Cartoon Network’s SNAPTOONS Boosts Malaysia’s Tomato Animation and Unizaru Internationally

Multimedia Development Corporation continues to forge ties through international partnerships
Kamil Othman, Vice President of Creative Multimedia Division, MDeC (left) with Andrew Ooi, Managing Director Inspidea Sdn Bhd (second left), Silas Hickey, Regional Creative Director, Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific (middle) and Wong Yee Hsien, Creative Director Tomato Animation in a group photo at the recent media screening of the two animation shorts- BLOX Brigade and Ziro The Wizard.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 12, 2012 – Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) in collaboration with its partner Cartoon Network Asia announced recently the fruition of two animated shorts derived from the channel’s creative development initiative, SNAPTOONS. The two Malaysia finalists, Tomato Animation and Unizaru were selected based on their originality and creativity while fulfilling the Cartoon Network criteria of concepts that are fun, funny and fearless.
SNAPTOONS, short for Short New Asia Pacific Cartoons, offers creative hopefuls an avenue to submit pitches comprising original ideas targeted at the four to 14 year old audience, that are smart and funny with bold characters that could be the next generation’s cartoon hero. Under the creative supervision and direction of Silas Hickey, Regional Creative Director for Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific and the brainchild of SNAPTOONS, these ideas are brought to life beyond pen and paper.Speaking about the programme Kamil Othman, the Vice President for the creative multimedia department of MDeC, said “Close to 98% of the workforce involved in the local Creative Content Industry are Malaysian. Thus programmes like SNAPTOONS provides an excellent opportunity for members of the local creative fraternities to convene and share their knowledge, insights and ideas with their regional, and even global, counterparts. This will in turn inspire the birth and growth of a new generation of animation studios and talents who can lead Malaysia’s creative content and ideas to critical international acclaim. Beyond that, programmes like SNAPTOONS also provide local budding animators with the opportunity to meet with renowned international animators and studios and develop international partnerships and collaborations as we have done previously with local projects like the Emmy Nominated Saladin and the globally renowned Upin and Ipin.”
Silas Hickey, Regional Creative Director at Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific reiterates Othman’s view, “Original content lies at the heart of Cartoon Network and we’re seeing incredible potential come out of Malaysia and the Southeast Asia region. With the support of MDeC, we remain committed to helping develop the animation industry and will continue to foster home-grown talent in Malaysia.”
About the two completed shorts:
• Tomato Animation’s story revolves around the life of Ziro, a bumbling wizard with a deep rooted desire to become the world’s greatest wizard. Ziro is also smitten by a girl, Nina, from his village. The story then follows Ziro and Nina’s fascination with magic which interestingly gets them into all sorts of trouble.
• Unizaru introduces the BLOX Brigade. The story revolves around three brothers Edward, Arnold, Roscoe and their mentor Ohka, and their misadventures with the Supreme League of Evil.