News from Myanmar Times Journal

Disgusted by piracy, top animator quits industry
By Ye Kaung Myint Maung
DESPITE winning second prize at the ASEAN New Media Arts Competition in Indonesia in February, a local animator said last week that he has had enough of trying to survive in an industry plagued by piracy.
Ko Wunna Kyaw, the art director & owner of Wunna Kyaw Media Production, and co-animator Ko Thura Thein Tin, had been awarded second prize in the Moving Images category at the competition for their three-dimensional computer animation movie titled Htoo Htoo and Wonder Island.
The animators were recognised for their achievement on May 5 at a ceremony held at Myanmar Info-Tech in Yangon, where U Aung Bwar, the director general of the Department of ASEAN Affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, handed them a trophy and cash award.
Ko Wunna Kyaw, the main animator and producer of the movie, told The Myanmar Times that he thought the animated feature was awarded because it was compatible with the competition’s theme, “Interactions in Cultural Diversity”.
“The main idea presented in the story is the unity of two different peoples and their abilities to overcome challenges through harmony and understanding,” he said.
The animated feature tells the tale of how an orphan named Htoo Htoo and an ogre named Mr Strong overcome their differences and work together to defeat a group of hostile sea creatures.
Ko Wunna Kyaw said the original version of Htoo Htoo and Wonder Island was 55 minutes long and was intended for commercial distribution.
But to meet the rules of the ASEAN competition, he had to edit it down to 15 minutes, add English subtitles and add a narrative voiceover to the dialogue of the two main characters, whose voices were provided by child singer Pho La Pyae and actor Kyaw Ye Aung.
Despite the prize, Ko Wunna Kyaw – who has produced three animated features based comics, several short educational films for UNICEF and World Vision and more than 200 animated television advertisements – said he was fed up with trying to survive in the industry.
“The commercial version of Htoo Htoo and Wonder Island, although popular with audiences, failed to make a profit because of widespread piracy,” he said. Nonetheless, he urged local animators and cartoonists to participate in next year’s competition to gain valuable international experience.