Hasta La Motion!

In a first, the India gold for Digicon 6 Awards has been awarded the grand prize. With 12 countries like Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Sri Lanka participating in the festival, termed as Asia’s Supreme Short Film Contest, Death of a Father by Somnath Pal received the most coveted accolade, grand prize of the festival.

DigiCon6 ASIA Awards is an annual competition held each fall, which seeks and recognizes talented creators throughout Asia for their outstanding works.

This year Pal won a cash prize of 500,000 Yen and the gold position trophy among others.

It has showcased 11 award-winning animation shorts to share the wonders of imagination colorfully expressed in a variety of forms and styles of animation.  This way it provides creators with opportunities to expand their creative ground by supporting their innovative minds and activities year-round internationally.

This year with his amazing creation he has made India and the fraternity proud.

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If you are someone who loves pets and always wanted to raise a kitten, then My Talking Tom 2 is the game for you.  Outfit7, the company behind Talking Tom and Friends franchise, has recently launched the mobile game My Talking Tom 2, a sequel of the epic pet game My Talking Tom.

My Talking Tom has dominated the most downloaded mobile game charts for years with more than a million installs daily and over 80 million monthly active users. Since My Talking Tom 2 is the successor of the original game, the hype has already started touching the sky.

The game is available at Google play store and can be played both online and offline. The only benefit that one find playing online is earning extra XP, coins and portions by watching the run-on ads.

The gameplay of My Talking Tom 2 is quite similar to the popular original game My Talking Tom. The players will raise Tom cat, and give him all the care that a nice pet like him required. Besides that, the new game has few additional features including Tom trying on clothes, rating his looks, fixing his boo-boos and so on. Not only that, the players will get multiple opportunities to bond with the Tom cat.

To know more about little Tom and the gameplay, here are the highlighted features which have made me obsessed about the game and the Tom cat:

Characters:

Tom is the centre of attraction in the game and it revolves around him eating, sleeping, refreshing, exploring islands or playing games to earn XPs for more travelling.  The exciting part of the sequel is that Tom is not alone, he has a bunch of friends like Squeak, Flip, Gus, Dot and Sugar who are always around him. Among all other friends, Squeak is the best one as he is Tom’s childhood companion and has witnessed Tom’s action from a kitten to a cat. Once you finish a level Tom celebrates his birthday with his friends and with that Tom grow few inches further, closer to an adult cat.

The fun level of Tom increases as he starts gaining new friends like Flip, Gus, Dot and Sugar after finishing a certain level. In the sequel game Tom is very connected to his friends, he always asks for ratings from his friends as soon as he tries new clothes.

Graphics:
As the game commences, the first thing one will notice is the wide landscape and the delivery of the little kitten Tom at the doorstep. The landscape which one will notice initially is ahead of the curve of Tom and Friends franchise because the animated graphics are much brighter and colourful compared to the original one.  The unique part is that when Tom takes a flight to explore islands for food and other necessities one will get the top view of the island which looks amazing and is relatable to any fairy tale movie. Initially in the gameplay, there will be only one available island to explore, but later more islands will be unlocked as one proceeds further.

Gameplay
The gameplay is similar to the original one, the players have to feed him by giving him his favourite food; play a lot of different games with him, take him to get freshen up (sometimes fixing his boo-boos) and of course send him to bed on time so that he can rest. With these ways, one can make Tom grow up faster from a little kitten into a real cat.

Also, the added quality of Tom is that if you say any phrase, Tom will replicate it using his mischievous voice tone and express like a 2 year old kid. Therefore, think twice before saying anything because Tom might repeat what you just say.

Tom Travels:
Tom is a traveler, he travels by his private jet and is an avid explorer. He explores and discovers his food and other necessities to live. To make Tom travel, players need to play games (which are added in the game) to earn travel XPs. These travel XPs will help him to fly and explore islands for food and to fulfill other necessary items. At present, there are four islands available to explore for Tom and it unlocks only when a player finishes a consecutive level.

