Animation Insider

Menu

 

 

April 4th, 2012 12:00 PM by Aaron H. Bynum
Share
Tweet

Jonas, for lacking any proper description, is a hideous little character; he's ugly, smelly, grumpy, only plays with the other kids in the apartment building, and at the end of each day, is "the boy that few of us could admire, but one whom we can all identify with."

Why identify? Because Jonas has an incredible imagination, because he never gives up, and because even when everything feels like it's out of his control, he sucks it up and presses forward. Jonas: The Imaginary Adventures is the newest title out of Machango Studio (Gran Canaria, Spain), and represents the company's sharpest offering at this year's MIPTV event.

Machango Studio is about a half-dozen-years-old and provides a number of animation services, ranging from commercial animation and title sequence production to interactive web design and television IP development.

If the content lies in the realm of "audiovisual production," then chances are good that Machango Studio can dedicate a few artists to the cause. Among the key titles in the company's portfolio is Polillas Acrobaaticas, a comical educational project about a pair of circus acrobats; and Longina, a film adaptation of the Producciones del Mar theatrical performane, which premiered in 2001. Longina is scheduled to wrap production this year, and follows a woman who moves to the "bright" and "corrupt" city of Havana in the 1950s, somewhat blinded by the feverish rhythm of the cosmopolitan port.

Jonas is Machango Studio's newest project. The animated series is comprised of twenty-six, five-minute, non-verbal episodes, chronicling the daily adventures of a quirky little boy and his friends. Jonas is a fearful and resentful little boy, but only because his comprehension of the real world isn't exactly to scale. For Jonas, getting into the bathtub is like fighting off an alien monster, and losing your baby teeth is akin to a massive conspiracy by fantasy creatures to kidnap you and harvest your body parts (i.e., teeth).

Jonas is a Flash-animated program whose gray-green color palette and frenetic character mumblings proffer genuinely funny and clever musings on the fears and curiosities of one wary, little child.

Along side Jonas are a few other characters, which although not as peculiar as Jonas himself, make for a comfortable sounding board for the imaginative boy.

Said is the boy's practical-minded best friend; Katy is "pretty on the outside" but "hell on Earth on the inside"; and Huan is a bit of a clumsy lug, but is always nice to be around. Machango Studios' Jonas begs the question of what happens when the remote control falls on the freshly cleaned floor (and nasty alligators are lurking about) or what happens when one needs to jump down a large stairwell (and it feels like falling to Earth from deep space). In the end, Jonas: The Imaginary Adventures puts everything in the stumpy little hands of its main character and his wild but oftentimes rightfully questioning mind, and hopes for the best.

Jonas is the work of Machango Studio in collaboration with Televisión Canaria and Canarias Cultura en Red. The project is funded by La Agencia Canaria de Investigación, Innovación y la Sociedad de la Información, and the Ministerio de Cultura. Jonas is distributed by Edebe Audiovisual.

Note: Video may take a moment to load.

<< Previous -  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5  - Next >>