Apr 01

Disney Channel announces animated series ‘Amphibia’

Posted in: Animation

Disney star Brenda Song from Superstore and The Social Network, is returning to the Disney fold to play the lead voice role in Amphibia, an animated comedy series premiering this summer on Disney Channel and DisneyNOW.

Song previously starred as London Tipton in Disney Channel’s long-running series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, its spinoff The Suite Life on Deck and The Suite Life Movie. She also starred in several other popular Disney Channel original movies, including Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior, Stuck in the Suburbs, Get A Clue and The Ultimate Christmas Present.

Song plays 13-year-old Anne Boonchuy, an independent and fearless teen who is magically transported to the fantastical world of Amphibia, a rural marshland full of frog-people.

Amphibia, which is currently under production, is created and executive produced by Annie Award-winning director Matt Braly (Disney’s Gravity Falls) and produced by Disney Television Animation.

The post Disney Channel announces animated series ‘Amphibia’ appeared first on AnimationXpress.

No Comments
Apr 01

‘One Piece’ updates the Opening Theme

Posted in: Animation

One Piece rounded off the Whole Cake Island arc with the previous episode of the series, and now that Episode 878 started with the Reverie arc of the series, the opening theme sequence has seen a bit of update. While the major overtures remain the same, there have been a few additions teasing parts of the new arc.

Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 80 volumes and has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author and is the best-selling manga series worldwide with over 430 million copies sold. The series still ranked number one in manga sales in 2018, which surprised fans of major new entries.

The Reverie arc will see the return of many favourites as they get together for a major meeting of the world governments. The latest episode tracks how far Luffy has come since the anime began as it shows a pretty meaty flashback to the series’ first episode in which Shanks save him from a Sea King.

 

The post ‘One Piece’ updates the Opening Theme appeared first on AnimationXpress.

No Comments
Apr 01

Lucky ‘PUBG Mobile’ players can play the game with John Abraham Tomorrow

Posted in: Animation

PUBG Mobile and the upcoming Bollywood film Romeo Akbar Walter have partnered as part of a movie promotion. Therefore players can watch John Abraham play PUBG Mobile tomorrow, 2 April . PUBG Mobile India has been teasing about this promotional activity on social media over the last couple of days.

PUBG Mobile India said in a tweet “Romeo, Akbar aur Walter milne aa rahe hai apse POCHINKI main! See you there!” (Romero, Akbar and Walter are coming to meet you in Pochinki!)

So the lucky players may be a part of the same round in which   John Abraham is going to play PUBG Mobile tomorrow. In the recent past PUBG has been on news,  be it -PUBG introducing digital lock-in, where parents can curb gaming addiction among minors or be it ten college students getting arrested in Rajkot, Gujrat as they were caught playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on mobile which is banned there.

And very recently PUBG Mobile celebrated the first anniversary with the theme song by Norwegian DJ and music producer Alan Walker. Now players would be looking to what PUBG has in the kitty to entice its players later in 2019.

The post Lucky ‘PUBG Mobile’ players can play the game with John Abraham Tomorrow appeared first on AnimationXpress.

No Comments
Apr 01

Uncrowning PewDiePie, T-series emerges victorious after a month long battle.

Posted in: Animation

T-Series has officially emerged as the biggest channel on YouTube after dethroning PewDiePie.

PewDiePie launched into a diss track, conceding defeat as subscriber numbers for both channels show him lagging behind the Bollywood production company, 92,076,809 to 91,970,093.

The PewDiePie and T-Series battle dates back to August 2018, when Felix PewDiePie Kjellberg became cognisant of T-Series’ growth.

He implored his fans, which he refers to as his army of nine-year-olds, to stop T-Series’ growth. Kjellberg’s channel has been the most subscribed channel on YouTube since 2013, but T-Series’ growth has shot up due to multiple factors. T-Series is also a prominent source of Bollywood content on YouTube, which means users from around the world looking for Bollywood videos or videos from their favourite Indian artists can find it all on T-Series.

Since last August, the YouTube community banded together in order to support PewDiePie and YouTube creator culture as a whole. Some prominent YouTubers even went far as to buy billboards in Times Square. The phrase Subscribe to PewDiePie became a meme, and known figures of the community would tag it up it into their own videos and live streams. Many took to the streets and the web, picketing posters and flourishing the phrase at every chance they got.

While the initial sentiment was one of support, things turned sour after some impassioned vandals took extreme steps.

Recently, the Christchurch Mosque shooter took the phrase out of context to create controversy and declared “Subscribe to PewDiePie” in a live stream before murdering 50 people and injuring 50 more.