Added games: As mentioned earlier there are a lot of added games for players to play from, some of which are per installed and some need installation. Some of the pre-installed games are Cupid Tom, Space Trails, Pet Connect, Easy Squeezy, Ice Smash, Super Balloons and so on. Other games which need installations are mostly free and are from the same franchise.

There are lot of other adorable features in the game which includes growing old portion, grow younger portion, skip sleeping portions, chances to win jackpot XPs, a fashionable stack of clothing, accessories for Tom and many more. The game’s emotion, playfulness, and hysterical silliness in friendship will help you bond with it adorably.

The post #FeatureFriday: Adorable features of ‘My Talking Tom 2’ appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Excelsior!

Entertainment industry of the world lost a gem in Stan Lee as the comics doyen and the co-founder of Marvel Comics breathed his last on Monday, 12 November 2018 at 95. Condolences and commiserations were bursting at the seams on social media as fans and the global film fraternity alike, poured their hearts out in the aftermath.

Now, Marvel and Walt Disney have come together to create a touching tribute in his memory in a video that chronicles the legendary writer’s life through the years in images, video clips and also through the words of some of the senior personnel at Marvel.

Titled ‘Marvel Remembers the Legacy of Stan Lee’, the four-minute long clip captures Stan “The Man” in action at movie premieres, comic cons; shedding light at some of his creations and the ideology behind the same. Some of the earlier versions of his creations such as X-Men, Fantastic Four, Captain America, Avengers etc also make the cut, tracing back to his humble roots in comics.

Stan Lee was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Care after falling ill, but was pronounced dead soon after. The news was first confirmed by his daughter J.C Lee.

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In September 2018, AnimationXpress reported about Imagica, India’s theme park destination foraying into the field of animation. This marks an addition of another feather to its cap after winning the ‘Best Licensee Award in the Theme & Amusement Park industry’ at the India Licensing Expo 2018.

Associating with one of India’s leading animation hub, Artha Animation and production house A Richer Lens Entertainment headed by Vivek B. Agrawal, Imagica is set to successfully establish an intriguing and unique concept through its slate of animated series featuring ‘Stars of Imagica’ and possibly have 13 hours of content.

Stars of Imagica at the Grand Imagica Parade

This is first of its kind deal as part of its 360 degree marketing campaign for owned IPs that will find popular homegrown characters of Imagica to spread magic on screen through exciting animated content.

“We’re developing a slate of shows around Imagica’s key characters, Tubbby, Bow-Wow, Rajasaurus, Roberto and Toota Phoota. Each show will be episodic in nature, consisting of anywhere between 12-26 episodes. Depending on the characters, the shows target different age groups, so our offering is really comprehensive in terms of the age range and variety of concepts and theme that it covers,” mentioned A Richer Lens Entertainment chief creative officer and writer-director of the series Avantika Hari Agrawal.

These endearing characters are already cherished by more than 75 Lakh guests till date through varied rides, shows based on them, meet and greets at Imagica, as well as through lovable and quirky merchandise available at retail stores that customers have taken home as souvenirs.

Dhimant Bakshi

Imagica Jt CEO Dhimant Bakshi said that at Imagica, they strive towards introducing innovative methods to reach out to consumers with quality entertainment and since Imagica’s characters are loved far and wide, they are aiming to go beyond just that with an interesting animated content.

A multi award winning director, she’s the recipient of the National Award and many international awards for her debut film Land Gold Women. For 3 years, she served as creative director for Growl Media, a Dubai based agency which created Appykids, a brand for children’s content. Under her leadership, the IP of Growl grew tenfold. What started as app character, grew to have animated cartoons, books, games, teaching aids and merchandise. Helmed by Hari Agarwal, the animation of the series’ will be produced by Artha Animation.

