Thailand's OPA studios and Malaysia's Xtreme Visual to co-produce 'Super Panda'

Thailand based OPA studios has recently signed a deal with Malaysian Xtreme Visual for the development of a 3D series (52 episodes x 11 mins) 'Super Panda'. The two-year project is funded by Sipa Co-Production under Digital Media Asia 2010 (DMA 2010) to promote Thailand's creative industry, and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC ) in Malaysia. Both governments and both companies will contribute at least 25 million baht to the project so the total project will be 100 million baht.

Super Panda is about a hero bear who has a mission to save animals from threats of natural disasters and human sabotage. It is intended that 20-30 percent of the content will be designed to educate young viewers about environmental issues. With the common goal of raising their international profile, Thailand's OPA Studio and Malaysia's Visual Xtreme agreed to the co-production with the support of both governments, said Apichai Akkachaichanvet, Managing Director of OPA.Nik Marzuki, Managing Director, Visual Xtreme shared, "The Pre-production aspects such as character design, story and backgrounds will be handled by OPA, while post-production aspects such as voiceovers, localisation and sound effects will be done at our studio".

Apichal continued,"We have spent six million baht and two years researching our target group and designing characters and producing a trailer that will appeal to them. In discussing the project and its market potential with third parties, we have received positive feedback, helping secure the co-production deal with Malaysia.

The target audience is between 6 to 12 years old, and initially English speaking market."

Lak Taechawanchai, the Chairman of Thai Animation & Computer Graphics Association said, "This joint collaboration can strengthen both countries' appeal to the international market. This project is a good starting point to expand Thailand's animation opportunities and the combined strength of the two companies will help them expand together. In the new fiscal year, Sipa will allocate funds to continue DMA projects to help promote and sustain the industry."
Nik concluded, "The trailer has been shown to several distributers around the world, and we have got very positive feedback from most of them."