A tiger and other Malaysian animals race ahead in Glue Studios’ first full-length television series, writes Dennis Chua
TAG, a brave young tiger, dreams of becoming a motor racing champion, conquering obstacles in his way as he speeds through the toughest jungle terrain.
There are many other skilled racers who compete against him and the most lethal of them is an “ice queen” called Tamira, a sleek, black panther.
Tag and Tamira are stars of Glue Studios’ new 3D animated cartoon series Rimba Racer that will be screened on TV3 in mid-January. This is the studio’s first feature-length animated production and was conceptualised in the Intellectual Property Creators’ Challenge 2011.
The company’s managing director and executive producer Tariq Mohd Noh says: “Rimba Racer was conceptualised as a three-minute trailer. We wanted to give young Malaysians an exciting television series with animals found here involved in an adrenaline-pumping, tough motor race across the country’s challenging terrain.”
Producer and business development executive Ayman Jamaluddin says: “The concept of animals having an endurance race is pretty popular with young ones. The US has had a few awesome and iconic animated series and films on the topic, such as Wacky Races and Animalympics, both of which were screened here in the 1980s.
“Rimba Racer, however, is thoroughly Malaysian with all animal characters from local species such as tigers, panthers, sun bears and tortoises.”
The series has 13 episodes and each weekly episode runs for 45 minutes. While each character sees interesting developments as the series progresses, each episode stands on its own and there aren’t any cliffhangers. Above all, it is the journey of Tag the tiger into stardom as the king of the Rimba Race.
It took the company two years to develop the show and they received strong support from the Communication and Multimedia Ministry, the Malaysian Film Development Corporation (Finas) and the Multimedia Development Corporation (Mdec).
Tariq says: “We developed Rimba Racer in the Malaysian Animation Creative Content Centre in Cyberjaya. Our animators worked extra hard between April 2013 and December 2014 to make it a reality.”
He says the company has 25-30 employees, including a dozen animators.
The leading lights of the team include production director Idiyaz Baharuddin, lead compositor Charukphong Anuvong, lead concept artist Nasrul Hakim and line producer Nelli Zalizam.
“Our team is passionate about world class animation and I’m delighted everybody gave his or her 200 per cent into making Rimba Racer a reality,” says Tariq.
The show, Ayman says, will go international in April 2015, and it will be screened in five other Asian countries.
“We’ll screen the Bahasa Malaysia edition on Malaysian TV first, followed by the English edition,” says Ayman. “Each has a different voice over cast, and their ages are between 20 and 40.”
Some 200 hopefuls auditioned for the voiceovers, and Ayman says some young talents were capable of voicing the older animals.
The voiceover talents are Steven Tan, Azman Zulkiply, Ian McNally, Megat Zahrin, Choong Chi-Ren, Fuad Mohd Din, Kevin Barnaby, Azuan Shamsir, Tikriti Shabudin, Shafiq Isa, Usamah Zaid, Sherilyn Pang, Aina Nadzir, Liyana Badri, Ida Rahayu, Chan Su Ling, Sarah Nadhirah, Nadia Mahmud and Salina Salmee.
Work on Season Two for 2016, will begin soon.
Animation and voice director Azizul Hakim Mohd Hussin says the animal characters, especially Tag, will be featured in TV promotional spots. “Each character is multi-faceted and speaks to audiences directly at times. As in many homegrown animated series, they have ‘corporate social responsibility’ to get close to fans,” he says.
There are 15 characters in the series, namely Tag, Miles, Sonny, Axle, King, Becks, Meelo, Tamira, Meika, Krom, Wrecks, Dira, Torres, Beaks and Cuckoo.
Mdec general manager of creative multimedia Hasnul Hadi Samsudin says Glue has “set a new benchmark in Malaysian 3D animation” with Rimba Racer.
“This heart-warming story of animals who excel in endurance racing across our wilderness will capture the imagination of fans, especially young ones,” says Hasnul.
Tariq says: “It is a labour of love for our extremely talented animators and a dream come true to see how it evolved from a concept into a full season of animation.”
Ayman says: “We believe our animators have great potential and are world class. Marvellous visuals and a creative storyline make a superb combination. We promise we will slowly but surely lead the race in 3D animation.”
Glue was formed in 2010 and promotes quality animation. It first produced Tales Of The Ages, a folklore produced programme covering Malaysian, Indonesian and Cambodian folklore. A safe driving public service announcement with Astro followed in 2011.
Glue has won many awards — Best Character Design Anugerah Karyawan Animasi Malaysia 2011, MSC Kreatif Awards 2010 Most Promising Start-Up Animation Studio, Astro NextGen Contentpreneur Awards 2010 Incomparable Animation Winner, and Malaysian Film Festival 2010 Best Animated Film.
The production team unveiled Rimba Racer at a ceremony in Cathay Cineleisure, The Curve, in Petaling Jaya recently.
The guest of honour was former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali.