Arjun Animated Movie
Niklas Terki
A big moment for me was getting a copy of Preston Blairs animation books from my mother when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Like all kids, I loved cartoons, but these books were my first glimpse into how they were actually created, and I instantly wanted to make cartoons. Many years later, when I was working in the tech industry, I decided that I didnt want to spend the rest of my life wondering what would have happened if I had actually pursued my childhood dream. So I applied to USCs animation school and was lucky enough to get in.
It was awesome. I really loved being part of USCs MFA animation program. Since I didnt have any prior art training, I immersed myself in my classes to learn as much as I possibly could, whether it was hand-drawn or stop-motion or computer animation. I was fortunate to have my student films screen at festivals like Annecy, Hiroshima and the San Francisco International Film Festival, and win a few awards as well. This was great exposure and helped me connect with other filmmakers and industry professionals. Through it all, the guidance and mentorship I received from the faculty was invaluable.
I help shoot the film, which means that, in a virtual environment on a computer, I help design shots for the film. Specifically, I work on camera placement and movement as well as character staging and rough blocking. I use storyboards as reference and get to collaborate closely with the director, director of photography and editorial, plus several other teams that handle the sets, effects, etc.
Coco is really special because it is the first Pixar feature film thats set in a different culture. Its a gorgeous film that celebrates the rich traditions and culture of Mexico and Dia de los Muertos. Most importantly, at the core of Coco is a terrific, emotional story about family that will resonate with all audiences.
Tell the kind of stories that you want to see, not what youve already seen. Less is more. Choose a simpler project, but execute it as well as you possibly can. Seek out mentors. Show your work to professionals or independents depending on your interests. And most importantly, finish your films!
The future of animation is not going to be confined to the screen. As a child, I always hated that the television separated me from Donald Duck, He-Man and my other favorite characters, and Im particularly excited about virtual and augmented reality because these technologies will blur the lines between real and animated worlds. But besides new technologies, animation is also part of the conversation around inclusion, diversity and representation in film. The future is going to be about new types of stories and fresh storytellers from all backgrounds, which makes it a really exciting time to be a student.
I genuinely feel that Ramayana and Mahabharata are most fascinating and spellbinding stories. These epics are simply perfect, unique and beyond compare. Naturally, it doesn't come as a surprise that Ramayana and Mahabharata have inspired film-makers in every decade. Though narrated inestimable times on celluloid, director Arnab Chaudhuri attempts an animated mythological that makes you sit back and relish the legend on screen -- ARJUN THE WARRIOR PRINCE.
Told with elegance, ARJUN THE WARRIOR PRINCE catches your attention for varied reasons: The animation, which is vivacious and vibrant, the energetic combat scenes, but most importantly, it's narrated in the most simplistic manner. For those who're well aware, and even those who aren't, it's a faithful retelling of one of our favorite stories. Even the speech is not chaste Sanskrit and strikes a chord with the viewer.
The epic animated feature narrates the heroic journey of the legendary warrior prince, Arjun, from the days of his youthful innocence to his emergence as a valiant hero, who single-handedly took on an entire army. It explores his life with his brothers in Hastinapur, his training and education and his ultimate discovery of the warrior within himself.
While ARJUN THE WARRIOR PRINCE takes a step frontward as far as the animation is concerned -- the conception artists have worked really hard to recreate the era, while the animators breathe life into them -- the two issues that I have with the film is [i] The leisurely pacing, at times, destabilizes these efforts and [ii] The culmination seems abrupt. Ideally, one would've expected the storyteller to include the historic Kurukshetra war between Pandavas and Kauravas, but it concludes prior to that. Seems like the director was in a tearing rush to conclude the film.
Yet, despite the inadequacies, I'd like to make a special note of the animatronics here, which is more refined than the animation films made in India. The animation is not superlative, but much superior to most we've witnessed thus far. If you've braved the animation films made in India in the past, this one will come as a pleasant and welcome change.
Arjun Rihan '08 has worked on some of Pixar's biggest animated movies such as Brave, Finding Dory, and its latest film Coco, which celebrates the richness of Mexico's culture and Dia De Los Muertos. Arjun credits his success to SCA's Hench Animation program, which gave him the necessary tools and mentorship to create Topi. This award winning, USC thesis film garnered the attention of Pixar, where he has been working for the past nine years, since graduating from SCA.
ArjunDirected byArnab ChaudhuriProduced byRonnie Screwvala Siddharth Roy KapurMusic byVishal ShekharCinematography byHemant ChaturvediStudio(s)UTV Motion Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
IBC AnimationDistributorIBC Motion PicturesReleasedMay 25, 2012LanguageHindiSourceArjun: The Warrior Prince is a 2012 Indian animated action film. The film is directed by Arnab Chaudhuri and produced by UTV Motion Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures. The film was released in India on May 25, 2012.
