Philippine Animation Magazine - From Anima Dreams Inc.

From Anima Dreams Inc. website:
http://www.animadreams-online.com/

AnimaDreams, Inc. believes in the creativity of the Filipino artists. The vision is for the Philippine animation industry to be recognized as content providers for local, Asia Pacific and European markets. The company seeks to use its resources to showcase locally produced animated original content to illustrate Philippine animation capability. It shall be a vehicle for opportunities to make public the quality of Philippine animators and demonstrate their full potential. It believes that to maintain and sustain the quality of Philippine animation, there should be a continuous supply of world class artists and animators.

The Philippine Animation Magazine produced and published by AnimaDreams is a pet project. This is a quarterly magazine with stories about Filipino animators, game developers and animation training. Every issue shall feature a local content or a local talent and an animation studio or an animation school. It will tackle both trends in the markets and events/happening in Asia and the world on animation. It will also talk about the latest technology. It will be an avenue for artists/animators to showcase their ideas, character designs and their thoughts on Philippine animation.

Its goal is to inspire, motivate and encourage local artists to create something of their own while showing the world the full potential of Filipino animators.

This Philippine Animation Magazine shall be an advertisement of Filipino creativity to be brought in Asia and in Europe.

We believe and would like to pursue a dream: to let it be known that Filipinos are capable of creating and developing animation content from script to screen.


Good news for everyone who wants to tackle more about Philippine animation. The Philippine Animation Magazine was launch last March 26 this year at Central Plaza Eastwood City (Whoa, almost two or three weeks passed I think.). The magazine features about Philippine animation as well as the staff behind the animation. It also features news and programs about the latest animation trends for everyone.

Check out the official website of Anima Dreams Inc. (the publisher who created the Philippine Animation Magazine) located at the top of this entry especially their magazine cover. According to their site, the magazine release four issues every year. The entries contain the first issue is available to check out for those who never went to the event last March 26th. I never grab a copy because I got final exams to loomed but that's another story. I even asked a question to their site where will buy next issues. Philippine Animation Magazine surely spread the information to many Filipino people as well as from other countries.

Wonder Pets

Before I get through this entry, I would like to apologize for being absent for previous few weeks because I'm finishing my final exam in college I studied. Our final exam seemed to be hard but oh well, starting next week I'm going to take a break from school studies for a while.

I couldn't help watching this show from Nick Jr. Wonder Pets is another television show which premiered in 2006 in Nickelodeon cable network then premiered last year on TV5 in the Philippines. The show features three (cute) pets from a small elementary school who saves different animals every episode. Linny the Guinea Pig, the leader of Wonder Pets and she's also the most intelligent of the group, Tuck the Turtle, a sweet male turtle fellow and also emphatetic of the group (he loves to put their saved animals for company), and Ming-Ming the Duckling who is overconfident and she speaks stutterly.

The animation Wonder Pets used "photo-puppetry" which contained photographed animals and manipulate them to be animated. Scenes also show drawn objects which the program may be considered having mixed media format. The best of that show aside from being educational, is their musical and orchestral theme. Dialogues and storylines are actually followed with mix of musical. It is goes something like this:

-Children says goodbye to Linny, Tuck and Ming-Ming before they go home
- Then a tin can telephone ring and the pets answer it.
-The three heroes dress their capes and hats to be Wonder Pets then they assemble their vehicle called "Flyboat".
- Usually there is an obstacle where Wonder Pets need to solve before they leave the school.
-They rush of to school while they sing then goes to a place where they will rescue an animal.
-At that location, the Wonder Pets tried few attempts on how to rescue until they remembered the solution like they did before leaving school.
-When an animal is saved, a relative (usually a parent) pops up somewhere to thank Wonder Pets for rescuing his/her baby.
-As a reward, the Wonder Pets celebrate by eating celery sticks (sometimes adds it with flavor). In some episodes, the Wonder Pets are rewarded from the animals they met.
- They returned to the school. The Flyboat disassembled itself while the Wonder Pets returned to their cages. Then, before an episode ends, Linny takes a bite of celery and winks in front of the camera.

What I like the show are their songs especially when TV5 decided to dub it into Tagalog. It is very somewhat similar for singing opening theme songs from Bananas and Pajamas or Batibot. Here are the catchy lyrics from Tagalog-dubbed Wonder Pets:

Si Linny, Tuck, at si Ming Ming
Ang Wonder Pets tutulong sa inyo
Anong kailangan? Magtulungan!
Anong kailangan? MAGTULUNGAN!

