Southeast Asian Animation
In 1959 the North Vietnam Ministry of Culture sent Le Minh Hien and Truong Qua to
Moscow to learn animation and return to train others and start the Hanoi Cartoon Studio.
The first film was What the Fox Deserves in 1960. During the Vietnamese War about half of
the films were propaganda films like The Kitty(1966). The others were folktales or satires.
The first color film was Truong Qua’s Carved in the Rock(1967). One of the studio’s best
films was Qua’s The Legend of the Region(1970). Like the other countries of Southeast Asia,
Vietnam has attracted many animation service companies. The first company was set up by
the Japanese in the early 1990s in Long An, but most have been located in Ho Chi Minh
City. Studios have included Pixi Vietnam and the Education and Audio Visual Center. In the
late 1990s Energee Entertainment of Australia made Hanoi Cartoon Studio its overseas
facility.
Malaysian government–owned Filem Negara set up an animation unit in the 1960s. In
1978 the studio made its first short for TV,Hikayat Sang Kancil. Malaysian filmmakers have
been most concerned with folktales, scenes of daily life, fantasy, and superhero adventures.
During the 1980s and 1990s many studios sprang up, including Lensamation, Fat Lizard,
Animasion, Fourth Dimension, UAS Animation, and Kharisma Pictures. After privatization
of Malaysian broadcasting, new television channels emerged, advertising increased, and the
government attempted to counter the influence of foreign cartoons seen on satellite TV.
Stories from the popular Malaysian humor magazines and newspapers were adapted for TV.
Popular cartoonist Ibrahim Mohd Noor (known as “Ujang”) made Usop Sontorian.
Mohamed Nor Khalid (known as “Lat”) created Kampung Boy, and Jaafar Taib developed
Jungle Jokes.
In Singapore K. Subramaniam’s Animata Productions produced mainly advertisement,
promotional, and educational films. His Little Pink Elephant(1988) for the Community Chest
was Singapore’s first narrative animated cartoon. Subramaniam’s best-known film is The Cage
(1990) about an elderly man who finally releases his pet bird to the freedom he himself can’t
achieve. Johnny Lau was the creator of Mr. Kiasu, a popular local character that McDonald’s
restaurant promoted. Mr. Kiasu starred in both a feature film and a TV series. In the 1990s the
Singapore government wanted to attract money to Singapore for new media, so they heavily
supported schooling in animation, created the Singapore Animation Fiesta, and hosted the
Asian MIP in 1998 to give Singapore producers and broadcasters a chance to sell their product.
Animasia was founded in 1995 to create product as well as provide animation services. UTV
produced the first Singapore-based cartoon,Jo Kilat, in 1998.
Early Philippine animation was experimental, special effects, or advertising. Cartoonists
Jose Zaballa Santos and Francisco Reyes produced a folktale short,Juan Tamad, in 1955.
Nonoy Marcelo made two films in the 1970s. The Marcos regime used animation for prop-
aganda and was responsible for bringing in the first animation studio from Australia. That
studio was a local branch of Burbank Films, founded in 1982. Other studios, which did mostly
service work in the 1980s and 1990s, included Fil-Cartoons (originally founded by Hanna-
Barbera) and ImagineAsia. In 1986 Gerardo A. Garcia founded GAGAVEP and made Ang
Panday, the first local series. Toon City was set up by Disney in the late 1980s to handle
30
1989
The U.S. Congress passes the Children’s Television
Act, mandating educational children’s programming.