Latest news with #Trunk
The South African
5 days ago
- Business
- The South African
Sunrise Animation Studio is rolling out its latest Jungle Beat film
Have you heard or seen Jungle Beat , the animation produced by Sunrise Animation Studios in Cape Town? Locally produced animations very seldom get their time in the sun. Not only is this series and film one widely enjoyed, but it is also receiving a sequel, and this second instalment will be shown in cinemas. Jungle Beat 2: The Past is an animated odyssey that sees Munki and Trunk on a time-travelling journey. An eccentric stegosaurus appears in their jungle home. They come to learn that their at times ditsy alien compadre, Fneep, accidentally opened up a time portal. The two principal characters then try to return the dinosaur to its rightful place in time. Trunk mistakenly slips into the portal and finds himself trapped in the Jurassic era. Phil Cunningham, the founder of Sunrise Animations, revealed what the journey of getting this project to this point has been like. 'What started as an animation test grew into a TV series with eight seasons (so far), and a YouTube audience of over 100 million views per month. The series has always been non-dialogue and is built around the incredible friendship between Munki and Trunk (a monkey and elephant character, respectively). 'We wanted to showcase values like loyalty, kindness and putting the needs of others above your own,' Cunningham explained. Jungle Beat: The Movie (2021) was produced by Sandcastle Studios in Mauritius through a licensing partnership with Sunrise Animation. It began with the idea of a little alien character, Fneep, who crash-lands his spacecraft in the Jungle. He has fantastic alien tech (a speech pod). It allows us to hear Munki, Trunk, and their friends speak for the first time. 'Introducing dialogue and new characters allowed us to continue to explore the same themes that the series elevates. We could do this, but in a richer, deeper sense, and to a broader audience,' Cunningham elaborated. The movie was completed in early 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which harmed cinema attendance. ' Jungle Beat had been licensed by distributors in over 30 countries, including theatrical rights in many of those territories. Fortunately, we were approached by Netflix to acquire the movie as a Netflix original. We were able to negotiate with the licensees that were already in place to allow that to happen.' When the movie came out in 2021, Netflix's audience data was somewhat scarce. Cunningham and his team couldn't track their performance as it moved into the Top 10 carousel in most major territories worldwide. In 2023, Netflix began to share audience numbers. We learned that in the first six months of the year, two full years after release, Jungle Beat was in the top seven per cent of all titles on the platform. That was exciting,' Cunningham bragged. Following the popularity of the first movie, their writer and director, Sam Wilson, had an idea about Fneep bringing time-warping portal technology to the jungle. This results in a whole new ensemble of dinosaur characters for Munki and Trunk to engage with. 'Without giving too much of the story away, Jungle Beat 2: The Past is about friendship that spans both time and space. It is also packed with fun and adventure.' Jungle Beat has grown from a series to a Netflix hit feature film and now a sequel. For Cunningham, the beauty of animated films lies in their ability to entertain audiences of various ages in different ways. ' Jungle Beat 2: The Past has a slightly higher level of tension and adventure than the first movie. We have some adventurous scenes, and our goal was to delight our core audience of young children, while also being enjoyable for parents and older siblings.' He believes they were able to strike a balance between providing young audience members with their dose of entertainment while also making the offering engaging for parents and older siblings. 'The dinosaur characters add scope for a lot of laughter. Trey (the King of the Dinosaurs) is brilliantly voiced by Rob Van Vuuren. He brings incredible comedic value to the movie.' The growth of their YouTube audience was explosive, reaching 40 million views per month by 2019. They averaged well over 100 million views monthly since 2020. 'I think the key is to bring exceptional people together behind a clear vision, and with enough room for each of them to have authentic input without being micromanaged or dictating the creative process too much.' We do tend to prioritise international productions across the board in South Africa. This has resulted in some challenges for Cunningham and his stable of talents. 'Living through an extended period of disruption in the way content is sold and consumed worldwide has created a lot of uncertainty in terms of the business model for animation producers (and other genres too).' Previously, a successful film would benefit from a profitable cinema release, before earning good fees from the TV broadcast, and then enjoying revenue from DVD/home video sales. 