Wonder Pets, Wonder Pets
Ngayon ay masaya
Hindi malalaki at hindi malalakas
Pero pag nagtulungan lahat nalulutas
GO WONDER PETS! Yehey!

Catch Wonder Pets on TV5 Mondays to Wednesdays every early mornings.

Tweenage Dora the Explorer (aka Dora the Streetwalker)

The original Dora

She speaks both Spanish and English, has a best friend monkey, a bag and a map on her side and also loves adventures. Yup, she's Dora from Dora the Explorer one of the current Nick Jr.'s show. But what if the creators of the show and Nickelodeon decided to make Dora as a teenager? We bet we're gonna be surprised if we found out the image you see below:

Dora in her tweenage makeover

If you have a Nickelodeon network on your cables or free-TV's out there and watched many episodes of Dora the Explorer, you'll get mixed reactions about that picture. According to the Wikipedia article about the show especially to the article from Google here, Mattel and Nickelodeon announced that Dora will have a tweenage makeover and also attends middle school. The new look will reveal sometime around fall this year but the image (like you see above) revealed to the public last March 16th. After revealing the image, many parents made mixed complaints about the plans that both Mattel and Nickelodeon made but soothes down for a moment. The reason why Dora turned into grown-up because Dora suppose to be a "role model" for young girls not being a "fashionista". The issue is still misunderstood by complaining parents and they demanded as a request that Dora should be the same 6-year-old girl like on TV.

It is unknown whether tweenage Dora will be appear in a TV sequel after Dora the Explorer (not the spin-off like Go! Diego! Go! which featured her cousin Diego). In the meantime, merchandises will sell first but unknown it will be ever reach in the Philippines. To me, the new look of Dora seems not a bad idea because of her Latina look but I prefer she should wear pants and T-shirt for more adventurous look. Honestly, aside from T-shirts and pants I would rather feel discourage to Nickelodeon who pushes some of their popular cartoon characters beyond far for just of their business - not the viewer's demand. We don't have to worry because tweenage Dora is still Dora we knew before who teach bilingual languages, encounter many friends and gets many adventures. I'm not sure what Boots looks like when he grows-up too *shrugs*.

Matanglawin TV Series

It was Sunday morning while I took a break from reviewing for upcoming exam, I changed the channel on our TV and later seen a show that looks interesting. Matanglawin the show's title aired every Sunday mornings at 11:00 on ABS-CBN. The show hosted by the trivia king of Umagang Kay Ganda Kim Atienza and features about the facts about nature, traveling and their mysteries in the Philippines at the same time. As the title suggest, Kuya Kim's take on the vantage point of a Philippine eagle (Mapanuri, Mapagmatyag, Mapangahas) and he also faces breathtaking challenges such as entering deep caves or climbing mountain rocks.

I'm not much a Kapamilya fan but I really interested that show because it's really educational for everyone even for children. The stunts of every challenges Kuya Kim take doesn't have any stuntmen and instead personally done by himself. Besides, ABS-CBN did fit the schedule for airing Matanglawin as every viewer's routine. Matanglawin is a recommended show for everyone especially who wants to relax in Sundays. One Youtube user uploaded the opening billboard of Matanglawin here.

Don't forget to check out their official website in Multiply here. Also, check them out in ABS-CBN's official website here.

Gokusen 3 Soon Air This Month

GMA Network's title card of Gokusen season 1 and 2.

Kozueko Morimoto's Gokusen made finally into live-action series since 2002. Gokusen tells about Kumiko Yamaguchi (nicknamed "Yakumi"), the granddaughter of a Yakuza boss and teacher of all-boys private high school. At first, Yakumi's students are mischievous but thanks to Yakumi's hard-work in academics and life lessons they both hang-up together when it comes to solving school and life problems.

A much awaited new season of Gokusen will finally air again on GMA this month. The season 3 of Gokusen which originally aired last year on Japan is finally picked up by GMA and decided to air it soon. A teaser commercial of Gokusen 3 was shown from GMA last March 1, 2009. According to the teaser, the new season will air on March 23rd this year and we in the Philippines is the first country will watch that show. Let's hope GMA Network never bails this plan for airing the show.

Oh wait, this is not actually the first time I post about J-Dorama or teen program.