Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
Malaysia’s animation scene is nothing short of sensational with hits such as Upin & Ipin, Ejen Ali, and BoBoiBoy making waves and garnering attention and fans in children from all around the world. We’ve got the little ones occupied, but what about the ones who are getting up to go sit at the grown ups table?
Meet Hendra and Alet – the duo who wanted to create a Malaysian Adult Cartoon
Hendra and Alet came up with the idea of Tales Down Below in 2014. When MDEC made a call for pitching in 2018, they finally decided to put it on paper.
“The two main characters are based on me and my partner. The only person who knows this is our ex-boss,” Not anymore!
“The whole story is about our first working experience in 8TV, long working hours, low pay. And the characters are loosely based off personalities that we have met.
They even presented their concept to Netflix and Cartoon Network
“Back in its infancy, we took it to the Asian Animation Summit 2019 in Seoul, Korea and presented our concept to broadcasters such as Cartoon Network, Disney, Nickelodeon, BBC, and Netflix.
“MDEC was there to witness the feedback from these international broadcasters.”
After hearing from these big producers firsthand, that’s when MDEC gave them more funding to develop the project even further.
“When kids grow out of Ejen Ali and BoBoiBoy, they end up watching shows like The Simpsons and Futurama. We felt Malaysia didn’t have something to call our own. We aimed for that.” said Hendra as we spoke to him about the project.
Hendra says they have yet to see anyone else target this older market, apparently local broadcasters haven’t either. “We felt that Malaysians didn’t have something within that target age group to call our own,”. Tales Down Below making it would open the floodgates for more creators to make similar, more matured content, without crossing the line of course.
Finding a team through INSTAGRAM!
Despite graduating from animation, Hendra and Alet launched their careers with 8TV back in its early days doing live action programs like 8TV Quickie and Malaysian Idol (major throwback!).
“We were bored with live action and the pandemic opened our eyes to explore other things. Workflow from home was much simpler, there were less moving parts. When you give direction on Whatsapp, it’s all written down so it’s quite clear.”
Hendra and Alet found most of their team on Instagram during the pandemic. They scoured the social media app for a week, looking through the hashtags #malaysianartist and #malaysiandesigner in hopes of finding the perfect additions to their team.
“It was a bit difficult to convince them that we are legit by just DM-ing them on Instagram, but it turned out well and we’ve become good friends after these two and a half years.”
The creators work closely with an animation studio based here in Malaysia called Lil Critter Workshop who have their work on Netflix, Cartoon Networkm and Discovery kids – a strong portfolio.
Then, Zack and Sam were born and it looks amazing!
Tales Down Below is a paranormal animated comedy series featuring Zack and Sam, two teenage undead skeleton best friends who are just starting out in the adult world as they attempt to try and build themselves a future.
The show puts our beloved(and equally feared) mythical legends such as the pontianak, pocong, and karak highway yellow car centre-stage in spooky archetypes and shows that our local stories and folklore are just as entertaining as Bender and Philip (Futurama).
The show is created for BOTH parents & kids to enjoy
The script was created with the idea of co-viewing in mind – where the parent and kid can watch the same show, but take different things from it. The kid sees the action, colours, and the drama, whereas the parent listens to the dialogue, which might be a little naughtier.
“There are two other producers in our team who are parents, a couple. The mom keeps us under control. If she thinks we are crossing any lines or being insensitive, she will slap reality back into us.
“We do feel sometimes that we want to test the limits so we will record alternate dialogues when we are in the studio, it’s just a matter of choosing one when it’s time to animate.”
Well then, when can we see it?
The pilot episode alone took about 8 months to produce from start to finish. The work that goes into an animated series is meticulous and painstaking, but it’s all worth it for a project like this that has already broken into the international market!
“Once we’ve closed the budget gap, we’re looking at about 15 months for a season to come out.”.
The creators represented Malaysia at Annecy International Film Festival in France last week and brought Tales Down Below with them to look for partners and distributors to bring the series to life. A truly exciting step for our Malaysian animation scene!
You can find more updates on the show at www.talesdownbelow.com as well as @talesdownbelow on social media!
Know anyone with an interesting story to share? Drop us an email at hello@inreallife.my and we may feature the story!
For more stories like this, read:
I Lost My Job Due To The MCO, Then I Started An Online Service That Pays Me 5x More
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