'All of those windows have been eroded for most films over the last decade or so. Netflix and the other major streamers have re-trained audiences to expect unlimited content to be available on demand in the comfort of their homes.' He said that the business model for filmmakers is still in flux, as the big streamers were spending huge amounts of money to acquire content and subscribers for several years. In the last five years, however, that has started to recede. 'This is an ongoing challenge. Ultimately, I believe that the market will find a way to meet the global audience's desire for fresh, excellent film content. We as filmmakers need to be adaptable and optimistic.' 'On a local level, I think South African animators and studios are increasingly being recognised on the international stage. I think we're in an exciting moment of stepping up to the challenge of creating content for a global audience. We are sharing this space with the biggest international players.' The creative mind who was born in Zimbabwe believes there are many interesting and disruptive trends happening right now. 'The way social media is leading young audiences to consume very short-form content and the implications of A.I.'s growing capacity.' What is being touted as Africa's first film animation franchise will be in cinemas on June 27. Let us know by leaving a comment below or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 11. 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South China Morning Post
01-04-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Women's facial hair is a thing: like Adele and Meghan Trainor, we should talk about it and how it changes with age, pregnancy and hormones, whether you prefer threading, IPL or leaving it au naturel
Some beauty topics live in the shadows , discussed in hushed tones between salon appointments or slipped into self-care chats with the kind of discretion usually reserved for scandalous gossip. They're the ones everyone deals with but few openly acknowledge, lingering in the unspoken corners of beauty routines . Women's facial hair sits (perhaps too) comfortably in this category – entirely natural, incredibly common, and yet still treated like a dirty secret. The reality of peach fuzz, a rogue chin hair or a barely there moustache has been part of womanhood for generations – embraced by some, meticulously removed by others. Whether shaped by genetics, hormones, ageing or conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), dealing with facial hair remains a fixture in beauty routines yet a ghost in mainstream beauty conversations. But it's not just the media that avoids the topic; it's often also absent from the coming-of-age discussions that define early self-image. For many, the first upper lip hair or dark chin strand often arrives alongside periods , breakouts and growth spurts; yet while puberty's other milestones are acknowledged, facial hair is met with silence, leaving many to wonder if it's normal or something to erase in secret. Advertisement Facial hair on women has been a largely unspoken issue, but that is changing. Photo: Trunk Archive Then come the less-talked-about shifts, like post-partum, when a surge in androgens can trigger unexpected hair thickness and coarseness, and menopause, when declining oestrogen lets testosterone take the lead, bringing with it the infamous chin hairs that seem to appear overnight. The science of facial hair is hardly a mystery. Androgens, often labelled as male hormones, play a major role in hair growth, but they exist in all women at varying levels. 'With virtually any medical process, we are a combination of genetics, diet, relationship, hormones and environment,' explains Dr Bruce Dorr, an American obstetrician-gynecologist and senior medical adviser at preventive medicine company Biote, adding that, when it comes to facial hair, certain populations are genetically predisposed to more noticeable growth in areas that mainstream beauty standards deem undesirable. 'Women of Mediterranean descent, for example, may have hair above the lip and general facial hair because of hormone processing that is genetically driven.' No Mo-Stache portable lip wax kit. Photo: Handout Beyond hormones, genetics dictate just how prominent facial hair will be. Dorr explains that testosterone's 'ugly cousin', dihydrotestosterone (DHT), often plays a decisive role. 'There is a certain enzyme that is genetically driven to push testosterone down that pathway. It's the same reason that some men and women lose their hair. It's called 5-alpha reductase, and it turns testosterone into DHT,' a much more potent androgen that causes oily skin, acne, hair growth in places that you don't want it, and hair loss in places where you do. For some, facial hair increases noticeably in their 30s or 40s – a shift that can feel sudden but is often just another part of the ageing process. 'As we age, our robust and healthy cells get bombarded with bad environmental exposure,' Dorr notes. 'Some of this is a result of our decisions, such as poor diet, but other exposure is simply part of living in our world, such as oestrogenic plastic or disrupters in perfumes and pesticides.' Flamingo Dermaplane. Photo: Handout
