Toonz Animation India Pvt. Ltd., a new animation production studio inIndia, will have a limited opening in August, with an official openingfollowing November 1-5, 1999. Toonz will offer a full-range of productionservices for episodic television series and commercials. Toonz will also bededicated to developing original pilot shows based on Indian folklore andmythology. "India has a rich treasury of folklore which will form the basisfor many of our pilot shows," states Bill Dennis, President and CEO. In itsthird year, the studio hopes to produce its first feature film project.Cartoon Network, Hong Kong has already signed on to be the new studio'sfirst client, and Toonz will be completing a series of commercials for thenetwork.
Toonz has hired an experienced international production andtraining staff including such people as Prescott Wright, former director ofThe Tournee of Animation and animation instructor. The studio will bestaffed with 150 artists, and located in a 180 acre modern facility calledTechnopark in Trivandrum, a city situated on the Arabian Sea. For itsNovember opening, Toonz will host "A Week with the Masters" which willbring the top names in international animation pre-production together todiscuss the importance of story boarding, character design, and storydevelopment. Promising to become an annual event, "A Week with the Masters"will benefit from Technopark's International Conference Center and suchhigh profile guests as keynote speaker Rob Coleman, Industrial Light &Magic's Animation Supervisor on STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE.Other participants currently confirmed are: producer-director-writer DerekLamb, Ian Diamond of Cartoon Network, and representatives from Wild BrainStudios in San Francisco.
