films, using Plasticine, and David “Dudu” Shalita’s Eyn Gedi Productions made educational
films. Other important Israeli animators included Yossi Aboulafia, Arye Mambush, and
Ytzhak Yoresh. In 2003 Israel was the first nation in the world to offer a Baby Channel, tar-
geting viewers newborn to age three. Haim Saban, an Israeli composer, emigrated to the
United States and later founded Saban Entertainment before moving on to buy out German
media interests. Saban also bought a stake in the Baby Channel.
African Animation
One of the first African countries to produce animation was South Africa.The Artist’s Dream,
directed in 1916 by Harold Shaw, was South Africa’s first animated film; it told a story about
an artist whose drawings came to life. By 1920 I.W. Schlesinger’s African Film Productions had
produced five animated shorts, including The Adventures of Ranger Focusand Crooks and
Christmas.Animators at Killarney Film Studios produced animated titles for the studio’s films
during the 1940s. In 1947 Denis Purchase arrived in South Africa and started making animated
commercials for Alpha Film Studio. Most of the South African animation studios paid the bills
by working in advertising.Alpha Studios and Dave McKey Animation produced thousands of
animated commercials a year for many years. South African Broadcasting Corporation com-
missioned Butch Stoltz and Gerard Smith to make animated programs for them in 1975. They
produced Wolraad Woltemade, Bremenstadtmusikante,An Introduction to Dickens,and others.
In 1978 Gerard Smith and Denis Purchase, who both worked for Rentastudio, became part-
ners. One of the first television series,Bobby the Cat, was produced. Unfortunately disinvest-
ment, cultural isolation, and sanctions suppressed the animation industry. Despite these
problems, William Kentridge made a series of films (Pastry, Johannesburg—The Greatest City
After Paris, Mine), Peter Templeton made My Eye,and Riccardo Capecchi directed Walk Tall
about South African miners, as well as other short films. Toward the end of the twentieth
century studios like Magic Touch became active in computer animation. Triggerfish Anima-
tion (stop-motion and Flash-for-Broadcast) was founded in 1996 by director Jacquie Trowell
and Emma Kaye. After the millennium studios such as Anamazing Workshop, AnimMate,
Bluehouse, Lovebomb, Skyscraper TV & Web, Art in Motion, and Wicked Pixels (founded in
1997) continued the animation tradition. Although there is still a heavy Disney influence, with
the birth of democracy and a new South Africa, many companies, like trendsetter Triggerfish,
are returning to a more African aesthetic.
The Frenkel brothers in Egypt made their first film in 1936 after seeing the films of Felix
the Cat. They then completed a series of films about Mish-Mish, an Egyptian boy wearing
a fez. Politics drove the Jewish brothers out of Egypt, but David Frenkel emigrated to France
and transformed Mish-Mish into Mimiche, selling new films for family events. Antoine Selim
Ibrahim made animated films in Egypt in the 1930s and 1940s before working in the United
States in the 1970s. In 1961 an animation unit was formed for the year-old Egyptian televi-
sion industry. Hassan Hakem, Mustafa Hussein, and Halim Berguini animated the short Titi
and Rashouanein 1958; Ali Mohib made The White Linefor TV; and Alfred Mikhail and
Mohamed Hassan created The Little Magicianin 1963.Ihab Shaker made films in Egypt
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Games are becoming a big factor in animation
worldwide, as are special effects.