xinmsn launches its first animated web-series, 'Blk 88'

xinmsn launches its first animated web-series, 'Blk 88' Following the success of Let’s Play Love, Singapore’s leading online portal, xinmsn will launch its first original animated web series entitled ‘Blk 88’ produced by Scrawl Studios, from 5 March 2012. ‘Blk 88’- is an animated web-series revolving around a typical middle-class Singaporean household.Parents Beng Huat and Bee Huay and their children Tommy and Tammy are a strangely dysfunctional family, aspiring a better life while facing the everyday harsh reality that makes it difficult to do so.

Following the success of Let’s Play Love, Singapore’s leading online portal, xinmsn will launch its first original animated web series entitled ‘Blk 88’ produced by Scrawl Studios, from 5 March 2012. ‘Blk 88’- is an animated web-series revolving around a typical middle-class Singaporean household.Parents Beng Huat and Bee Huay and their children Tommy and Tammy are a strangely dysfunctional family, aspiring a better life while facing the everyday harsh reality that makes it difficult to do so. Through their daily situations, encounters, conversations and rat-race existence, the series parodies the Singapore society, yet reflects its richness and diversity through these engaging, humorous and relatable characters.

Mr Moses Lye, Vice President, xinmsn,Interactive Media MediaCorp says, “We were quite encouraged by how positively the online citizens responded to our first web original, ‘Let’s Play Love’. Naturally, we are excited about this new piece, ‘Blk 88’ and are quietly confident that viewers would find it entertaining as well. We are pleased to be partnering Scrawl Studios and MDA in this effort and look forward to producing more web originals in the near future.”

Consisting of 14 five-minute episodes, these series are set out to be funny, satirical, provocative and razor-sharp. ‘Blk 88’ will be first made available on xinmsn and thereafter on Channel 8. From 20 February 2012, viewers can log onto xinmsn.com/blk88 for more details. Viewers and fans can also look forward to familiar voices fronting the various characters in the series. The stellar line-up includes MediaCorp veterans Huang Wen Yong and Lin Mei Jiao, as well as popular MediaCorp Radio personalities Lin Pei Fen and Xie Jia Fa. It will also feature a variety of guest voiceovers such as Dennis Chew, Michelle Chong, Chua EnLai, Cheng Shu Cheng and Qiu Shen Yang.

Mr Ervin Han, Vice President, Development, Scrawl Studios says “This is the first local animated comedy series and in many ways, we are breaking new ground with a concept like this, which is very exciting. The heartland comedy is a genre every Singaporean can relate to. With animation, we are able to bring a different style and tone to the comedic storyline that will be both entertaining and refreshing to our viewers. It is also the first time viewers will have a chance to see household names like Wenyong, Meijiao, Peifen and Jiafa lend their voices to animated characters, which should be a lot of fun”.

‘Blk 88’ follows from the MDA-MediaCorp xinmsn ‘Call for Proposal’. This initiative was first announced in December 2010 and was designed to develop, finance, and distribute a slate of original web productions by Singapore producers for first release on MediaCorp’s xinmsn video platform. The next call for ideas from production companies under this Initiative will be launched in early March 2012. Mr Yeo Chun Cheng, Director of Broadcast, Animation, Film & Music, Media Development Authority says, “We are happy to be able to support Singapore’s independent producers in the development of original web productions that can reach out to audiences beyond traditional platforms. The collaboration between Scrawl Studios and xinmsn is a timely one which reflects the changing media consumption habits of audiences today and demonstrates the multi-platform potential of our media content. We encourage more homegrown producers to tap on the vast opportunities in developing media products that can move across different platforms.” xinmsn, the online bilingual entertainment and lifestyle portal jointly developed by Microsoft and MediaCorp, has seen tremendous growth since its debut in April 2010 and has become Singapore's top portal attracting more than 1.5 million unique visitors+ and also Singapore’s top video site with over 5 million streams per month+. For more information, please visit xinmsn.com + Nov Comscore