KUALA LUMPUR: Local 3D animation company Red Circle Studio Sdn Bhd is adding its unique touch to the animated entertainment scene dominated by the likes of Ejen Ali, BoBoiBoy and Upin & Ipin, with Robozeta.
Red Circle Studio director Muhammad Dzahiruddin Ahmad Zabidi said that the new superhero series would be the first in Malaysia that is based on the Mecha Robot genre made popular by Japanese Anime such as Super Sentai.
"In Japan and Europe, the Mecha Robot style is very well established. But in Malaysia, it's not that popular yet.
"So we took the approach of catering to the increasing number of Japanese Anime fans. Even the look of our robots is akin to the Japanese ones.
"We hope that this is the best way to attract and introduce Malaysians to the concept," he said in a news report yesterday.
Muhammad Dzahiruddin said that they would also include Nusantara elements in the Robozeta series.
He also explained that the production process of the series was different from other animation companies who would usually be screening their products while production was still in progress.
Robozeta apparently saw Red Circle Studio completing 13 episodes before it was screened and marketed.
Muhammad Dzahiruddin said that the team had to face various challenges from a year ago, which included financial constraints, a tight deadline and a skeleton crew, to successfully complete the series.
"It's common for other animation companies to have 20 to 50 people working on a project. Some even can afford to staff over 100 skilled personnel.
"We only had 10 for Red Circle. A fund from the National Film Development Corporation (Finas) amounting to RM500,000 was also kind of small for such a project.
"This forced us to execute a very tight financial plan aside from looking for other resources.
"The meagre budget did not enable us to utilise better hardware so we made use of what we had and could afford to deliver a quality product that was decent enough for broadcast TV," he said.
Challenges aside, Robozeta has managed to attract the attention of several local TV companies and distributors.
The animation series began airing last Saturday at 4.30pm on Astro Ceria and is set to be marketed to overseas TV stations soon.
Robozeta revolves around the adventures of a group of superheroes made up of Rico, Jango, Bepop, Rexx and Ely.
The quintet of friends is tasked with protecting Bandar Zetania and the ZenoChip from the villainous Kalabera Gang consisting of Mojo, Mera and Gongoro.
The antagonists plan to defeat the Robozeta team to steal the ZenoChip which contains great power.
More details on Robozeta can be found on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.