Les Copaque's Reason For Not Sending Upin & Ipin to Outerspace

Last we've heard from Les Copaque's head honcho, the esteemed Tuan Haji Burhanuddin that our intrepid animation industry pioneer was hard at work with other stuff; other than the movie that we were expecting this year.

Zanimated! was privileged enough to have gotten that nice morsel of information and there's still some more that we got from the proverbial horses mouth. It tells of a tale which paints the picture a little bleaker than most people would think. So if you think you are talented and want to go into animation, maybe there are more things to consider than just your grades and whether you can find a job in Malaysia (or Singapore for that matter).

"Actually, after we released our film and started to make the 42 episodes of Upin & Ipin in 2009, we were planning to start making another movie. The main reason was because the revenue stream from selling the TV series in Malaysia is not lucrative and the revenue from the movie is not enough to recover my investment. So were hoping that our seconnd film will bring enough revenue to recover my investments," Burhanuddin shares.

The small episodic morsels of Upin & Ipin made for the TV series were actually a Godsend reprieve. By August 2009, the series made its enterance into  Indonesia under a revenue sharing arrangement.

"Due to revenue sharing, we could not see the revenue stream until 4 months later. Since June 2009, we started developing the storyline and decided to produce the Angkasawan (movie) because we were trying to get TM to sponsor the production cost," says Burhanuddin.

Burhanuddin claims that the original second Geng movie's storyline was about Upin & Ipin going to outerspace and, get this, they are attacked by the aliens who are looking for coffee beans to sustain their power. This idea was scrapped after some major shifts within Les Copaque and some of the creative team leaving for greener pastures back in October 2009.

Being left in a lurch and with no finalised script to work on, Les Copaque had no other viable options but to regorganise and deal with management issues. According to Burhanuddin, there were voices saying that Les Copaque would collapse within 6 months after the leaving of some key personnel.

"We managed to honour our obligations for 2009 and by January 2010 we started new productions of the Upin & Ipin TV series. Due to limited resources, we had no time to start film production (for the second movie). By June 2010, we started to see huge revenues come from Indonesia due to the success of Upin & Ipin and the slots moved to prime time," Burhanuddin highlights to Zanimated!.

Due to the encouraging revenue, Les Copaque has expanded and developed new businesses from Upin & Ipin.

"We continued recruiting staff and now have already reached 140 people, with plans to hit 200 by end of the year. Now, we are capable of making the movie while producing the TV series as we have enough resources. As the boys do not want to use the old footprint (for the second movie) and taking in the commercial considerations, we changed the title to 'Laksamana Upin and Ipin.' It is easier to include story from the other side and attract big sponsors who are ready to commit," explains Burhanuddin.

So there you have it. There are always commercial considerations that you need to make when you're making a movie. Passion sadly enough, is not enough. You have to make it, on a balance, sellable in the first place. Lofty as the ambitions may sound, it isn't too stretching the possibilities. Indonesia is such a vast and interesting market to a lot of people in a lot of industries.

Burhanuddin also tells Zanimated! that he has asked TV3 (under the threat of legal action) to stop crediting others as the creators of Upin & Ipin. TV3 has complied of course.

No matter how the storm looks like in the teacup of the Malaysian animation industry, Burhanuddin seems positive in saying that he feels proud to have helped inspire the next. Proud as well to have contributed to the growth of the industry.

Still want to enter the animation industry? Well, this quote will sum it up from Les Copaque's head honcho:
"I believe you must realise that this business is 'indah khabar dari rupa' (sounds better than how it actually seems)." Pretty apt. Pretty short. But we sure as heck hope that things will get better for everyone.

Les Copaque responds! New movie in the works!

In response to some of the information posted on Zanimated! Tuan Hj Burhanuddin Md Radzi, Managing Director Les' Copaque Production Sdn Bhd thought he should send to Zanimated! an email detailing a lot of things and going arounds at Les Copaque.

He wished to clarify on certain things; some of which unfortunately we do not have permission as yet to share with the public. Maybe in the near future? Who knows?

