Pinoy talent gets animated

Pinoys have a penchant for music and romance. There’s no question about it, given our tropical climate and sceneries which make perfect backdrops to churn out ballads and stories of true love.

Neophyte Pinoy screenwriter Carmelo Juinio banked on a compelling tale of romance in an unexpected place to impress the jurors of last year’s Pan-Asia Scriptwriting Competition mounted by Animax Awards. Carmelo’s edgy, out-of-the-box storyline inspired Animax Asia executives to make it the station’s first-ever original High Definition animation feature with the title LaMB.

This is not the first time a Pinoy talent will be showcased on the youth channel designed for the hip, tech savvy audiences with huge appetites for Japanese animation. Pupil, led by vocalist Ely Buendia performed Set Me Apart for Animax’s theme song last year. The pop group was also the network’s appointed brand ambassador. A few years back, Angel Locsin and Matteo Guidicelli lent their voices to the 3D manga Initial D about the life of car racer Takumi Fujiwara.

Tracy Wong, Animax Asia director for creative services and executive producer of LaMB, recently took a brief trip to the Philippines with the good news that Carmelo’s masterpiece is in the works and will be released next year.

LaMB is the name for a prisoner or inhabitant of a desert planet named Cerra. Like the Iwahig National Penitentiary in Palawan, prisoners pay for the crimes/injustices they committed in an “imprisonment without walls.” They can roam and pursue their personal endeavors as productive citizens of Cerra. The system, as the synopsis of the story describes, “has made both jails and the death penalty unnecessary in a world where human ingenuity, creativity and labor continue to be precious commodities that cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence like robots.”

Among those who find meaning in their lives and look for ways to heal past wounds are Eve and Jack. In the story, Eve, an ex-weapons specialist, is held captive in Cerra for an innocent mistake of killing lives, while Jack works there to escape from the biting bitterness caused by his wife’s death.

LaMB will see how the two struggle to live in the virtual imprisonment and deal with their personal issues. Televiewers will find out if love can blossom in the high-tech world of Cerra. Making LaMB possible is a $6-M budget. That’s a quick look at how expensive it is to produce an animation or a manga series like LaMB. Singapore’s Peach Blossom Media will handle the video and production of LaMB plus the MTV titled I Can Wait Forever and live-action music video Summertime.

LaMB will not only be available on TV, but on-line and on mobile. It has a wider reach and can be seen and accessed by many.

Putting a pop seal on LaMB are Simple Plan and The Click Five by singing tunes like I Can Wait Forever and Summertime, respectively. With the presence of the pop punk and rock bands, LaMB will hopefully attract attention in Asia and beyond by going other territories like the US and Europe.