For many years, animation has been one of the most effective and interesting media formats. More recently, the growth of the Internet around the world has made animated media available to everyone. Animation provides artists and filmmakers with a very creative tool. This tool can provide a range of different content to children, young people, and adults. Moreover, animation can send a variety of messages in very creative and unusual ways. This technique has been used in many fields, such as multimedia, TV ads, web design, teaching programs and some other media products. Statistics demonstrate that Japan and America are the biggest producers of animation in the world. However, many other cultures and regions of the world are coming to recognize the usefulness of animation and its value, not only for entertainment but also for enlightenment. The following essay considers animation in the Arab world and the positive effects it can have. It points to further research that could be done on this topic.
Recognizing that cartoons are extremely effective for certain purposes, Arab countries have been producing children comics and magazines for quite some time. In addition, in recent years they started to create animated cartoons not only for children, but for the wider audience as well. Arab film producers had already taken note of the fact that the Japanese and American animation is very popular throughout the Arab world. That is why these Arab producers decided that they needed animation that represented Arab culture and its rich and varied history. Moreover, many of the animations produced in the US and elsewhere often do not work in the Arab world. For instance, the Simpsons had to be altered into Al-Shamshoon. In this version, Omar (Homer) drinks soda instead of beer and beef instead of pork. The series did poorly, airing only a handful of episodes(El-Rashdi, B1.)
As mentioned above, in the past magazines and comics were very popular among children and adults in Arab countries. Such magazines and comics were one of the principal forms of entertainment available for children. One of the Best Arabic Children magazines was Majid magazine based in Abu-Dhabi, the first issue of which was in 1979. This publication features unique and interesting characters and an attractive design. The company has become an icon among children’s publishers. It features cartoons produced by some of the Arab world’s best-known cartoonists. Majid has the goal of supporting children’s literature and encouraging children to read to various community initiatives.
Two more popular publications are Basim Magazine based in Saudi Arabia from the 1987 and Baraem aleman magazine based in Kuwait, the first issue of which was in 1975. Some of these publications are weekly magazines and the others come out on a monthly basis. These magazines have different goals, goals which can relate to culture, religion, education, entertainment, etc.
With the expansion of the global marketplace and global development, Arab countries started to set up animation studios and companies. Myrkott Corporation is the leading animation studio in Saudi Arabia. It produces a wide range of animated content for audiences in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, employing both 2-D and 3-D (CGI) animation techniques. (Myrkott Animation, web page). The Myrkott company was founded in 2014. Since that time it has transformed the real world based on real events into enjoyable animation. Another such company is Fanar production company, which started operations in 2008 under the leadership of Managing Director Adnan Omar Al Obthani and Co-Founder and General Manager Haidar Mohamed. In its beginning, Fanar Production’s principal goal was to provide high quality, compelling animation using CGI technology. In keeping with this, all Fanar projects have the goal of representing the lifestyle, traditions, culture and spirit of the Emirati culture. Furthermore, it seeks to spread this cultural knowledge among the populations living in the UAE and throughout the region (About Fanar Production, web source). Established in 2007, Sketch in Motion Animation Studio has also developed a number of cartoon series that focused specifically on local culture and stories (Sketch in Motion Profile, web source).
Some of the most recent Arab works of animation were created by Barajoun Entertainment, which is a leading animation and visual effects studio based in Dubai. They created Bilal film, which was the first Arab animation movie (Bilal, web source). The goal of this film was to create an inspiring story of a hero that would appeal to a broad audience (Athena Information Solutions, web source). Another interesting program is Freej television show for children, which was also made in the UAE (Saadi, web source).
Of course, all of these Arab animation companies attempt to bring an Arab cultural perspective to the animated works they produce. At the same time, many of these Arab filmmakers do want to offer their work on the international market. For this reason, they have to ensure that the content and focus of their animation appeals to cultures around the world. In fact, animation can serve as a bridge between the West and the Arab world by speaking to matters and concerns that are universal. Of course, the relationship between the Arab world and the West can be a difficult and complicated one. In fact, many (although not all) in the United States and Europe tend to see any animated film from an Arab source as propaganda and representative of an alien and foreign culture (Alrimawi, web source).
There is always a degree of Islamophobia regarding any cultural products coming into the West from the Arab world. They are questioned and viewed with a good deal of suspicion. This suspicion has very negative consequences for Arab filmmakers. It tends to make it very difficult for their studios to succeed because of the economic barriers it presents. Arab animation studios would be more likely to be successful if their products were had broadly accepted in the global marketplace. In fact, a number of Arabs studios have gone out of business or stopped the production of animated films because of the marketing difficulties they faced abroad.