The story is based on the early life of the Pandava brothers, loosely taken from the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. The storyline begins with Arjun as a nine-year-old boy and follows him until his adulthood. It explores his life with his brothers in Hastinapur (his native city), his training and education, and his ultimate discovery of the warrior within himself.
She tells him that Arjun was a student of the warrior-sage Drona and that he learned the art of warfare from him. He was more skilled than all the students of Drona. None of his own brothers nor his cousins - the hundred Kaurvas - could equal him in the art. Duryodhana and the other Kaurvas despised the Pandavas, for they feared that they might usurp Duryodhana's throne. When King Dhritrashtra grew older, the rivalry between his sons, the Kaurvas and the Pandavas, intensified. Twice, Duryodhana attempted to kill all the Pandavas but failed. To avoid further conflict, Dhritrashtra proclaimed Duryodhana as the crown prince of Hastinapur and asked Yudhisthira to be the king of a distant unkempt territory of the empire.
In the meantime, Arjun won a swayamvar (trial) and married Princess Draupadi. Duryodhana, who loathed the Pandavas, hatched a conspiracy with his uncle Shakuni and won all that belonged to the Pandavas in a betting game called chaupar (similar to ludo). After losing everything, Yudhisthira and the other Pandavas, according to the game's rules, had to go into exile for twelve years and an agyatavasa (disguise) for one year. While all the Pandavas go one way, Arjuna travels North to do Tapasya (penance). Before leaving, Draupadi makes him promise that he will take revenge for her insult. He then leaves and does Tapasya, during which he earns a bow from Lord Shiva, one of his patron gods.
The story then shifts back to the present-day Viratnagar, where the Pandavas are spending their year of disguise and are noticed by some of the spies of Duryodhana. According to the game's outcome, if any one of the Pandavas is found before the end of that one year, the Pandavas will have to again go for a twelve-year exile. The spy informs Duryodhana that the Pandavas are in Viratnagar. So he launches an attack on Viratnagar with the help of his bandit friends. The king of Viratnagar leaves to thrash the marauding bandits, but Duryodhana's army attacks the unprotected capital, and it seems that the young prince of Viratnagar is the only one who is left to fight. He is then inspired by Arjun.
Arjun: The Warrior Prince was also in the running for Indian Selection for Oscar 2013 Nomination in the Category of Best Foreign Film. This is the first time ever in the history of the Indian Selection Process that an Animation film has been considered.
Place, space, territory are notions which are constantly being problematized bycontemporary cultural productions and critical theories. Paul VirilioVirilio, Paul, and Sylvere Lotringer. Crepuscular Dawn. Trans. MikeTaormina. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2002., for example, suggests that we are entering a new nomadic era(71) and Eva Rueschmann Rueschmann, Eva. Moving Pictures, Migrating Identities. Jackson:University Press of Mississippi, 2003.(ix) calls attention tothe issues raised in a world on the move where global cultures are increasingly mobileand disperse (even if connected in complex ways). By the same token, Etienne Balibar Balibar, Etienne. Politics and the Other Scene. New York: Verso,2002.discusses the relation betweencapitalism and the dispersal of peoples, showing that there are those who circulatecapital and those whom capital circulates (83). What we have is a panorama where pairssuch as global/local, centre/periphery, here/there, national/transnational,inclusion/exclusion are questioned as the borders separating their terms are graduallybeing blurred.
In tandem with such perspectives, Arjun AppaduraiAppadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions ofGlobalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,2005.suggests that the modern world "is now an interactive system in a sense that isstrikingly new. [...] [It] involves interactions of a new order and intensity" (27). ForAppaduraiAppadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions ofGlobalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,2005., the newness of our contemporaryworld stems from the rapid advances of technology "in the domain of transportation andinformation" (29) in such a degree that it has affected and largely multiplied theinteractions between cultures in unprecedented ways, coming close to what Gilles Deleuze and Felix GuattariDeleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. Mil Plats: Capitalismo eEsquizofrenia. Vol. 5. Trans. Peter Pl Pelbart and Janice Caiafa. So Paulo:Editora 34, 2005., in their AThousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, have called a"rhizomic" world. A world that is "even schizophrenic, calling for theories ofrootlessness, alienation, and psychological distance between individuals and groups onthe one hand, and fantasies (or nightmares) of electronic propinquity on the other"(AppaduraiAppadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions ofGlobalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,2005. 29).
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