Will Dubai International Character & Licensing Fair launch the Animation industry in Arabia?

Dubai International Character & Licensing Fair, the first dedicated trade event in the Middle East for marketing and licensing of cartoon characters, logos, films, brands, arts & designs. The exhibition will be organized in Dubai between October 28 – 30, 2008.

Having such an event means that companies in the Middle East are getting a little bit serious about animation being a potential industry. The event seems to be promising, and I hope that I can attend. While I was browsing their website, I came across this character, Jumjum, I didn’t like it, you can do much better with a camel, maybe they see something in it, but personally I didn’t like it.

Animation industry is growing in the Middle East, it’s still in its early stages, but few interesting initiatives have been launched such as Freej, it’s a funny show, I liked it, it’s about 4 old UAE national women living in a secluded neighborhood in modern day Dubai, where they try to live a peaceful life and to tackle new social issues that are being unveiled by the continuous expansion of the city. I liked the and the style of the animation, and the details of each object in the show.

Sha3beyt Al-Cartoon is another Khaliji animation series that tackles day-to-day life in the Arabian Gulf countries, it’s a funny show, and I really liked the animation, it goes 3D sometimes, it’s amazing!

Super Hinadi is a new cartoon show about a private inspector who is trying to solve mysteries, beginning with the disappearance of his grandfather, the interesting thing about this show that the characters are inspired by real actors, the looks are exactly the same, and the real actors are performing the voice over; Hinadi is the Egyptian actor Mohamed Hinadi, Husni is Hasan Husni, Sal3at is Tal3at Zakaria. I didn’t watch the show, but I like Hasan Husni and Tal3at Zakaria, they are funny.

Fwazeer Khashom wa Zaggom, is a comedy show about the Bukhashims, a weird family in the camels and lambs business, the main character are two idiot brothers, and the first Arabic-cloned-sheep that can talk. I didn’t like the animations in this one, I do prefer details like in Freej and Sha3beyt Al-Cartoon.

The Middle East succeeded in attracting global attention, Rubicon is working on producing international animation series such Pink Panther and Angel Cat Sugar in its offices in Amman and Dubai, which I consider a very good step ahead.

But I believe we need more Middle Eastern stuff, the jackpot would be a character like Bugs Bunny or Pink Panther, or some sort of a duet like Tom & Jerry, something Arabian, something that can live for years.

Take a look at the event!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 11:44 am and is filed under Amazing, Arabia, Cool, Events, Interesting, Jordan, Media, Stuff, UAE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.