Apus Animation Studio, based in Lima, Peru, announced two new key co-production pacts for its original projects. Brazil’s Anaya Films has signed on for Apus’ debut animated feature, Nimuendajú: El Hombre que Encontró su Camino (“The Man Who Found His Way”); while Spain’s Hampa Animation Studio will collaborate on the TV series Chek & Chan.
Nimuendajú will be produced using the rotoscope technique, which Apus founder and CEO Gabrial Bonilla notes is a new technique for the region and for his studio, which specializes in traditional 2D.
The movie is based on the true story of ethnologist Curt Nimuendajú, who lived in Brazil from 1903 until his death in 1945, studying and living amongst the local indigenous tribes and finding himself in conflict with the “whites” who attacked, imprisoned and defamed him.
Chek & Chan, a Pixelatl Ideatoon finalist, follows a motley gang of intergalactic guardians — know-it-all rodent Chan, intrepid alien Chek and his robot sidekick Larry — as they race across the Rune galaxy to battle a polluting menace.
These partnerships are announced as the studio attendis the inaugural Co-Production and Financing Forum of the Iberseries & Platino Industria television content event in Madrid, Spain this week. Apus is presenting La Orquestita (The Little Orchestra), co-produced with Mago Productions (Barcelona).
Recently pitched as an official selection of Cartoon Forum 2022, the 26 x 11′ music education series is directed by Juan Carve, founder of chucho.tv, and has pre-sold to Pakapaka (Argentina), TV3 Catalonia (Spain), Señal Colombia and TVE (Spain).
Founded in 2016, Apus has worked on eight feature films, over a dozen TV series, shorts (including the multi-award-winning Afterwork) and music videos for the likes of Sia, Juice Wrld and The Living Tombstone. The studio recently sold the series Papelucho, about a mischievous boy and his little sister who is an even bigger troublemaker, to HBO Max Latin America, and is working on a slate of shorts as well as plans to produce one feature film per year.
[Source: Variety]
