The animation cinema is one of the popular cinemas among children and adult audiences as well and Arabs have always inspired the world by their unique and amazing fairytales and stories that include the Aladdin, Sinbad and much more. The animation is being used in many fields like multimedia, TV ads, web design, etc. But there is a true lack of the representation of the Arab culture and various stories as well. The view of animation in the Middle East is quite different from the other countries all across the world.
The first animated scene was created around 5,000 years ago in Iran (Levin). The picture of story-telling got famous in Egypt and this goes on until Disney made its first animated film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and during this time a small Russian group of carpenters, including their Egyptian partners also created a short film for the Egyptian Ministry of Defense called as “National Defense” (Alrimawi). This film got released in the year 1939 in the theaters of Cairo and Alexandria and it is considered as the oldest animation films of Egypt and the Arab world.
The demand for the production of Arabic cartoons rose when it became possible to create the animated cartoons using the computers in the 1980s. The Arabic Center of animation was founded in 1980 by Al-Yasiri and it was supported financially by the Iraqi Ministry of culture.
Till the 1990s, the 2D animation was an art, a labour and an immense talent as each frame of the scene was hand-drawn, including some special techniques. Initially, the industry was not willing to invest in children’s television and there was no animation studio in the Arab World until the 1990s (Alrimawi). The local channels trusted the cartoon imports from the European countries and the children also grew up watching the dubbed animations only. The Japanese animation was also popular in the Arab World. After the satellite boom, FTA Arab channel purchased the Western animation and suddenly it became popular among children (Adam Sayfo). The animated visual layout was being expected to evolve by sudden animation developments in the market. Smaller companies started creating animated cartoons in the 1990s. After a decade, 3D animation films replaced the 2D animated scenes and this gave the Arab animation an opportunity to go long in the industry.
The comic artists have also cultivated a new era of animation in the Arab world. Sketch in Motion was founded in 2007 by Zaidoun Karadsheh and Tamer Qarrain. It has developed several cartoon series that focused on local stories and most of them are appearing on Jordanian television. Another studio Nejercom is producing Mesameer, a sarcastic 2D animated series with a simple design that comedically highlights the challenges faced by the people in their daily lives.
Majid magazine, named after its character is a comic book and children’s magazine published in Abu Dhabi, UAE and it has been released weekly since 1979 ("Majid | Work | Lambie-Nairn"). It allows reading about many characters and each of them has their own cartoon story (Saeed). The magazine also features puzzles, hobbies section, general information, jokes and specific information about the different aspects of life, etc.
The Arab world is a fast developing area of the world and it has integrated art and culture in their presentation. The faculty team of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar has introduced 3D educational animation software, Alice Middle East in the year 2004 (Evans). It has helped the independent SEC schools to handle the shortage of students in Qatar who are interested in pursuing higher education in computer science (Evans).
The growth and advances in the animation world in the Arab countries have shown the generation of technology creators that have forefront the future development in the animation industry. The filmmakers from Arab have always tried to remove the gap between their animated films and the Western ones, but the relationship has remained complicated.
Works cited
Alrimawi, Tariq. "I Issues Of Representation In Arab Animation Cinema: Practice, History
And Theory". N.p., 2016. Web. 9 June 2016.
Levin, Mike. "Animation Rises In The Arabic World -". Chocmoose.com. N.p., 2014. Web. 9
June 2016.
Adam Sayfo, Omar. "The Emergence Of Arab Children’S Televisions And Animation
Industry In The Gulf States". Academia.edu. N.p., 2016. Web. 9 June 2016.
"Majid | Work | Lambie-Nairn". Lambie-Nairn. N.p., 2016. Web. 9 June 2016.
Saeed, Saeed. "Majid Magazine Celebrates 35 Years | The National". Thenational.ae. N.p.,
2013. Web. 9 June 2016.
Evans, D. Murry. "Carnegie Mellon Animation Software, "Alice," Supports Computing
Curricula In Arab World-CMU News - Carnegie Mellon University". Cmu.edu. N.p., 2016. Web. 9 June 2016.
Alrimawi, Tariq. "Challenges Facing The Arab Animation Cinema". Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games (2015): 1-7. Web. 9 June 2016.