But for now, here are some announcements that will make local animation lovers salivate and wait with bated breath for the next Movie installment. The following is the input received:


"We are proud until now, we have excited the industries as we have proven, if it is properly done, it can be sustainable without depending on the government funds," he says.

According to Tn. Hj. Burhanuddin, Les Copaque only received a RM1 million grant from MOSTI for the film Geng: The Adventure Begins. Subsequent request were rejected because "they felt that we were rich."

"I personally invested RM4 million from my own pockets; most of  which has been recovered," he adds.

On expansion plans, Tn. Hj. says that Les Copaque is proud to have provided opportunities for young people to work.

"Today we have 140 personnel and we are targeting 200 staff by the end of the year. Every year we are producing 42 episodes of Upin & Ipin for television; with the biggest income from Indonesia. The Upin & Ipin tv series is our main source of income and therefore it is no 1 priority," Tn. Hj. Burhanuddin explains.

What's in store for this year? This year Les Copaque is looking into producing another series called "Pada Zaman Dahulu" (Once upon a time), which has been snapped up by the local and Indonesian TV broadcasters.

"We are planning the film which will include steroscopic techniques. The film is titled 'Laksamana Upin and Ipin' and the reason why we picked the theme is purely for commercial reasons due to difficulties of getting free finacial assistance," he answers further.

Well the last statement certainly explains a lot as one might think; although that is not the entire story to be let out for the time being.

The golden question now would be: so when can we see this?

"As this film is low priority (compared to the TV commitments), we are hoping that it can be completed towrds end of 2012," finishes Tn. Hj. Burhanuddin.

Well that puts to rest a lot of questions. We'll definitely won't be seeing the intrepid toddlers Upin & Ipin anytime soon. This year will be another uneventful one for the local animation scene *sigh* Here we thought we'd be able to see another Upin & Ipin movie in a few days time. Major bummer.

Upin & Ipin In Space? Errr maybe or maybe not...

Recently I received news from a source that it's out in certain media (in this case it was a children's publication) that Upin and Ipin in Space will be out this 10 February! OK. I'll be honest, the source was a very excited 11 year old boy who read it off a magazine at a convenience store rack...

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah...I just read it...Ermm...Now I'm not so sure" (Especially since you're looking at me funny right now).

"Oh. OK. Would be nice if that were so. I thought they scratched the idea"

Nevertheless, the first reaction a kid has, in most cases is a good and honest reaction. No pretension involved.

You know why I take into consideration children's opinions when it comes to animation? Well. They look at things rather differently. We need to take heed to how they view things if you want to make animation meant for them in the first place - for instance during the preview of Geng: The Adventure Begins at the MDeC HQ in Cyberjaya, I took my kids along; sure enough there were some scenes where they were laughing when the adults were not!

So I do put value to kid views. Not something totally radical or new. Just a good thing to take in mind...

Reading up online, sources on Yahoo!
 sort of confirms this. but going to the Les Copaque landing page meant for the space themed movie (http://www.upinipinangkasa.com) reroutes you to an updated page called http://www.laksamanaupinipin.com instead. Hmm. So how now brown cow? Well short of calling them up, it leaves a lot of questions in the mind does it not?


On Wiki there's this line: "Namun, setahun kemudian, filem Angkasa diumumkan batal dan diganti dengan Laksamana Upin & Ipin yang dijanjikan dalam bentuk filem 3D"  which sort of puts the entire matter to rest.

Oh well. The children's publication could be wrong - anyway it just means that the will be finally over! It would be great to watch another local animation work on the silver screen again after such a looooooong time!

Zanimated flagged down!

Wow. Have we pushed the wrong buttons? After the post 'Failure to launch: Malaysian Animation Industry Rumours or News,' trying to put up links on FaceBook got a response that said that Zanimated has been flagged down as being inappropriate or abusive.

How is that so? I'm not all that certain to be honest. In terms of toning down messages, I thought I had done enough; but apparently not enough for some. There's no pleasing everyone I suppose.

In terms of viciousness - I do think there are more vicious blogs, forums and posts which are a helluva lot more vicious than compared to Zanimated!

