Do you remember the Malaysian cartoon series, Keluang Man? Yeah well, Google just dedicated a doodle to celebrate the creator of the show, the late Kamm Ismail, who was a pioneer of the local animation industry.
Kamm Ismail was born today in 1956 in Pengkalan Balak, Malacca. He created Malaysia’s first superhero which is the Keluang Man.
“From having no experience to studying and experimenting with computer software to create his animation and the successful outcome that we all saw on our TV screen,” said Judy Wong, Google Malaysia’s product marketing manager at the company’s headquarters yesterday.
“Kamm’s effort of building a community to uphold local content and giving back to the new generation is a testament to his legacy.
“On what would be his 67th birthday, we celebrate Kamm Ismail and his significant contribution to Malaysia’s animation.”
Usop Sontorian, the first animated television programme in Malaysia, was produced by Kammaruddin, also known as Kamm Ismail, and aired on TV1 from 1991 to 1997.
After his initial success, he went on to produce and direct a number of popular animation series such as Keluang Man, Che Nat, Legenda Kinabalu, and Mat Kilau.
Kamm had co-founded and served as the first president of the Malaysia Animation Society of Malaysia (Animas) in 2001.
At the 16th Malaysian Film Festival, he also won Best Animation for the telemovie Kumang.
Ibrahim Anon, better known by his pen name Ujang, a local cartoonist, expressed his joy at Google Malaysia’s decision to honour his late friend’s successful career.
“I’m very happy because nobody believed in us when we started out. People say our project will fail.
“And we feel proud when it’s out as first Malaysia’s animated series,” said Ujang, who had worked as the writer for Usop Sontorian.
Ujang pointed out that their success came about at a time when the local animation industry was still in its infancy and was still having trouble overcoming obstacles like a lack of animators, tools, funding, and knowledge.
“Kamm and I toured the country to look for animators, we end up gathering 90 over artists at the end after we travelled the whole of Malaysia.
“And we also have problems with the artists’ parents as they asked us what is an animator.
“They call animation as ‘aminasi’ because they haven’t seen a cartoon,” he added.
Also present at the special launching ceremony was Kamm’s daughter Dalila Kamaruddin, and Quest Studio’s chief executive officer Muhamad Firdaus Omar.
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