1999 British Film Festival set to animate Indonesia

By Gotot Prakosa

JAKARTA (JP): John Halas, one of Britain's leading movie pioneers, said: "All films are animation." Animation means living, breathing and having a soul, which, according to Halas, inspires great thought on a great number of phenomena in the world of animation.

In reality, animation has risen to a level which is not only present in the world of art, but has begun to creep into other aspects of life, including science, technology and even philosophy. Fanatic animators act and think on the basis of "living", "wanting to give life" or "having life".

Top film producers like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and many more have been able to grasp the art of animation, which we can see from their extraordinary work, including Star Wars, E.T., Jurassic Park and A Bug's Life.

Before the 1970s, animated films were still relatively rare, as Walt Disney, having a monopoly over animated film production, stuck to their belief that animated films should be shot frame-by-frame. In the old days of film, highly dangerous stunts, including car crashes and train disasters, were performed by blood-and-flesh stuntmen.

John Halas, who was born in Budapest in 1912 and came to England in 1936, established with Joy Batchelor in 1940 a film company which specialized in cartoons. This company eventually became the biggest of its kind in Britain. At first this company produced a number of propaganda films and commercial films which influenced the rise in animation all over the world.

Halas and Batchelor also produced the famous animated movie Animal Farm, which was an interpretation of the modern fable by George Orwell. In England, besides John Halas, other famous names like George Nunning, Bob Godfrey and Dick William took active roles in the growth of animated films.

Halas also contributed to the birth of animated film festivals, which help gauge the growth of animated films around the globe.

Britain's independent studios and film schools actively participated in boosting this progression, which gave birth to animated masterpieces with more personal touches.

In last year's British Film Festival, which played in Jakarta, we were blessed to have the opportunity to see masterpieces such as Wallace & Gromit by Aardman Animation.

In the 1999 British Film Festival, which runs from July 16 to July 23 in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Medan, the well-known film Mrs. Brown by John Madden and The Woodlanders by Phil Agland will be shown as part of the festival. It is quite an honor to be able to see these masterpieces of animated film.

Besides the latter two productions, also taking part in the festival is The Wrong Brothers by Stephen Weston, who used a number of computer techniques to create the animation in his film.

In this film, Weston looks at the obsession of two siblings who dream of traveling to outer space. These siblings, wishing to make their dreams reality, apply homemade wings to their arms and construct homemade airplanes. All of these efforts prove futile, until one day, when watching TV, they see a rocket shoot into space.

This inspires them to build their own rocket to carry them to the stars. Tragically, the rocket explodes, killing the siblings. This sort of irony, all captured through the use of animation, is representative of Weston's work. Animation allows the impossible to become possible. This is the philosophical difference between animated movies and live-action movies, which focus on facts and reality.

For Indonesians who love animated movies, the growth of British animated films pales in comparison with animated movies from America or Japan.

Although this is the case, John Halas' book, written in collaboration with Roger Manvell, The Technique of Film Animation, Art & Animation, Graphics in Motion, Art in Movement, has greatly influenced the development of film animation in Indonesia.

For all those would-be animated filmmakers, on July 13 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., a discussion on the production of animated films will be held at the H. Usmar Ismail Film Center in Jakarta.

The theme of the discussion is The Indonesian Animated Film Industry as Influenced by America, Japan and the United Kingdom. Guest speakers will include Dwi Koendoro, Teguh Anantawikrama and George Kamarulah from the Indonesian Animated Film Producers Association.