I've asked some industry related people online plus some I bumped into at the recent Maxis Mobile Content Challenge at KLCC and in the majority they do agree that there's no real reason why Zanimated! would or should be flagged down. It's quite interesting actually...


Anyway the matter got resolved the very same day after putting up a complaint to Facebook. It's nice to know that they actually sort out matters such like this quite promptly. Facebook does seem to have somewhat a local presence; kudos!

Comments are still open. So if you have anything animation related, you know where to post.

Of Silken Voices, Silver tongues and Golden Handshakes

A Ghost came by Zanimated and said some things that I have to admit caught me a bit off guard. But I do appreciate his frankness (sincerity is the ticket here) because all this going around the mulberry bush in trying to be nice can actually drive things to the ground so to speak. It also doesn't help anyone.

So there! Thanks for your comments and correcting the facts that I so carelessly assumed to be right due to a sudden spur to write in the wee hours of a morning. Mucho gracias, I sincerely appreciate it. I was taught to be a responsible writer, so I'd like to practice that!

How else is Zanimated supposed to grow if it decides to pooh-pooh away the truth; granted of course the mistake wasn't intentional.

The issue? I was told that for the K-Perak initiative, it wasn't actually inspired by the success of Upin and Ipin. It actually preceded the Les Copaque Geng movie hype.

Also that the K-Perak initiative is not only geared for animation only. It also encompasses a lot other ICT related stuff as well. I neglected to mention this. This is undeniably true of course.

The dark and seedy world of animation, digital special effects, creative content etc it seems (unsurprisingly) just like any other industry filled with pitfalls which includes lobbyists to a certain degree. It is business after all.

You either have deep pockets to help you through - which is the stamina to completion or you are small, lean and mean and yes hungry enough to tighten your belts.

Case in point, I once asked a friend from Les Copaque (mind you, I ain't in my young 20's anymore): "Say, if I wanted to go into animation, and I learned all this stuff; you think I can hack it?"

His reply? "You could technically be competent. But you won't make it. You won't have the stamina. You'd have to sleep in, go around the clock to finish things. Not really for a family man like you." (Well it was something to that effect I promise you).

Of course I was pissed (what? you're saying I'm too old?). But after I recovered from the initial bombardment received after my rhetorical question, I sort of understood it and agreed.

The animation industry is tough. It's not a bed of roses no matter how much the media tends to candy coat the successes and the telly let's you look through rose tinted glasses there are bound to be the great amount of sacrifices that these people had to endure to make their animation see the light of day.


Deep pockets? Who has em? Well some do and some don't. Those that don't might want to get a kick start from the various grants available from several government initiatives via certain government agencies. MDeC, MCMC and even MOSTI has some which can be applied - if you know how to make it work for you of course.

This is where it really, absolutely helps if your marketing and PR is top of the line. How many times have we seen good animation projects that fail to get funding merely because of poor presentation skills in front of panels? Quite a fair number. Trust me. Silken voices, silver tongues and golden handshakes are sometimes neccessary.

No I'm not implying those in the negative - it's the ability of those gifted enough to make their case clear. It helps to know the people first of course - the type of knowing where a handshake will instantly get a face followed by a name recognition/association. That's legwork and homework - no bluebirds allowed (bluebirds are just those that send stuff in without prior recognition; they're tonnes of bluebirds; luck is not always on this side).

Artists and animators at times lack this PR feature and they also lack the lingo and confidence in presenting. Especially in the business language called English (the proper spoken version, not the version that they're accustomed to). Again, I am not being overly critical.

Lobbying might be a dirty word here in this context, but it's been used to describe the current situation by some.

Me? I wanted to be a front man for some animation, involved in the business and dabbled with ideas and the character creation phase and a fair bit of writing as well. Tried it. But I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I love animation. I remember when my mom asked me when I was about 4 or 5, what I wanted to be. I said that I'd like to be the 'guy that makes cartoons.' That didn't happen of course; so I thought maybe after all these years I could be some sort of ambassador. This is one way I suppose.

Good evening Animation Malaysia. Zanimated wishes you great successes this year!

