Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC) and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) recently formalized their partnership in content development and distribution.

The collaboration consists of the co-production and global marketing of the 26 episodes of Saladin 3D Animated Television Series, which is planned for broadcast on Al Jazeera Children’s Channel in the last quarter of 2008. [Middle-east-online]

MDeC has claimed that the animation has gained global attention since releasing the 6-minute trailer (below) in early 2006, but I think this is their first successful deal in marketing the project outside of Malaysia.

The project itself has garnered some critics previously, particular in its mismanagement of funds. It’s alleged that the animation has cost RM20 millions and most of the spending were rather wasteful. [Teresakok]

Set aside the financial controversies, I think we are heading the right track at the moment. The 6-minutes trailer shows good qualities and decent story plot; if we could keep the level of consistency for all the episodes, it’s going to be a job well done.

Entertainment industry is a huge global business, and Malaysia is lagging far behind at the moment. Besides the profit from the core venture (movies, music, anime…) itself, other industries like tourism, merchandising etc. will also benefit from it.

The success of Korean drama in the past decade is a great example of how influential the entertainment industry could be in lifting a countries’ international status. The tourism of the country is also largely boosted thanks to their dramas’ success.

It’s not too late for Malaysia to catch up; Koreans take just 10-years or less from virtually unnoticed to the major player in Asian entertainment market… we can do that too with proper planning and government support.

Saladin makes a decent start at the moment; I hope that it is not going to be a one off project, and that government will have plans to work with local talents and private investors to produce strings of successful animations and possibly real-life series.