Hasta La Motion!

The COVID imposed lockdown has witnessed tremendous increase in TV and online VOD consumption. As summer vacations arrived much earlier for kids which has been quite a lengthy one, they also contributed largely to the percentage and numbers of viewership. Sony YAY!, a popular kids channel, has also naturally seen a significant surge in viewership through its flagship animated IP, Honey Bunny Ka Jholmaal followed by the now revamped Paap-O-Meter. 

Shared Sony YAY! business head Leena Lele Dutta to AnimationXpress, “Our placating show is Honey bunny Ka Jholmaal and there has been a significant surge and impression on Honey Bunny Ka Jholmaal before and after COVID. 50 to 70 per cent of our programming is on it and recently, we also added a huge bank on Paap-O-Meter which has got a phenomenal response too, and for the first time it’s should be airing our first movie on it.” 

Sony YAY! has added brand new episodes on both the shows and is now pushing Paap-O-Meter with more engaging and entertaining episodes and tele-movies. Dutta also added that this ghost comedy would be their next focused property and they are working extensively on it. 

“We are quite excited about new content on Paap-O-Meter and its upcoming new movie as we have been working on it. It’s a different format and very tough to make story time work to 45 minutes as well as for 11 minutes parallely. We have it in production and it will be on air sometime in the first week of July,” she added. 

Paap-O-Meter is first of its kind in the genre of local animated horror comedies. Dutta said that to entice kids, with one of their favourite genres which is somewhat non existent on Indian television, is why they launched the insight of the show.  

Due to the lockdown many sectors have been disrupted or shut completely for the time being. Animation, fortunately, was still kicking and unlike others, it was not much of a challenge to get new episodes or content for Sony YAY! as Dutta revealed that they planned for the summer quite early. Their on ground activations and new episodes were planned for late March and early April, COVID came earlier than their summer plans.

Dutta further noted, “None of us were anticipating this kind of scenario out in the real world and it was actually kind of dealing with the day to day basis of crisis management. So from figuring out where our audience is going to be, – at home, we planned accordingly. Though we started planning for Summer from the end of 2019. Kids are going to be sharp and if they are all at home they are going to have a lot of time on hand to duck to the channel to watch the content and not only their own favourites but ample other content in the category. So we made sure that we keep them engaged, entertained and educated.

Leena Lele Dutta

The animators and artists worked from home and had their output sent to us. Even the dubbing artists worked respectively from their home. So if we actually look at it we were in a position to put our pipeline in place as to how to handle the crisis and we had made the arrangements with the management just to make sure that episode bank is coming.

But yeah, super cyclone Amphan [Sony YAY! commissions work to Kolkata based animation studios] actually disturbed a lot of stuff for us and it kind of took us two weeks to get it back to normal. We were on track with our episodes, but it got pushed back again. But nevertheless, I think from a category platform we were I think the only channel which almost had new episodes of Honey Bunny on air from the time we actually scheduled coinciding with summer vacation so for us summer and COVID came almost together with the latter coming a little earlier. Our summer vacation episodes which were meant to go on air from the second week of April anyway so we were prepared.”

The channel also has additional plans for the animated characters and IPs, and we’ll be back with more information and details soon! So, stay tuned!

The post Sony YAY! experiences surge in viewership during lockdown for ‘Honey Bunny Ka Jholmaal’ and ‘Paap-O-Meter’ appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Disney fans will be able to watch Artemis Fowl for free when it launches on 12 June on Disney+ and Disney+Hotstar in India, as part of a free trial for seven days.

Originally slated to launch in theatres in May, Artemis Fowl was postponed and given a direct-to-OTT release due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Artemis Fowl revolves around the titular protagonist, a 12-year-old genius and descendant of a long line of criminal masterminds. He soon finds himself in an epic battle against a race of powerful underground fairies who may be behind his father’s disappearance.

The Disney+ free trial will allow new users to stream the movie without paying a penny. The free trial allows full seven days access to the streaming service. The new user will need to sign up first, and won’t be charged if the person cancels his/her membership before the seventh day is over.

Besides Artemis Fowl, fans can enjoy plenty of other movies, shows, and franchises to enjoy in your week-long trial as well. The list includes – Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, The Clone Wars, The Mandalorian, a ton of Marvel movies, all the Disney and Pixar classics and recent films, Avatar and Toy Story franchises as well.

This free trial offer is only valid for new users and they will also need to cancel before the seventh day is over to avoid paying for the following month ($6.99 in the US and £5.99 in the UK).

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World is dealing with a grotesque enemy named Covid-19 which has caused the entire ecosystem to flounder in their operations. In times like these, industry aspirants and experts are already finding ways to learn new skills in order to emerge stronger when the ecosystem bounces back.

VFX breakdowns are indeed making for a tremendous source of education to the folks who are interested in learning the art and science of the industry. DNEG’s recent breakdowns made for elaborate treasure trove, offering a glimpse into the humongous task of making images as per the vision of the filmmaker.

Here are our favourite picks :-

Deadpool –

Who doesn’t like the sassiest and the most funniest superhero of the marvel universe? Deadpool, Well you might have seen him breaking the bones of enemies, breaking furniture and even breaking the third wall to amuse you but today, DNEG is presenting the breaking down of scenes in the Deadpool movie, explaining how they made the imagery come to life. Enjoy the clip.

Catch-22 –

As one of the most riveting novels ever written in the history of classics, Catch-22 is indeed a subject that filmmakers couldn’t wait to explore. But bringing to life one of the most lauded stories in the world of literature is no mean feat. Have a look at how they deployed the software to produce the precious images, piecing together a movie that was nominated for Emmy Award.

Venom–

DNEG & Sony Pictures Imageworks, One Of Us worked on Visual Effects for Venom. Paul Franklin at DNEG lead as over all VFX Supervisor for the movie. DNEG delivered 1200 shots  for the movie. They created CGI-powered monster mutations 21 inches taller than Tom Hardy. For a little pre-viewing session, go behind the scenes of your favourite anti-hero film with Sony and DNEG’s Creative Director Paul Franklin and discover our team’s amazing work! Watch it below

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