Failure to launch: Malaysian Animation Industry Rumours or News

Looking at 2010 in review and retrospect, it's actually hard to imagine that the Malaysian animation scene was relatively quiet for a multitude of reasons. There were a lot of pomp and ceremony from 2009 leading up to 2010, but it all led to quite a failure to launch of several local animation projects.

When can we see it?

Alamaya the Movie by Shock3D for instance, received a lot of coverage up to early last year. This writer, like so many local animation fans were waiting with bated breath - this writer also helped the team to gain some coverage from the local press back in January 2010. By mid 2010 however, it was heard that the CEO had left for his old alma-mater, Avant Garde Studios. The current status of the movie is unknown, although some have speculated that it has something to do with inadequate funding to push the movie through for promotions - that and also claims by animation fans on the Internet that they disliked the voice acting...

Les Copaque is also not off the hook despite being able to make inroads to Disney Channel Asia, Indonesia and of course onto your children's school bags, toys and knick-knacks. In 2009 this writer had the opportunity to watch the trailer preview of the next upcoming movie starring the adorable twins, Upin & Ipin - this had very nice textures and lighting effects, compared to the first Geng: The Adventure Begins movie. This one featured the sometimes rambunctious twin toddlers (at least I think they're toddlers judging by the head-size-body-ratio) in space! Be it imaginary or real - you gotta to admit, that would have been something cooler than the norm where local animation is concerned.

That was of course before the migration of the seven original pioneer members of Les Copaque to form a new outfit called Animonsta, now based in the MDeC MAC3 facility in Cyberjaya. Putting together these two, might give the impression that there was a lack in the talent to push the movie through. It isn't so. When Nizam A. Razak was asked about this upon his leaving, he said that Les Copaque had enough trained up resources and talent to keep on going. Being a perfect gentlemen however, he declined to say anything else on the reasons as to the pioneer team leaving; save that it was a good that they gained invaluable experience making their first feature animation.

Nizam and Animonsta received extensive coverage in the local media

Later, through the grapevine, it was heard that Les Copaque had changed the setting of the proposed second movie - of all things, to cater to the Indonesian market. So the space scenario was given the boot and this writer thought that space would be quite a universal scenario for most people, regardless the country. Is this the reason why the project has been delayed? Maybe popularity has led into a lull of some sorts. Good or bad, you'd be the judge of it.

Just about 6 to 7 months ago, a reliable source said that Les Copaque wanted to branch out into 2D animation. Not as easy as some might think: the type or artistic talent is totally different from 3D animation. Well, no secret there about the 2D - there's still a lot of appeal in 2D; something that Disney should have thought about. The animation setup for 2D differs and someone from a 2D background definitely has to be brought in. Someone was. Somehow it's heard that the project has hit a snag though. That someone left.

A xenophobia-related issue was mentioned by the source, which was tight lipped about the matter as well. Issues are definitely abound but let's all hope that Les Copaque will ride the storm and fall through just fine with another movie soon.

With the success of Les Copaque you would know that it really made every Malaysian state want to jump onto the bandwagon so that they can have a "made in _____(state name here)_____" label on their respective animation works.

The PTTC Building

Perak went as far as offering partnerships via the KPerak initiative based in the PTTC building. A great idea but it was rife with problems from the start - such as the changing ruling government from one political party to the next. It really made a lot of creative content companies suffer. Spacetoon (an international company which is likened to be the Cartoon Network of the Arabic speaking regions of the world) and Tri-Silver had to sit and wait until the dust settled.

They thought the ordeal was over but then came the news about the building itself was underpowered for the computing equipment - for animation you really need great number crunching capability within a air conditioned area. In most cases, dealing with international clients or partners, this can be round the clock; Spacetoon for example is a multinational which means workload sharing. Broadband throughput would be very crucial. The power issue, as we are made to understand has been resolved.

What hasn't been settled however are payments promised to joint ventures or partners or collaborators - whom cannot keep their studios running on their own if they don't finish and sell off their products. Which in turn they cannot finish because they cannot pay the animators that work for them - which will also mean that Perak's dream to have a 'made in Perak animation' product will be further off mark.