For this reason, the principal focus of most Arab animation is on low budget films and shorts that are then distributed through social media sites and YouTube. In fact, this is become the principal means for Arab animation to be distributed in the West. Overcoming this obstacle is essential if Arab animation studios are going to achieve the high levels of economic success that they deserve. Such success would make it easier financially to produce larger, more elaborate and more sophisticated animated films. Currently, the technology and skill sets available to Arab animators is somewhat limited as compared to (for example) Pixar or Disney animation studio. Arab animators have for the most part made use of traditional hand drawn cel animation, but the growth up CGI (computer generated images) for animation is making its way into the Arab animation world as well. At this point it would be good to review the various types of animation currently being used (to one degree or another) by Arab animators.
Traditionally, animators withdrawal the images they wanted to create onto transparencies with colored pencils. They would do this a single frame at a time. These animations would be tested using very basic stick characters to understand how many frames would be needed to create each motion (Cavalier 79). Virtually no Arab animation studios use this approach, since the costs involved are considerable and it requires a huge staff of artists. In fact, these days, hand-drawn cel animation is extremely rare in most of the world. Even for those companies that choose to continue creating cel animation, most of them have switched to the use of software for this purpose. Such traditional 2-D animation is primarily done these days on computers by artists using tablets. For example, the animation produced by Myrkott is made in this way. The result is visually similar to what you might see in the Simpsons or other western animation.
The alternative approach to animation these days is called CGI animation. This kind of 3-D animation is completely different than traditional hand-drawn animation. While both do require a fundamental understanding of the principles behind composition and the movement of figures, the skills required are very different indeed. For the older form of animation, animators had to be skilled artists capable of drawing virtually anything. With CGI animation this is not the case. The animator is using the computer controls to manipulate the position and movement of the individual characters in a scene he or she has created. The scene itself is made up of CGI objects assembled to create the background for the characters and their actions.
At the same time, CGI animation requires a number of specialists who do specific jobs in the process. CGI animation begins with the process of creating the model or figure in a computer modeling program. Such figures are made up of mathematically defined points and polygons and appear on the screen as what is known as a “mesh.” Other artists at CGI animation studios create what are known as “texture maps.” These maps cover the mesh to produce the outward appearance (skin, eye color and so on) of the animated figure or object. One of the most difficult tasks is producing realistic facial and mouth movements (Parke 21).
Most Arab animation companies prefer to make use of a CGI animation (discussed below) because of the greater efficiencies, lower costs and the many different things that can be accomplished with CGI. The film Bilal produced by Barajoun Entertainment was the first full CGI animated film produced in the region. The film was directed Khurram H. Alavi and has received considerable praise. In fact, it was seen at Animation Day at Cannes. It is the story of a slave boy who becomes a companion of the Prophet. With a budget of $30 million, it is a high quality, visually impressive production. However, some critics felt that its religious subject matter would make it less interesting to non-Islamic audiences. Of course, with 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, this is not a major limiting factor.
Any Arab studios seeking to enter into this area of animation will have to have a number of highly trained employees who specialize in certain specific areas of CGI animation. While at one time it was believed that CGI animation would significantly reduce the cost of animation by illuminating hand-drawn cel animation, this is not proven to be the case. Nevertheless, the growth and advances of animation in the Arab world has benefited from the new technologies and the creative minds taking advantage of those technologies. In fact, the future suggests that Arab animators can be at the forefront of future developments in the animation industry. For Arab film producers and animators, the creation and development of the Arab animation industry allows them to create animation that takes into account the Arab world’s specific culture, history and preferences. Generally speaking, the animation produced in Europe and in Hollywood in the United States is often not only inappropriate for the Arab market, it fails to speak in an appealing way to the Arab people. A local animation industry addresses this problem.
Works Cited
“About Fanar Production.” Fanar Production, Fanar Production LLC. Retrieved from <http://fanarproduction.com/en/4/about-us/>.
Alrimawi, Tariq. “The Challenges That Face the Arab Animation Cinema.” J Comput Eng Inf Technol. 2nd International Conference and Expo on Computer Graphics & Animation. 2015.
Athena Information Solutions. “Barajoun Entertainment's 'Bilal' Re-Imagines an African Hero's Epic Journey” (2015). . Mumbai: Athena Information Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1683410661?accountid=2163
“Bilal.” Barajoun Entertainment. Retrieved from <http://www.barajoun.com/#section-bilal>.
Cavalier, Stephen. “The World History of Animation.” Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2011. Print.
El-Rashdi, Yasmine. “D’oh! Arabized Simpsons Aren’t Getting Many Laughs.” Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition 14 Oct. 2005: B1.
“Myrkott Animation.” Myrkott Animation Studios. Retrieved from <http://www.myrkott.com/>.
Parke, Frederic I, and Keith Waters. “Computer Facial Animation.” Wellesley (Mass.: A K Peters, 1996. Print.
Saadi, Dania. “Embracing Arab Animation.” The New York Times, 26 Oct 2011. Retrieved from <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/world/middleeast/embracing-arab-animation.html
Schickel, Richard. “Ray Harryhausen.” Time 20 May 2013: 16.
“Sketch in Motion Profile.” Sketch in Motion Co. Retrieved from <http://www.sketchinmotion.com/profile>.
