Elephants, they say, are placid, peaceful, beings. But then, it has been verified that every placid elephant also has a stormy ant within it (if you don’t believe us, examine carefully ‘elephant’, and you won’t miss the ant in it); that’s the way it is, a package deal of extremes from nature. And the moment you realize this sublime truth, all their extreme stories come tumbling at you as – Eelif-Aant, colorful, fun, and 3-D.
We began on an even pace with well-received 3-D productions; one, an engrossing perspective on the Sikh community and their practices, and the other on Indian folk tales, by the name of ‘Three Friends’. When the itch caught up, we were neck deep into their in-house series: Eelif-Aant. Doubtlessly the feisty work of an antsy ant on a peaceful elephant! Yes, that was the start of Eelif-Aant, friendship of extremes.
The basic idea of Eelif-Aant was not the same as you might see it. At the beginning of the Eelif-Aant we were working only on an elephant whose trunk can change shapes and do loads of stuff. The basic idea of the elephant was to use him as a mascot of the company. But the idea became so popular between us that it was eventually decided that we would create 52 episodes of the same.
Then we started working on the character models of the elephant. Many models of elephant were created. We started taking advice from the experts as well as small children in various schools which of them looked attractive so that we can start working the same model. We took advice from famous cartoonist of India, Mr. Ajit Nainan. He helped us in developing Eelif’s character. He said that Eelif must not have the human hand, as it might seem odd for elephant to use his trunk. He questioned us why Eelif’s trunk would do all kind of stuffs when he can do the same work with his human hands? Thus we changed the human hands and gave him a regular elephant look. This is how we finally got our final Eelif.
Ant was not a normal walking ant. To create the proper conversation between huge little eelif and a big little ant, we have to make her an ant with the wings. Aant has no trunk, but she is quite a nose for a piece of the action. It was lot easier to model Aant than Eelif. While doing the artwork we were not happy with the Aant’s theme. But when we started modeling Aant, it clicked in the first go.
We started our hunt for voice over artist. At the time of audition we had many artists. They were capable of giving versatile range and were very creative but it was difficult to choose the right voice for each character. Even though they were talented but they did not understand the character. A specified quality, condition, or pitch of vocal sound to match with the characters was the tough job. Finally we found the voice talent we were looking for.
Eelif-Aant keep you engaged in tangles and wacky to-dos, and along with all the other inhabitants of Talk of the Town, stretch out to tickle your funny bone. Watch Eelif-Aant as much for the unlikely friendship as for the assortment of supporting characters like Sporting, the cautious octogenarian,
Snooty, arrogant, inconsiderate wealthy snob,
Sniver, the dumb wolf fond of thinking that he is cunning,
Snorting, the supercilious psychiatrist,
Flutter, their somewhat vacant upper-storied friend,
Amlet, the annoying aunt, and many more.