Maybe it's just a funding issue. But that's old news. From within the industry, it seems those which are successful either slog through using the bare essentials or they have very deep pockets. Those that slog through, still pool the money from private investors - there are no banks willing to risk money for animation.

Awww my Boll; how c'mon now!

The funding organisations are somewhat similar (you know who you are)- animation is of course a high risk enterprise. Aspiring animators hope for grants and handouts. Yes that will help, but not in the long run. To be aggressive about it maybe a German or Canadian model has to be adopted - take for instance that German director (Uwe Boll) which keeps making those computer game adaptations that suck. He just keeps on making em, they eventually go to DVD anyway but at least he gets to make movies and the money does trickle in, albeit slowly.

Thailand started with a 3D animation of a white elephant and going strong. The director even had the gall to say that not even Malaysia (among others) had the capability.

Singapore did one Chinese zodiac animal movie, which wasn't particularly that good, but it made them seen. Interest was generated and service work has been streaming in. Of course Lucas Arts has setup there as well. What are we missing here?

There are of course hits and misses. High risk, high returns. It doesn't work if you're to chicken about it and want to play cautious. Yes it involves throwing in a lot of money. But it doesn't have to be a money pit. Despicable Me for example was a creative risk, but it worked...

Sadly enough maybe there's something we're not doing right even with some interest generated here such as some triple A games company setting shop here or even with Rhythm n Hues setting up in Malaysia. They're here for the promises we make them. They're here for the relatively cheap talent. Do we learn anything? Maybe.

What is sadder, is that there are some from within the industry and the supportive devices and vehicles that say that going into animation is essentially a bad idea - they're just pushing the envelope because they have to or because it's something that they've been doing all along, so they just follow on through. They say that mobile content - apps included is where the money is. Animation is too much work, too risky, too expensive and to congested in a small place like Malaysia. Well true on some counts, but doesn't mean that it won't work.



Terry Thoren (link is to where he used to work) once said, that Malaysia is a secret that he hopes other people don't discover - he means in the animation sense of course. Rocketfish, which was Thoren's studio here, is no longer here. The GM Alice M. Dizon, who had worked with Hanna Barbera, has also headed back to the Philippines. Maybe we need to discover ourselves that we can do - we need to believe and help out the industry if we ever want the bragging right anyway.

LesCop's Geng to Premier today!

It's been awhile since my last update. frankly, there hasn't been much exciting movement and hoopla going around the local animation scene - especially since I've been outside the so-called circle.

I guess this ends the wait to many local animation aficionados, well at least for members of the media and invited VIPs: to be screened TODAY at Cineleisure Damansara!



Unfortunately, due to prior engagements, I will not be able to attend this historious launch-preview. I will however cart my entire family to catch it at the cinema to lend my support to LesCop. That's at least 5 tickets if I get my mom-in-law to join in...

The official screening date for cinemas? 12 February, 2009 as per the poster above. Well the movies' is going to be something to look forward to after such a bad start in the new year. Perhaps it is a glimmer of hope for some of us that dreams to come through and hard work will eventually prevail to greatness!

Kudos to LesCop, Tuan Hj. Burhanuddin, Nizam, Usamah and the entire Geng at LesCop! I salute you!

Les Copaque's Sneak Media Preview

NOT really recently (I think it was 25th August, 2008), Les Copaque had a media-industry screening of its upcoming Geng: The Adventure Begins movie (here's a newer link to older preview and here's a newer link). I've been keeping tabs for a while now - animation was my forte' when I was with a tech section- of a local daily newspaper...

Your's truly was there to witness history in the making. The small auditorium at the MDeC HQ was packed to the brim. So far it looks great! What can I say - taking into consideration that this is a first effort. I guess, I should say that after seeing all that the team has gone through, I'm guilty of being a bit more forgiving. But still, I have some things to say, that might be potentially glaring to the avid 3D animation nit-picker - regular audience for a nice animated movie will not ponder too much and will defintely enjoy this marvelous, marvelous movie!

What I still remember though (and this might still change later still during the final cut) is that the movie was still a bit longish. Nizam and gang were all there to take note of the feedback that we all had. Some suggested that the editing needs to be tighter and the removed scenes can be made into a director's cut version on DVD - good idea.

