Malaysian animation

Animation in Malaysia (Malay: Animasi; Jawi: انيماسي) has origins in the puppetry style of wayang kulit, wherein the characters are controlled by the puppeteer, or Tok Dalang.

The art of shadow play inspired German filmmaker Lotte Reiniger to create the animated The Adventures of Prince Achmed in 1926 that was based on one of the stories in the 1001 Nights.

The Malayan Film Unit was created by the British colonialists in 1946 with the intent to produce documentaries and public service announcements of the government and later renamed Filem Negara Malaysia.

Having these production companies in the country led to the legitimisation of animation as an art form and career path, and training schools and programs were instituted.

This extended to the use of digital technology in production houses, predominantly the direct-to-system method of drawing into the computer pioneered by Kamn Ismail.

Also, Malaysia became the first and only ASEAN country for its animated film to make it through the Academy Award nominations via Upin & Ipin: Keris Siamang Tunggal in 2020.

This grant was launched in 2009 to support the creation and development or co-development of Intellectual Properties under the Animation, Games & Computer Graphics sectors of the creative cluster.

A series of meetings to form ANIMAS began in April 2001 and the 1st pro-tem committee met at Cempaka Sari Room, FINAS (the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia), Ampang, Selangor on 17 May 2001.

Hassan Abd Muthalib has been invited to Japan and China to present papers on the Malaysian animation industry a number of times.

In 2004, a seminar was organised with the collaboration of the French Embassy, Goethe-Institut Malaysia and FINAS at Balai Senilukis Negara (National Visual Arts Gallery).

MONSTA often produces short films about Eid al-Fitr specials every year[9][10] and some of them hit the trending charts in YouTube Malaysia and Indonesia.