Animonsta Brings Local Hero To Southeast Asia

An exclusive by Nor Baizura Basri KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 (Bernama) -- Animonsta Sdn Bhd, the creator of the 3D animated series "Boboiboy", plans to expand the reach of the local hero to the Southeast Asia region as part of its strategy to penetrate the international animation scene. Its Creative Director Muhammad Anas Abdul Aziz said Animonsta has signed an agreement with Global TV Indonesia to broadcast Boboiboy in April. Currently, Boboiboy is shown in local private TV3 and Disney Channel. The company is looking at other broadcasters in the Southeast Asia region. "Through Disney Channel, we (Boboiboy) is number one in the Philippines and Malaysia and top three in Singapore. We see a big potential to bring the product to the international stage. This is our main ambition for this year," said Muhammad Anas, who is also the company's co-founder, to Bernama in an interview. The animation series, currently undergoing second season production, is a story about a group of super kids who fight against aliens who want to invade the earth for their cocoa beans. The second season, with 26 episodes, will be shown on TV3 at end-May. Besides the animation series, the company was aggressively pursuing the series' merchandises, said Muhammad Anas. Despite having to compete with piracy products that are circulating in the market, the company was still making profit from its merchandise due to the diverse range of products offered by its licensees. "We are still profitable eventhough there are pirated products because we manage to reach out to the market faster than the pirated ones. "At the same time, we are also looking at ways on how we can penetrate the night markets," he said. Currently, their merchandises range from stationeries, clothes, food, dvds and mobile contents. Meanwhile, operations director and co-founder Kee Yong Pin said royalties from merchandises will start rolling in by March. "We are getting about 10 to 15 per cent from the selling price of these products in the market. At the moment, we have about 10 to 15 licensees who are selling our merchandises," he said. Kee said merchandises could be a strong contributor to the company's revenue, with 70 per cent contribution, while the balance will come from broadcasting. Apart from television series and merchandises, the studio has plans for Boboiboy film and mobile games in future, added Muhammad Anas. The company, established in 2009, is a brand and content developer, which aims to bring its creations overseas. It hopes to pave the way for other local content developers to the international arena. -- BERNAMA