Toonz Animation India, the makers of The Return of Hanuman, is planning an animated television series on Lord Shiva. According to the makers, the animation series on Shiva is in a totally different format and they loosely term it as ‘picture book animation.’ The low-cost series consist of 13 episodes of half hour and Cartoon Network
It seems that this experimental animation series based on Shiva will have no animation; instead, there will be sketches or paintings with voice over. The background music si composed by Pandit Ramesh Narayan.
‘The Return of Hanuman’ was a disaster both content wise and financially and ‘The adventures of Tenali Raman’, the first animated series from Toonz Animation India, was a pathetic effort and the only saving grace was the animation part.
So far the animated contents from Toonz have been neither Indian nor Western. They freely take Hindu Gods and other Indian characters and try to laboriously fit into the western action oriented animation film genre.
Interestingly, Shiva was recently adapted into an action style comic book by the India Authentic Series of Deepak Chopra for Virgin Comics.
What is disturbing with the latest comic books and animation films based on Hindu Gods is the lack of spiritual content and core values, which are replaced by violence and far-fetched weapons. The makers forget that they are dealing with Gods, who are worshipped by millions of people.
Quite often the animated efforts lack authentic research and a respect for the world’s oldest religion.
Hope the Animation Series Based on Lord Shiva from Toonz Animation India will be different. Because Lord Shiva is different, HE deals in the extremes – if you’re good he is very good, if you are bad he is worst.