Animagic Studios has been contributing to raising awareness through various animated projects. Right from their first short film Raju and I to several other shorts including Chakachak, documentary Seed- the untold story and the recently released online, Shorekeepers – Mangroves of Mumbai.
Raju and I, a 30 min film on child rights, was the first hand experience of the team at Animagic, which explained the importance of animation as a very powerful medium for social awareness and change. It was screened in over 75 festivals internationally. “The feedback we got from people all over the world as well as responses from children and adults in screening organised locally and in schools made us realise that animation is even more powerful than a live action film when it comes to sensitive subjects,” said Animagic co-founder Chetan Sharma.
United Way of Mumbai, who wanted something that could speak directly to the hundreds of children that they conduct workshops with and even beyond, approached the Animagic team for Shorekeepers – Mangroves of Mumbai. With great foresight they saw that they could reach more children online through film and requested the team to come up with a three minute film.
The film was actually made in 2017 and released on World Mangroves Day that year. Thousands of kids have seen it online and in workshops conducted by United Way of Mumbai who besides creating awareness also carry out cleaning drives in Mangroves and also replanting missions. This film is an important part of Mission Mangroves for them.
Animagic recently released the film on their YouTube channel as they felt it could help reach a different segment of the audience who love our films and books.
Created by a very small team, the voice work is all done in the family. The Mangrove tree itself is voiced by Sharma and the crow is voiced by two different artists: in English by Ashay Bandwalkar and in Hindi by singer, songwriter Jyotika who has voiced important characters for all our films starting from Raju and I! She also edited the sound effects and music.
The concept, writing, design and animation was all largely done by Sharma, with the support and wisdom of co-founder Gayatri Rao, who is also the producer of the film. The compositing and effects were done by Prajakta Sharma and Romel Dias.
Animagic is currently working on a small collaboration with Toonz on one of their international projects. A fully illustrated children’s book The Grand Chapati Contest! is also to be released soon by Duckbill books – a penguin imprint. Another book which deals with Mangroves Conservation is also being illustrated at the studio.
Working on social message projects has always been an important aspect of Animagic’s work. “It’s in the DNA of Animagic,” Sharma added. Rao went to the Walt Disney Studio in Florida in 1994 as part of a UNICEF initiative in the year of the girl child. There, in the Mouse-House she made a short film on female infanticide, which moved her mentors and artists at the studio greatly.
Several shorts, series and feature length projects are being created at Animagic. We would love to get a dose of some amazing projects soon.
