East Asia. I began to catch on to the fact that this might not be a completely Malaysian project when I noticed producer Frank Saperstein and animator John R. Dilworth's names in the end credits. Kampung Boy is a co-production using talent from several countries, including the United States, which has had some effect on the series. One audience member wondered why the Malay family depicted in Kampung Boy seemed so much like The Simpsons. According to Saperstein, distribution in the U.S. market is encountering difficulty for reasons of culture as objections have been made to the use of traditional Malay costume and locales. This is unfortunate, as Kampung Boy easily rivals anything shown on American television and would be a welcome alternative to most TV fare.

Cultural problems were the subject of comments made in a later session on Asian animation by Ram Mohan, the "father of Indian animation." Mohan's career goes back to the late 1950s with the Cartoon Film Unit, Government of India Film Division, where he received training from Disney animator Clair H. Weeks. Mohan's major interest in animation is as a tool for social development. His films done for international agencies, often in co-production with other countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines, deal with such topics as the value and dignity of women. Mohan was also co-director (with Roichi Sasaki) of the Indo-Japanese feature film Ramayana - The Legend Of Rams. In his talk, Mohan acknowledged that animation is one of the most competitive industries in the world, but cautioned Asian filmmakers about forsaking their cultural roots in the rush to international markets. He called for the establishment of indigenous animation industries taking advantage of "rich cultural traditions with many stories to tell" and referred to his Ramayana as an example of how Asian countries can co-operate with one another in this respect. Mohan's talk was followed by samples of animation from Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea, showing the diversity of production done in the region.