Happy together producing cartoons (The Star, Malaysia)

Friends find an avenue to live 0ut their passion


THEY are paid to watch cartoons all day at work! It may sound too good to be true but for C.J. See and Andrew Ooi, who founded Inspidea Sdn Bhd, an animation production
company, the seemingly childish indulgence is actually important.

Beyond just fun, enjoying cartoons was an avenue for them to live out their passion, See said.
“It is something we have in common and are passionate about. It brought us together and eventually led to us setting up this business. We still watch cartoons now,” he told StarBiz in an interview.

“Watching cartoons can keep you in touch with your inner child,” he said with a laugh. Ooi and See, both 38, are managing director and sales and marketing director respectively.

Friends for over 10 years, they decided to jointly start an information technology company in 1999. Their first venture is still very much in business although Inspidea is now much bigger.

“We started Inspidea in 2002 and back then some people wondered if we could really make a living out of creating cartoons and animation, ” Ooi said.

He said even their parents found it hard to accept their choice of career at first because they felt it was a waste of time and money.

“No doubt any parent would have been concerned as there was basically no knowledge about this industry when we started.

“However, in recent years, cartoons and animation are gaining popularity and even colleges are offering such courses,” Ooi said, adding that even the Oscars had in recent years included a category for animated feature film.

He explained that the company’s name, Inspidea, was derived from the words inspiration and idea. “What comes before an idea is the inspiration, so we decided to coin a name that’s not in the dictionary,” Ooi said.

See said Inspidea’s first two years were very challenging and difficult. Securing funding was also difficult as the business was considered a “super risky venture”.

“We started dipping into our own pockets. Banks didn’t dare give us loans because there were no sales,” See said.

With limited knowledge about the industry, the young entrepreneurs set off for France to “get to know the industry better”.

“We took a big risk doing this. Not knowing anyone there, we ‘blindly’ went to try selling our production. We did one episode of our first cartoon, Johan the Young Scientist, and tried to sell it overseas,” See said.

In 2004, just about when they felt like giving up, they managed to secure one sale from the Middle East. Following its first cartoon series, Inspidea created Mustang Mama, its most popular cartoon series. It has created three seasons of Mustang Mama and is currently in the midst of launching Happy Together.

See said Happy Together was a hilarious show with 52 one minute episodes that will be launched this year. To a question, Ooi said their cartoon series acted as a “filler” in between shows, thus the short duration. He said the shorter cartoons could also be downloaded in multi platforms such as mobile phones and personal computers.

Among its clients are Disney, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, AXN, Animax, TV1, TV2, NTV7 and Yahoo.

Inspidea has also been commissioned by KidsCo, an international children’s entertainment brand, to produce cartoon series about Mother Nature, conservation, recycling and other topics.
“The series, Boo & Me, which will be launched at the year end, will have a strong Malaysian identity. We chose this name as its sounded like Bumi in Bahasa Malaysia,” See said.

Inspidea made close to RM5mil in revenue last year. “Doubling our revenue will be quite a challenge this year but we hope to achieve a 30% growth,” See said.

“We started as a very small outfit but over the years we’ve grown exponentially in terms of headcount and cartoon properties. “We’re quite busy right now!” he added.

He said the company had recently embarked on an advertising and promotional campaign worldwide and was spending “hundreds of thousand ringgit” on it.

“There were a lot of nightmares in the first few years. Developing the business requires a lot of patience, perseverance and passion,” See said.

Ooi agreed. He said it had been a long and challenging process, but the business was also one that he enjoyed a lot. “It is like watching grass grow but once you see the final result of your work, you get a great sense of satisfaction,” he said.

By his own admission, See has never worked. “When you get to do something you enjoy, you will never have to work a day in your life. Normally, you develop a passion for something you like doing, similar to a hobby. In this case, your work becomes your hobby,” he said.

See said his father even once questioned if he was normal because he could sit in front of the television all day just watching cartoons.

On Inspidea’s future, Ooi said: “You can still reach the destination taking one step at a time but not one step forward and two steps back.” “We hope we can one day be as big as Pixar or Dreamworks,” See said.