It will be difficult for PewDiePie to cross the winning owing to the big margin.

The post Uncrowning PewDiePie, T-series emerges victorious after a month long battle. appeared first on AnimationXpress.

No Comments
Apr 01

Nickelodeon preaches ‘Pressure ko bolo Bye’ with their global pro-socio initiative ‘Together For Good’

Posted in: Animation

Nickelodeon is back with their global pro-socio initiative ‘Together For Good’ which will raise awareness about the impact of ‘stress’ on children this year. This initiative aims to sensitise kids on the impact of stress on them.

The International Journal of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences has cited that nearly two-thirds (63.5 per cent) of the students report of stress are due to academic pressure with no significant differences across gender, age or grade. Understanding these parameters that cause stress amongst children, Nickelodeon in association with Early Childhood Association (ECA) is all set to address the issue of constant comparison by parents, academic stress and peer pressure with its campaign, ‘Pressure Ko Bolo Bye’.

Nina Elavia Jaipuria

Leveraging the strength of the entire Nickelodeon franchise and using the power of the Nicktoons, the campaign is brought to life with light hearted, child-friendly yet impactful on-air promos, with the message ‘#PressureKoBoloBye’. This edition of ‘Together For Good’ addresses various parameters that are a cause stress and simple steps to identify and act towards the same.

Commenting on the initiative, Nickelodeon head of Hindi and Kids Entertainment Network Nina Elavia Jaipuria said, “As a responsible broadcaster for kids, their well being is at the center of all our initiatives at Nickelodeon. We have therefore continuously curated marquee programmes  like ‘Together For Good’ that endeavour to drive behavioural change and enable a safe environment for kids, allowing them to be pressure free and inspired.”

As a part of the campaign nickelodeon is creating a two-fold module co-produced by Early Childhood Association, with an aim to reach over 350 educational institutes comprising of private and government schools, NGO’s and Anganwadis across the nation, to help them battle the challenges.

Motu Patlu, Dora and Shiva will soon kickstart an extensive awareness-drive across schools through a series of light hearted videos, fun and interactive activities that stimulate changes and motivate children. Experts from ECA will host a workshop for parents and teachers to help understand negative changes and symptoms amongst children and simple measures to bring out the best in children. We will amplify this message further on social media with interactive posts, video memes and a pledge that they can take through our websites and say bye to pressure.

“Having worked in the education industry for over three decades, diminishing mental health in children is one of the major concerns of our society. Associating with Nickelodeon for this initiative gives me immense pleasure to churn the wheels of change through Together for Good initiative,” mentioned Early Childhood Association president Swati Popat.

Motu Patlu

The post Nickelodeon preaches ‘Pressure ko bolo Bye’ with their global pro-socio initiative ‘Together For Good’ appeared first on AnimationXpress.

No Comments
Apr 01

FICCI Report: Key statistics on the current gaming scenario in India

Posted in: Animation

Gaming sector has grown exponentially over the last few years. Thanks to digitisation, the game subscriptions and online gaming markets are growing on the back of rising per capita GDP and falling data costs. Not only that, according to the recent FICCI report, over the years online gamers in India have increased  52 per cent to 278 million in 2018.  To feed to a wide audience there should be an ample amount of resources and thus game developers around the globe have explored the Indian territory widely. Taking example Nazara continued its acquisition in the casual gaming sector in the first half of the year and Tencent marked its entry into the Indian gaming in 2018.

Thus, the mass consumption of gaming content in India has risen in 2018 with 5 billion game apps downloads which accounted for 71 per cent of total entertainment app downloads.  Not only that, experts believe that  with more affordable smartphones, internet connectivity and localised language games, rural India will lead the growth of the gaming industry in the next few years. Gaming is now slowly being recognised as mainstream entertainment in India.

Numerous other factors added to the growth of the gaming sector in the country:

  • Time spent on gaming increased to over five hours per month on average
  • India is now one of the top five markets for mobile gaming globally
  • It has over 250 game development companies
  • Overseas online gaming companies further strengthened their presence in India

India is now in the top five markets in the world based on the number of users for online and mobile gaming. Smartphones have emerged as the primary device preferred for online gaming with more than 90 per cent of millennials preferring smartphones over gaming PCs and other devices in India. Unlike console gaming, smartphones have brought affordable gaming to users without the hassle of owning expensive hardware and game titles.