The merchandise is key here people! Like Bill DuBay, used to say when I met him "It's the ancillaries that count. The lunch boxes, the bedsheets etc." Nice guy. Heard he's gone of to Pixar. He's a veteran with comics, Marvel Productions and buddies with Stan 'the Man' Lee. Already Les Copaque, has this in the roadmap. Kudos for them!

Geng: The Adventure Begins to my thinking has something to offer just about everybody in the audience. For good measure I took my kids along as well: my son aged 9 and my daughter aged 4 and my wife for good measure. Note: here's when you will notice that kids will laugh off queue compared to an adult audience. Some people would want to capitalise on these nuances- depends however to whom the movie is tagetted towards to.


My former editor, Ahmad Faiz Daro' Abd. Rahman, now a corp. comm. manager at Petronas, was also there. He noted that some of the scenes needed to be made punchier - true enough. He also suggested to change the character 'Kopek' to another usable name, for obvious reasons 'kopek' is also a slang word used to denote a woman's bust in certain *ahem* parts of the country. Sure enough this was taken note off, however the dilemma now is trying to find another name which will fit into the lip-synching for the word 'kopek' or 'kopet.'

Af for some of the self-inflicted injury or pain displayed by some of the forest creatures, I personally thought they were OK- simply because they were funny and taking into consideration of stretch and squash cartoon concept, they shouldn't be too offensive to animal lovers. They are caused by accidents and self-inflicted due to carelessness etc. Of course those scenes which could potentially cause animal lovers to cringe should be taken out. Can't remember any though.

The scene where the heroes enter the cave and leading in to that scene, a remiscent to several great moments in other movies: think Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom and even yes, the Ring Wraiths in search of Frodo in Lord of The Rings. Still cool though - it is after all a first time effort and using formulas that work will be the right thing to do. Besides, most kids wouldn't have known any better.

Another thing, that I didn't really think too hard about was the characters not changing clothes - suspense of disbelief sustained me enough to just put it away to rest. After all, who has time to change clothes with all the action going on?

The voice acting was actually relatively good and in some cases with regards to the smaller kid characters, I thought were actually really good, especially Upin, Ipin and Raju.

Storyline was engaging enough even if the implementation was in some scenes a bit draggy. However, I was pleased enough that I was surprised still of how certain scenes developed into what was a bit unexpected. Some scenes however, being a veteran *ahem* movie watcher, I was able to fathom the possible outcome - still let's not forget this is mainly for kids anyway.

Sound wasn't there yet as the mastering was not completed yet: sadly enough this still has to be done outside the country. Similarly so stuff like transferring to 2K plates for the final print for cinemas etc. (I might be off a bit on the technical specs, but there you go). Makes you wonder eh? This means local productions still need to be sent to Thailand or some other neighbouring country to make them usable for the local cinemas. Sad isn't it? Oh well, maybe someday someone will want to FINALLY do it and have someone FINALLY support the cost of doing it.

Overall, the boys and girls of Les Copaque did a really fine job transforming the story into great visuals crunched at MIMOS using some heavy duty cluster computing. We are still not where Shrek is, but this is a great start i.e. in comparison say to Singapore's Zodiac movie, I should say. That was of course a few years back...Nizam and the boys, for their age are quite proficient I might add on cinematic principles- I cannot help to be impressed: breaking the 4th wall and Chekov's gun are quite adhered to. Kudos to them and good luck to them!

As it is, I would give it overall 4 1/2 stars out of 5 based on the merits and what I've seen. Just can't wait to see the final cut!

Les' Copaque and a writer get's some due recognition ;-)

FINAS recently had a sort of a media appreciation night. I rather not tell the story already told so just go to the links:

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Saturday/National/2279835/Article/index_html

http://gengmovie.blogspot.com/2008/07/malam-penghargaan-industri-filem-27-jun.html

But I really want to thank Nizam, Tn. Hj. Burhanuddin, Fuad of Saymohm and of course the voracious advocate of the digital arts Chris Gomez- it was with their input that I wrote the story. The story mind you, could have been much more potent if not for *ahem* guidelines and all that stuff...