Hasta La Motion!

Italian public broadcaster Rai TV has fast-tracked the launch of its animated reboot of Topo Gigio, the famous puppet character created more than 60 years ago by Maria Perego. This is the first Italian-produced animated series about the famous mouse, co-produced in collaboration with the kids’ division of the Italian public broadcaster Rai Ragazzi by Milan-based studio Movimenti Production.

The 52×11′ series is due to air on kids channel Rai Yoyo later this year but the pubcaster has decided to make the first 13 episodes available on its VoD service Rai Play in time for Easter to cheer up Italian families stuck at home during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The series follows the daily adventures of a little mouse living in a house with humans and marks the animated debut of a character who first appeared as the lead in a children’s puppet show on Italian television in the early 1960s. Topo Gigio’s loyal companions include his very best friend Zoe, who always helps to make things right; Bike Bob, the perfect buddy to ride with around the city; and the ‘G-Team’, his long-time country friends (Mole, Pigeon, Bunny Twins, Turtle, Toad), who are always ready to join Topo Gigio wherever and whenever their carefree and irresistible adventures take them.

Lacey Entertainment, led by Brian Lacey holds the worldwide English-language distribution rights to the Topo Gigio series. It is best known for the global distribution of hit kids series, such as Pokemon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Yu-Gi-Oh!.

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Without much humdrum, Jeffrey Katzenberg’s short video streaming service Quibi forayed into the Indian OTT landscape on 6 April. 

Launched amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, the $1.75 billion-funded, Quibi (short for Quick bites) has a price of Rs 699/month for the ad-free service and is available for consumption only on smartphones.

Interested viewers can download it from the Google Play stores and the Apple store and try it free for 90 days before the monthly fee is charged. (The US version has two services ad-loaded at $4.99, and ad-free at $7.99 a month.)

Quibi has no long-form catalogue movies or shows, as every piece of content on it is 10 minutes or less and almost every one of them is an original. It launched with 50 shows, but the idea is to launch fresh content every week to take the catalogue up to 175. The content slate ranges from drama to comedy to documentaries to news to sports. On its launch day, Quibi saw over 300,000 downloads.

Quibi has a big plus – turnstile feature which allows viewers to seamlessly switch between landscape and vertical portrait views without affecting the viewing experience. In fact, each show is edited keeping these two views in mind and two streams are delivered.

Former eBay boss and Quibi CEO Meg Whitman stated at CES in Las Vegas in January that as compared to YouTube and platforms where shows were being made at $200 or $5,000 a minute, the spends on her service were $100,000 for a minute of content, speaking highly about its quality and the makers.

Among the top-notch creators who have been signed on for the service include: Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro, Lena Waithe and Catherine Hardwick. This apart, there are special news shows being added for it by NBC, BBC and Entertainment Weekly. 

Meg Whitman

Whitman shared in a LinkedIn post, “Quibi was created to entertain, inform, and inspire by reimagining the way mobile users consume premium video content on their phones. The world is a very different place today than it was even two weeks ago. It is our hope that Quibi will provide a small moment of laughter, inspiration, or information during this unprecedented moment in our lives. I am so proud of the hard work of the entire Quibi team who have poured their hearts into building this new technology platform from the ground up. And, thank you to everyone who has made this possible, from our incredible content creators to our outstanding brand partners.”

During CES, Katzenberg and Whitman had stated that the service was for consumption on the go, during metro commutes, lunch or tea breaks or when someone had 10 minutes or less to spend on entertainment. With most consumers at home in many nations courtesy the COVID-2019 lockdown, the duo can be sure that viewers during the trial period will probably consume way beyond that.

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Disney+ is going strong in the OTT business, as it has announced to have over 50 million subscribers of which Disney+Hotstar has nearly eight million. 

This news comes after Disney+ launched in conjunction with Hotstar on 3 April in the country, which is just six days! Five-year-old Hotstar is the most popular on-demand streaming service in India with more than 300 million users. The service and its operator, Indian network Star India, were taken up by Disney as part of its $71 billion deal with Fox last year.

Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International chairman Kevin Mayer s aid,“We’re truly humbled that Disney+ is resonating with millions around the globe, and believe this bodes well for our continued expansion throughout western Europe and into Japan and all of Latin America later this year,”

For years, people in the Indian industry have been curious about Hotstar’s premium subscriber base, only to find no luck there. Estimates had suggested it had about 1.5 million to 2 million subscribers. 

Disney+Hotstar is available in India at a yearly subscription cost of almost $20 (Rs. 1499). And for that, subscribers get access to a wide-ranging catalogue of Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, National Geographic, and Disney Originals in English as well as several local languages, live sporting events, dozens of TV channels, and thousands of movies and shows, including some sourced from HBO, Showtime, ABC and Fox that maintain syndication partnerships with the Indian streaming service.

