Indonesian Animation's pride: Castle Productions' Kabayan & Lip Lap, 104 episodes and still going strong

JAKARTA:  Almost every country within the Asia Pacific region has one or more indigenously developed Iconic animation characters, with shows airing locally and rising high on the popularity quotient. In the case of Indonesia, one of the fore runners is Kabayan & Lip Lap produced by Jakarta based Castle Production.

The show of 104 episodes of 12 minutes each were premiered in August 2008 on TVRI for 52 episodes for four months and now another 40 episodes are being aired on GlobalTV. The production of this series is still running strong.

Kabayan & Liplap is themed around traveling and adventures, highlighting the cultural and creative richness of Indonesia. It also promotes cultural harmony with its ensemble of characters which is a group of friends all hailing from various ethnic tribes.

As with any successful television series, Kabayan & Lip Lap too has its range of merchandise and licensed products including books, stationery, apparel, ring tones, wallpapers, mobile game, etc. The show also has its own website and fans club, and presence on social media such as Facebook.

Speaking to Animation Xpress Asia Pacific, Castle Production Director Maria Tjhin shared, "Kabayan & Lip Lap is the first local animation children series that is produced 100% by local talents. This project was initiated by the Ministry of Trade of Republic Indonesia. Since the establishment of our company, we have been working and producing with and for overseas clients and partners; therefore our company was known as an exporter rather than local producer for animation content. And in 2007 we were challenged by the Ministry of Trade of Republic of Indonesia, if we can produce any local contents. And we took the challenge because we saw the lack of Indonesian contents for young children."

"And in early August 2008 when this series were launched to the public, it was announced by the Ministry of Trade of RI and the first Lady of Indonesia in a very special event "The Indonesia Creative month". The reason they wanted to endorse this program was because Animation is one of the area of Creative Industry that the government is focusing on, and also the content of the programs that we produced are really about the Indonesian pride. We re-introduced Indonesia children to their culture and strengths. While some of the episodes are edutainment based, others are completely entertainment based. Our series was also lauded by the honorable President of Indonesia, Mr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono while he announced the year 2009 as The Indonesia Creative Year" she added with Pride.

Established in 1997 as a production house, Castle Productions got into an animation focus in 1999. Currently the team strength at the studio is 120 people of which close to 60 artists have been working for the past two years since production began on Kabayan Lip Lap. The company is also working on 3 International outsourced projects which includes The Torchlighter Series, The story of St.Therese and Voice of Martyl Story Telling Book all for US based clients and two other Intellectual properties of its own including Words of The Day and Boni & Friends for pre-schoolers and young children for the domestic market.