The Destiny of a “Baby” Industry: Turkish Animation

Nazlı Eda Noyan

doi:10.37390/avancacinema.2020.a202

Abstract

The word “destiny” is rooted in the word “destination”, the place where someone is going. In order to draw a map for our journey we have to know where we are standing and we have to have a groundwork. Animation in Turkey dates back to the first animation experimentations of Turkish cartoonists and the first public screening of Disney’s “The Skeleton Dance” in 1932. The pioneering animations are either unfinished, lost or obscure. Just like the doomed faith of the first -unfinished- animated feature film project “Once Upon a Time” that has been carried out for almost 9 years or the questionable and -sued- authenticity of the first highly popular domestic cartoon character on Turkish TV, animation in Turkey have so many low points. Nevertheless there is a growing number of domestic feature films with record breaking number of audiences. Animation education is only 30 years old with little number of departments devoted to it, -yet- the numbers are growing. “Design Centers” are established by the encouragement of Turkish Ministry of Industry and Technology to support animation studios, professional associations are forming, intellectual property rights are the talk of the day, the academy and industry interaction is getting stronger, little festivals flourish... These are indeed turning points for the -baby- animation industry in Turkey. We need to study this map in order to get to our destination: a mature industry with established work ethics, high artistic standards and rich economic outcome and make a good destiny out of it.

Highlights

Shadow play, a visual storytelling tradition with immense impact on animation goes back to centuries ago we can state animation in Turkey started with the first animation experimentations of Turkish cartoonists and the first public screening of Disney’s “The Skeleton Dance” in 1932
A baby -in this case animation in Turkey- is born into a condition, a family, a destiny
“Design Centers” are established by the encouragement of Turkish Ministry of Industry and Technology to support animation studios, professional associations are forming, intellectual property rights are the talk of the day, the academy and industry interaction is getting stronger, little festivals flourish

Summary

Introduction

Shadow play, a visual storytelling tradition with immense impact on animation goes back to centuries ago we can state animation in Turkey started with the first animation experimentations of Turkish cartoonists and the first public screening of Disney’s “The Skeleton Dance” in 1932. It became the only buyer and initiator of children’s animation series in Turkey and boost the industry in a different direction other than commercials and vfx,. After TRT Çocuk started broadcasting, it initiated and reinforced local and historical characters This reinforcement had a downside with the understanding of animation as solely as educational material. Recently, there is a transition from historical characters to original characters with more universal and emotional sensitivity They are with local flavor, projects like Kral Şakir by Varol Yaşaroğlu could reach a vast audience in MENA and south American as well as Turkey in the recent years. Number of production of feature films and the record breaking number of audiences is promising (boxofficeturkiye, 2020)

Film Rafadan Tayfa Göbeklitepe

Kral Şakir Oyun Zamanı

Findings

Conclusion