The Egyptian cinema is currently gearing up for producing the first Arab children cartoon film entitled Al Fares Wa Al Amirah (Knight and Prince), according to the Arabic daily Al Sharq Al Awsat.
The film will be of the same style as Walt Disney films such as Lion the King, Anastasia and others.
The film tells about the story, based on the Arab heritage at the beginning of the Omawiyyah State, of an Arab warrior called Mohammed bin Qasem Al Thakafi who conquered the Sind countries while he was 16. He got acquainted with a princess whom he loved and wedded.
“It is an Arab legend representing a marvelous beginning for cartoon films where imagination is abundant and landscapes have special features in such films. Even in the western successful and fantastic cartoons have been based on Arabic tales such as Aladdin and the Magic Lantern,” the film director and writer, Bashir Al Dik told the paper.
He added, “the film includes many shows and eight songs written and composed by an elite group of young artists. Also a number stars play roles in the film including Omar Al Sherif, Mohammed Henaidi, Angham, Abdel Rahman Abu Zahra, Medhat Saleh and others.
The film will be produced by Sihr Company for Cartoons, which allocated more than two million dollars, which is considered a hefty budget for a cartoon film.
Ten full minutes of shooting have been wrapped up including pictures, motions, backgrounds, sound recording and editing. The results were amazing because the team participating in the film included young graduates of arts and graphic colleges. Also cartoonist Mustafa Hussein participated in the film with drawing the main characters.”
It is anticipated that the film production which started two and a half years ago would be wrapped up after one year as the whole work needs four years to be fully completed because it needs efforts and time 10 times the normal films. For example one second of the film time needs 24 workers in the features, backgrounds and motion. The film screening time exceeds 90 minutes.
“We hope that the film will be amazing as we dream so that it will suit us as Arabs to participate with it in international festivals. But the most important thing is that it should succeed and meet the audience satisfaction in order for us to us to pave the way for an ongoing innovative work. Everybody was scared of this new experience,” added the film writer and director – Albawaba.com
