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JB GOES TO BOLLYWOOD… DONE DONE AND DONE!

So it’s finally finished!  After almost two years of work, we’ve finally outputted the final mix for our 72 minute opus, “Johnny Bravo Goes To Bollywood!”  It was produced primarily out of Asia and will soon be arriving at a Cartoon Network near you!  The only problem is, I have no idea when that day is!  What I do know, is that it’s going to premiere in Australia later this year.  Other regions will soon follow after that.  In the meantime, I’ve posted a few images from the production.  Above is the layout for the opening main title.

Below is a mood board produced by the artists at Inspidea for the Bollywood Song, “Learn About Bollywood.”  For those of you who don’t know what a mood board is, it’s a technique used in animation (and other design arts) to help set the tone and style of the production.  I wanted to share this piece because it gives you a nice idea of how much effort we put into the production to make it really feel as alive and as vibrant as the most colorful Bollywood productions…

And finally, a faux magazine cover which appears onscreen for a few seconds in the middle of the film.  There’s barely enough time to enjoy the full magazine cover in the film, so I thought I’d give props to the artists who put so much time and effort into developing this fun piece of art…

As I get more information, I’ll be sure to let y’all know.

So until next time…

PRESS CONFERENCES AND MONKEYS

No.  I didn’t have a press conference with, or about, monkeys.  The title was my eyecatcher for those of you who love both press conferences and monkeys.  But before you skip this post because you don’t see any monkeys (I didn’t hide any in the above picture either), you may be pleasantly surprised by the end of this post.

Above is a stitched picture pan of the lovely people from the press in Malaysia.  The group included representatives of The Star, The Sun, NST, Berita Harian, Superkidz, K-Zone, Gempak,  New Man, TV2, HOT, and RTM News.  Interesting note: the majority of them were female journalists. I don’t know if it’s because that’s the way things are in Malaysia or if they thought that they were going to meet somebody that actually resembled Johnny Bravo.  Either way, it was fun chatting with them all.

We officially announced the start of Cartoon Network Asia’s Malaysia specific Snaptoons initiative.  We kicked it off with a talk from Silas Hickey of Cartoon Network Asia, then Kamil Othman, Vice President of MDEC (Multimedia Development Corporation), and myself. Beforehand, we got our talking points and press briefing, which made me a tad nervous because I tend to talk off the top of my head with a lot of nervous energy.  But then again, it’s not like we were trying to hide a scandal or anything.  Everyone ended up being very cordial and the whole event made the morning that much more fun.

Afterwards, I spent my final day at Inspidea Animation Studios drawing pictures and hanging out with the crew.  Again, it’s just like any other animation studio in the States.  On their free time, they play video games…

Gossip…

And hang out in front of the studio playing guitar and smoking cigarettes.

I spent my final night with the staff at a fantabulous dinner where I got to know them all a little better.  Who’s dating who, what they do in their spare time, what their favorite movies are, why they’re ranked number one in countries that spend the most hours on Facebook and have the most number of friends.  Bonding stuff like that.   It was a fun way to end my time in Malaysia.

So now is the part where you say, “Can we get to the monkey portion of the post already?”  Wait for it…

Before I hopped on my plane to LAX, CJ See brought us out to the Batu Caves where you can climb 272 steps and see… you guessed it…

Monkeys!  They’re just all around you frolicking the way monkeys do.

From Mongkok to Malaysian Monkeys, thus ends my time in Asia.  Ni Hao America!

INSPIDEA

I downloaded the above picture from my camera, looked at it, and thought, “That just doesn’t look real.”  But it is.  It’s the view from my hotel of the Petronas Twin Towers, which were the world’s tallest buildings from 1998-2004 (before Taipei 101).  Whatever it’s height credentials, it’s still massive!  Every time I look out my window, I imagine myself as Big Man Japan tromping around the downtown area.

So with that, you may have been able to guess that I’m in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Yesterday, I went and visited the lovely animation studio, Inspidea.  They’re the ones that are doing the heavy lifting for our upcoming TV special, “Johnny Bravo Goes To Bollywood.”  For those of you that have never been to an animation studio in Asia, I thought that I’d give you a mini-tour of the place.

First off, I wanted to share my lunch with you.

(I love makeover shows, so I had to fit in some sort of before and after shot somewhere.)

Anyhow, Inspidea was founded by four guys, two of whom are still there, Andrew Ooi and CJ See.  Terrific to see them.  We worked together on another Snaptoons project a few years back.  I didn’t know what to expect, but I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the outfit they run here in Malaysia.  The outside of the building is rather unassuming. Below is a picture of Silas Hickey, the Creative Director of Asia Pacific Animation Development, Turner Entertainment Networks Asia, Inc. (Whew! Long title!) waiting for them to buzz us in.

The first thing I noticed was the most obvious cultural difference: we had to take our shoes off.

From there, it was just like any other independent animation studio in the states.  There were several floors of artists, all working on computers, but in different areas of production.

Again, the only differences were cultural.  For example, you weren’t really allowed to shake the hands of some of the females due to religious beliefs.  More interesting to me though, was the average age of the people who worked there.  At Inspidea, they were a predominantly young lot.  It may have been due to their Asian skin, but it felt like I was walking amongst a group of university students. I’m used to seeing veterans who had been around for decades peppered in with a few younger folks.  I was told that it was because there isn’t a huge pool of talent to pull from in Malaysia so a lot of their talent come straight out of the schools.  Below is a group shot of all the people that are going to be working on my show.

I gave a talk, similar to the one I gave at CNAsia, where I introduced myself, talked a little bit about my background, and expressed my gratitude and excitement for the project they’ve agreed to undertake.  I’m really looking forward to seeing what they can bring to the table and excited about their potential of being a major player out here in Asia.

So that’s day one in Malaysia.  I’m hoping to get a picture of the monorail that runs through all the major parts of the city.

Wait a second.  What was that?

Did I just say monorail?

I sure did.