Disney+Hotstar competes with more than three dozen international and local players in India, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Times Internet’s MX Player (which has over 175 million monthly active users), Zee5, Apple TV+ and ALTBalaji, (which has over 27 million subscribers). According to industry estimates, Amazon Prime Video has fewer than five million subscribers and Netflix has fewer than two million.

Most of these services monetise their viewers through ads, and have kept their monthly subscription price below $3. The countrywide lockdown has turned out to be a blessing in disguise as more viewers are consuming online video content and signing up to more services to kill boredom. In India, the time spent on smartphones, the primary device to consume OTT content, has also gone up according to the BARC report.

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Anime, the most popular web culture we can find in today’s era. It actually is an abbreviation of the word animation. In Japan, anime is used to refer to all kinds of animation, but for the rest of the world, it has become synonymous with animation from Japan.

Produced by and for Japan as a local product with a distinct look-and-feel to not just art but storytelling, themes and concepts, it has become an international phenomenon with a huge fan base over the last few decades. A whole generation of viewers in the West has grown up with it and it’s now spreading across the globe, making a huge mark in India.

A videographer by profession but a die hard anime fan at heart, Manas Ambavane loves watching anime because of the varied content it provides. “Unlike other cartoons, anime always had their different concepts. In one series they cover up all the factors like friendship, betrayal, love, vengeance, brotherhood, family and many more. Anime is very vibrant to watch because the level of creativity they put is unimaginable. Plus, all the characters are given fair importance in the series which we don’t see in other cartoons. ”

Anime is much more creative than its other counterparts. It covers even the backstory of a certain character helping the viewers relate with the story. The best part of anime is that one can witness the character grow.

Another anime fan and a student, Kaustubh Dawre thinks that one can relate to anime. “When it comes to movies, most of the time it’s just like you watch a movie and get done with it. But when you have over 500 episodes, you stick to it. There are characters you’ll love, characters you’ll hate. The backstories are mind blowing and the fight scenes are ones to behold.”

Talking to anime fans, we jotted down a few anime series that one must watch and are easily available on various platforms.

Naruto

Naruto is about a mischievous kid who’s struggling with his daily life. Every parent and kids ignores him in the village due to his behavior. His dream is to become a hokage and a great ninja so people could recognise him. In Naruto you one can sense friendship, love, betrayal, action, thriller, suspense, everything. It covers up all the emotions.

Bleach

Bleach is about a guy, Ichigo Kurosaki, who can see ghosts. He accidentally becomes a soul reaper as a hollow attacks him and there he meets an actual soul reaper Rukiya Kuchiki. People who love action and adventure should definitely watch this. The plot is very unique, intriguing and different.

Death Note

A terrifying demon grants an ability to High School Student Light Yagami in Death Note, where he can kill someone just by writing their name in a book. It is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. The series centers around Light’s subsequent attempts to use the Death Note to carry out a world-wide massacre of individuals whom he deems morally unworthy of life to change the world into a utopian society without crime, using the alias of a god-like vigilante named “Kira”.  It’s a thriller with a major plot twist. Have a detective inside you? Go on a crime solving mission, with this series.

Kiss Him, Not Me

Kiss Him, Not Me, known in Japan as Boys, Please Kiss Him Instead of Me, is a Japanese romantic comedy shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Junko. It was serialised in monthly manga magazine Bessatsu Friend from May 2013 to 2019. The chapters were later released in 14 bound volume by Kodansha under the Kodansha Comics imprint.

Little Witch Academia

Little Witch Academia is a joyous witchy adventure that we just had to mention. It’s a delightful anime with great messages beyond the goodness of friendship (like ignoring toxic comments) that you can watch with just about anyone. The concept is similar to Harry Potter but here, almost all of the protagonists are girls. Every frame of animation is lushly gorgeous and the characters are impossibly endearing. Not exactly an intellectual endeavor, but perfect lighthearted entertainment.

Fruits Basket 

Fruits Basket, sometimes abbreviated Furuba or Fruba, is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Natsuki Takaya. Fruits Basket tells the story of Tohru Honda, an orphan girl who, after meeting Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure Sohma, learns that twelve members of the Sohma family are possessed by the animals of the Chinese zodiac and are cursed to turn into their animal forms when they are weak, stressed, or when they are embraced by anyone of the opposite sex that is not possessed by a zodiacal spirit.

Castlevania

The series is based on Castlevania: Dracula’s Curse, the third installment of the video game saga. With loads of action, mystery, vampires, and witty one-liners, Castlevania is a must-watch if you’re looking to fill a sci-fi void in your heart.

So, what are you binge watching this weekend? Or should I say today and everyday?!

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