An animated feature film about an abandoned elephant that saves Thailand from an invasion is spearheading the country's push into the multi-billion dollar global animation industry.
Thailand is banking on the success of the movie, which is being released in Asian cinemas this month, as it prepares its challenge to longtime powerhouses Japan and South Korea as the capital of Asian animation.
"The animation industry in Thailand is much more developed than in Singapore and Malaysia, where no feature animation film has been made," said Auchara Kijkanjanas whose company made the 90-minute movie called Khan Kluay.
PHOTO: AFP
"We have seen significant developments in Thailand recently in terms of craftsmanship and creativity," said Auchara, vice-president of Kantana Animation.
Costing 150 million baht (US$3.4 million), the 3D movie whose name means "pretending to ride a horse on a banana leaf," was the first produced entirely in Thailand.
Auchara hopes the flick, plus the investment in Bangkok's annual international film festival which began in 2003, will focus attention on Thailand and its plan to become a low-cost base for producing quality animation.
More than 90 percent of animation for films and television shows in the US is produced in Asia, mainly in Japan and South Korea. India and China are also emerging as a regional rivals.
With five major animation companies already operating, Thailand is vying for a slice of that market by becoming an alternative outsourcing destination for Hollywood and European animation projects.
"Global outsourcing has moved from North America and Europe to the Asia-Pacific where producers offer cheaper production costs and competitive wages for almost the same quality of animated products," said an analyst from the Kasikorn research firm, which has investigated the market for Thailand's industry.
Thailand has already made solid inroads, selling television cartoon series to China and South Korea where they have proved popular.
Chinese cable channel CCTV is interested in co-producing one of the next series for its subscribers, said Santi Laohaburanakit, managing director of Vithita, the firm that made them.
Thailand also aims to become a leader in animation software, cashing in on a growing demand for the technology in computer games and mobile phones as well as in movies. Animated content accounts for 12 percent of the global digital content market and is expected to be worth US$271.3 million next year.
Research conducted for the industry estimates the export value of Thailand's software will reach 80 billion baht by 2008. But Thailand faces tough challenges in its battle for market share as India is expected to sign US$950 million in outsourcing contracts alone with Hollywood animation houses for delivery by 2009.
And Japan, which produces 60 percent of the world's animation, has moved into China, seen as a burgeoning market for animation.
Thailand's industry is rallying though and the government has promised to help. The stock Market for Alternative Investment signed a memorandum of understanding with the government's Software Industry Promotion Agency to promote Thailand as the "Hollywood of Asia" in the digital content industry.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats