Penangkaran Bening Studio offers animated local legends

Penangkaran Bening Studio offers animated local legends

Gigin W. Utomo, Contributor, Yogyakarta

Children and animated films are like two parts of a coin: One
cannot be separated from the other. But if many of them like
foreign-made ones, they cannot really be blamed, as not many
local versions are screened on television.

A group of people from the Bening Community in Yogyakarta
hopes to reverse that trend -- expecting many children to enjoy
locally made animated films.

"The things that worry us are not only the increasing number
of foreign, animated movies being screened here, but also the bad
psychological impact of the screening on children or even
teenagers," said Atmadhi Brahmantyo (Bram) of the Bening
Community.

He noticed that foreign, animated films were mostly
entertaining rather than educational, and often contained
violence, which he found "dangerous for children to growth up
with."

What was obvious, he said, was the fact that most Indonesian
children and teenagers idolized animated figures like Pokemon,
Sinchan, Doraemon and Power Rangers, rather than heroes from
local folk stories or legends.

"If nothing is done, someday folk stories will be forgotten,
not to mention the fading tradition of storytelling in our daily
lives," Bram said.

In its efforts to popularize folk stories, Bening Community is
now seriously producing animated films on VCD, taking themes from
famous local legends, referring to them as the legend of
Nusantara (the archipelago).

Under the flag Penangkaran Bening Studio (PBS), they have
produced dozens of animated films featuring a variety of folk
stories from across the country. Among these are the legends of
Joko Kendil (Central Java), Keong Mas (East Java), Putri Nimari
(Bali), Joko Thole Dampo Awang (Madura), Putri Hijau (Sumatra),
Bawang Merah Bawang Putih, Timun Mas, Roro Mendut, Calon Arang,
Si Kancil and Cindelaras.

Bram hopes the VCD-format tales will become an alternative
attraction, not only for children and teenagers, but also adults
and parents, who might then pass on the morality tales contained
in local legends to their children.

"At least we are hoping that the passing-on of legends from
the older to the younger generation will continue," Bram said.

Yet, it turned out the community got more than it had
anticipated. Although it could be considered a newcomer in the
animation world, the community got seriously involved in the
business only about two years ago and won the Golden Award at the
Pyongyang Film Festival at the end of last year. The award was
presented for its animated film, Cindelaras.

"That (winning the award) was beyond our expectations. We were
very pessimistic at the time because we there was plenty of tough
competition from other countries," said Bram.

Apart from the competition, Bram said, Cindelaras was produced
with limited resources and funding, as well as a lack of
animators.

The community initially consisted of idealistic artists who
gathered for discussions at a house in Baciro village or helped
people who had encountered disasters. Their activities were
similar to those of non-government organizations but they never
declared themselves as one.

In 1990, due to reasons of financial necessity, some of the
community's members went to Jakarta to earn a living. There, they
received an offer from a businessman in Glodok, West Jakarta, to
produce cartoon films.

The offer was a savior, mainly because they were desperate to
find work and felt grateful as the job on offer suited their
talents. After accepting the offer, they decided to produce
cartoon films with Indonesian themes.

Bawang Merah Bawang Putih was the first animated film they
produced.

"Of course the quality was far from what we expected, mainly
due to the limitations we had in producing it," Bram said.

He explained that the first film was produced by using a
wooden board on bricks as their working table, and borrowing a
computer from a friend to work on the graphics and digital
drawings. There was only a handful of animators, too.

As time went by, they still found it difficult to look for
skilled animators in Jakarta to help them meet the business
order. For that reason, they finally decided to return to
Yogyakarta.

It was in Yogyakarta the group became a business entity in its
own right, one of only a handful of producers of animated films
in the country. Some 30 animators, who work on either the manual
drawings or the digital ones, have joined the company. They are
mostly graduates of the Indonesian Institute of Arts (ISI)
Yogyakarta and Yogyakarta Fine Arts senior high school (SMSR).

"We are currently providing training for would-be animators
and dubbers. We have to do so, otherwise, we would not be able to
produce high-quality animated films," said Yusac, in charge of
the work at PBS.

Good quality is indeed a priority for Bening. That explains
why each of their production processes is always proceeded by a
series of studies. If necessary, they arrange to visit the region
where a particular folk story has originated. That is done in a
bid to understand the story better, which will, in turn, enable
them to produce a high-quality end product.

"That way we can visualize the story better in the film, just
as in the original description," Bram said.

The products of Penangkaran Bening Studio can now easily be
found on the market. At the same time, orders also keep coming
in. In terms of marketing, they sell the products just as they
are. In other words, Penangkaran Bening Studio is merely a
producer. The marketing is fully in the hands of the businessman
from Glodok who buys their products.

Initially, each film was sold for Rp 40 million. Now, they are
Rp 70 million apiece.

The presence of Nusantara Legend animated films provides a
wider choice, not just for children, but also adults. Only, like
other recorded products, these particular animated films are also
vulnerable to the threat of piracy. That most VCDs available on
the market are pirated speaks volumes.