Hari Agrawal continued on the inspiration for coming up with the idea of creating this animated series. She said, “Children are our inspiration. Their curiosity, their ability to absorb, assimilate and apply knowledge is wondrous. For too long, the dissemination of knowledge to children has been rigid, forced and uni-dimensional. We hope that our shows encourage children to retain their innate curiosity and explore the world around them, filled with adventure and wonder.”

Gaurav Malhotra

Being a joint venture, the IP of these shows will rest between Adlabs Imagica, A Richer Lens Entertainment and Artha Animation. When asked about the process of making of the series, Artha Animation CEO Gaurav Malhotra said, “We are keeping our content revolve around the age of the target children group. We are drawing inspiration from the new age parents who resort to animated and interactive content to teach moral values to their kids. These conversations are given utmost importance, and really driving us further to create the best content possible for them.”

Bakshi added on the similar line, “Each of Imagica’s characters have their characteristic traits which are well established in consumer’s mind so we ensure that the new stories being developed are in tandem with these personalities. We are really happy with the way things are proceeding and are sure that audience will receive the series very well.”

The animated series is built on the personalities of the characters, along with storyboards that talk of different situations that these characters get into. Some are everyday stories and some are fictional adventures!

Each show covers a different concept. With Tubbby, the elephant, the makers will be covering all the preschool concepts of colours, numbers, shapes and so on through story, song and activity. Tubbby’s show is built around the premise of ‘Respect yourself, respect others and respect the environment’.

Detective Bow Wow, the detective dog is a slightly bumbling detective who solves strange cases using his trusty assistant robot, Toota Phoota’s math skills to defeat his arch nemesis, Selective Khao Jhao.

Vivek B Agrawal

Rajasaurus, on the other hand is a time travelling dinosaur, who takes us through history’s most iconic moments and makes us a part of them. With them is Roberto, a lion chef from Italy who shows the process of how food lands up on your plate in a fun way.

All shows of these series will be made in 3D as it will enable the characters to seem real and relatable, which is especially crucial considering the target audience i.e. children. The makers are still finalising on the platforms to air the series and as A Richer Lens Entertainment CEO Vivek B. Agrawal informed “We will be approaching various TV and OTT platforms post we have trailer ready for showcasing.”

Bakshi also hinted on plans of merchandising the characters, “We already have an established merchandise segment around our characters worth Rs 20 Crore per annum. This is solely from merchandise sale at Imagica and online on major e-commerce platforms. Animated content around our characters is a part of our 360 degree content marketing campaign wherein we have associated with various organisations and outlets for widespread consumption of the Stars of Imagica. Our character merchandise is already present across Hamleys, Zontom stores and at major e-commerce outlets, apart from multiple retail stores inside the park. Through these activities and consistent marketing of Imagica as a brand, we are sure that the character merchandise business would grow significantly.”

Avantika Hari Agarwal

Additionally, Imagica have ventured into a partnership with education and innovation company Neltas for educational content through their characters for children from second to fifth standard. They associated with Cello for their ‘Back to School’ products line with licensing of Imagica characters, and Havmor with a licensing deal of Imagica’s mascot-Tubbby, to feature on Havmor ice creams.

Imagica is a beloved destination among children of all ages and this is their first attempt at bringing that experience into people’s homes. A Hari Agarwal further noted, “We intend to make the brand an integral part of children’s lives, so we ensure that our content has to be high quality and wholesome. Today’s parents are active, participatory and desire that their children consume content that is non-offensive, non-violent and teaches values, culture and social truths with just the right balance of education and entertainment. To empathise with these needs, we’re keen to take on the challenge of entertaining and educating their children in new and exciting ways.”

Having received immense love and recall for the characters both at Imagica and outside,  this step will ensure Imagica’s consistent presence in consumers’ lives through content that caters to the young ones in the family. We hope to see this project coming through with flying colours and get all the love it deserves.

The post Here’s what the makers have to say about the new animated series around Imagica’s loved mascots appeared first on AnimationXpress.