Estonian animation studio A Film Estonia has recently completed the production of two animated "postcards" for the 47th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), which will be held on May 25, 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia. The postcards will be seen as two of the many interstitials shown between the competing songs during the European broadcast of ESC. The aim is to introduce different aspects of the host country. "It would be nice, being at the edge of Europe and desperately longing to belong to it, to send Europe a sign that although we are unique, we speak the same cultural language," said Rene Vilbre, the director of the ESC and author of the concept for both postcards produced by A Film Estonia. Centering on the theme of a modern fairytale, PUSS IN BOOTS introduces viewers to the Estonian nightclub scene and the plethora of meteors found in Estonia, while THE PRINCESS WHO NEVER LAUGHED illustrates the concept that it's a small world after all. Both projects were produced in classical hand-drawn 2D style, with A Film Estonia's directing animator Meelis Arulepp leading the troops. The softwares used were Toonzshell and AfterEffects. A Film Estonia is located in Tallinn, Estonia and is a subsidiary of A Film A/S Copenhagen, Denmark. The studio has worked for many major European and U.S.-based studios including Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros. Feature Animation, TerraGlyph, Egmont Imagination and Happy Life.
Estonia has a rich history of animation.
Read all about it in Heikki Jokinen's article Little Big Estonia.
