A team of young animators in Kazakhstan is creating a cartoon series about the great Kazakh composer, dombyra player, and kui performer Kurmangazy. The project is being implemented with the utmost responsibility by the domestic specialists. Thus, the art director is engaged in work that is quite unusual for modern artists. Sanzhar Zhussup's tasks include searching for historical data and facts, meeting with scholars, and thoroughly studying ethnographic research and encyclopedic information. This all enables to avoid mistakes and inaccuracies in depicting costumes, household items, and other elements in the sketches of domestic animators working on the historical animated series.
“Books are the main source in the creation of the project. A great help was provided by Kazakh composer Abylai Tilepbergen, who told us a lot about the great composer, and showed the sources where necessary information could be found. We then looked for the remaining data specific to the 19th century. Basically, we tried not to deviate from history. There are only 13 episodes, which of course is incomparable with the number of kuis that Kurmangazy composed,” Sanzhar Zhussup, art director of the Dala Shyrqauy project, said.
The first episode of the animated series tells the story of the great composer's childhood and the moment when he met the famous itinerant kui performer Uzak whose talent and polished dombyra playing skills inspired the young Kurmangazy to write his compositions. It bears noting that the first episode, published on YouTube a couple of weeks ago, has already received tens of thousands views. The second episode is planned to be released on March 30. Also, the animators are now preparing material for the second season. It will include animated stories about the most legendary and famous Kazakh dombyra players, including Dina Nurpeissova, Sugir, Dauletkerei, Kazangap, and others.
“We have a team, where everybody is responsible for specific functions including scriptwriters, sketch and storyboard artists, and people who create characters or decorations and so forth. The task of the animation team is to put all these pictures together. Other parallel projects that we do are aimed at presenting characters from Kazakh legends, fairy tales and folklore, thus promoting them not only on Kazakh television, but also abroad, particularly in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States,” Albert Argenstein, head of animation studio, said.
The animated series includes not only the facts but also the legends and myths about the famous kui performer. The young animators believe that such an unconventional approach will allow them to achieve their main goal, which is the promotion of interest in the sacred musical art of the Kazakh people through their work.