89 per cent of all game revenues in India were generated on mobile games. With the growing demand for mobile gaming, many companies have launched dedicated gaming smartphones to capture share in this segment. These gaming smartphones accounted for 1.8 per cent of overall smartphone shipments in 2018 and are expected to reach 6.5 per cent by 2021. And thus online gaming has started gaining traction among a larger Indian population with a lower cost of smartphone devices which have gaming capabilities and reduced internet access cost.

Technology and VR scenario in gaming:

2018 witnessed large investments in gaming hardware and software. Hardware makers are incorporating more features to enable a technologically enhanced experience in gaming. Acer is witnessing 20 per cent growth year of year attributing their gaming laptops and PCs. Asus, which currently occupies 22 per cent share in the gaming PC market is also working towards offering high-tech devices to increase its market share in India. Currently, VR as a technology is picking up in the outdoor entertainment areas in the form of VR rides in malls and VR lounges. It is believed that the uptake of VR for mobile gaming will grow with a reduction in hardware cost.



India, key game development centre :

Gaming companies are increasingly investing in cutting-edge technologies such as VR, AR, AI and blockchain. AR games such as Pokémon Go have garnered a significant positive response in India. India has progressed from being back-end support for game development to developing high-quality games. The segment is on the rise with over 250 game development companies, up from 25 in 2010. And once again, this provides India with the opportunity to become a key game development centre of the world, which can generate $2 billion by 2021, if supported with adequate incentives and policy support. Thus India’s online gaming segment has attracted investments and new launches by several global players. Which includes :

  • AGTech, owned by Alibaba and PayTM have launched Gamepind, an online gaming platform for social and casual games. The platform has raised $16 million from the two companies to expand its business in India29
  • In September 2018, Tencent invested $100 million in Dream 11 Fantasy which is a fantasy sports platform. This deal provides Tencent opportunity to increase its India presence in gaming as it faces pressure in China where the government is fighting against gaming addiction in children. Tencent plans to invest $200 million in India and is targeting at least one third user base of the country by 2020.
  • Mech Mocha, a mobile gaming start-up, raised $10 million from various investors including South Korean and Japanese in October 2018. The transaction was co-led by Neoplux and Accel Partners. Mech Mocha plans to utilise the fund in developing multiple vernacular gaming products.

As Indian online gaming segment grew to reach Rs 49 billion in 2018, a growth of 59 per cent over 2017. It is estimated to reach Rs 120 billion by 2021 at a CAGR of 35per cent with the number of users projected to become 340 million18 by then.

Future outlook

The gaming sector is spreading and aiming big for 2020. Fantasy sports can cross 100 million players within two years sports, particularly cricket will drive the growth of fantasy gaming which can cross 100 million players within two years. Fantasy wrestling and kabaddi would see increased focus as platforms try to broad-base their appeal. Also, multi-player gaming is likely to continue growing radically, following the uptake of PUBG in 2018, subject to the quality of the IP created. Higher per-user revenues can be realized with fibre-based internet and streaming games


While the Chinese market is showing signs of slowing down and regulator control, India will become the next key market for investors, given the growth factors mentioned in this section. Indian gaming companies have already begun to attract investments and are moving forward at a steady pace

The post FICCI Report: Key statistics on the current gaming scenario in India appeared first on AnimationXpress.

No Comments
Apr 01

The official Hindi theme song for ‘Avengers: Endgame’ launched!

Posted in: Animation

And it’s here!

The official Hindi theme song for Avengers: Endgame- Marvel Anthem, composed and sung by A.R.Rahman has been released today by Marvel Studios.

The rousing track is spiced up with rap and heavy percussion, with Rahman’s genius adding to the ‘Avengers’ fever that refuses to die down among the fans. The lyrics are penned by Nirmika Singh and MC Heam is the rapper. The video has Rahman singing and enthralling a crowd of young people, alongside a group of percussionists.

This is not the first of its kind collaboration, as the band Agnee had previously composed a theme song, Hello Andheron, for the first Avengers movie in 2012. Over the years, Marvel have taken up new methods to appeal to Indian audiences, such as releasing a trailer of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in 2017 with Bappi Lahiri’s one of the most popular track Jhoom Jhoom Jhoom Baba.

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, Avengers: Endgame is perhaps the most anticipated movie of 2019 as the film will witness the final battle between the ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ and the Mad Titan, Thanos (played by Josh Brolin) after he decimated half the universe, including few Avengers members, in Avengers: Infinity War (2018).

Avengers: Endgame releases on 26 April in 2D, IMAX and 3D formats in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

The post The official Hindi theme song for ‘Avengers: Endgame’ launched! appeared first on AnimationXpress.

No Comments