Straits Times: Local animators, look before you leap
Nov 14, 2010
By Irene Tham

You can count on two things to happen when a trend hits the peak of a hype cycle - publicity machines work themselves into a frenzy, and then a backlash occurs.

Over the past seven years, excitement had been drummed up for Singapore as the next animation and media capital. Government funds with eye-popping amounts - hundreds of millions of dollars - were created to finance new digital media projects. New companies threw their hats into the ring.

Since 2003, some 40 animation and visual effects companies have opened here. Among them: Lucasfilm's Singapore arm, which is on an expansion spree as it gears up to work on its new animation movie slated for global release in 2013.

Now that the fairy dust has settled - thanks in part to the economic crisis last year - it may be possible to analyse who is entitled to dream big in animation.

In the last year, at least three home-grown firms with animation aspirations have had their hopes dashed due to cash-flow problems.

Two have folded, while one - which spoke to The Sunday Times on condition of anonymity - is on the brink of bankruptcy.

No longer around are Big Communications and Mega Media - both 10-year-old media companies.