Eugene Foo brings old worlds to life through painting, animation

There are two reasons why Eugene Foo, 40, came to our attention of late. The first was his art exhibition called ‘Saya Seekor Dinosaur’ which was held last month, while the second was his work as a director on the animated short film ‘Walinong Sari’.

The film was screened in Norway at the Sea of Art film festival, as well as in the US at the Los Angeles International Film Festival, Oniros Film Awards New York, and the New York International Short Film Festival.

At the latter event, ‘Walinong Sari’ won an Honourable Mention, as well as the Best Soundtrack Award (Irena Taib).

During an interview with Malaysiakini, Foo said he has always been interested in art.

“My family in general are quite supportive of the arts. The thing that got me interested in drawings at a very young age was dinosaurs.”

He said, in the early 1980s, there were not many reference points for him, such as the “Jurassic Park” movies of the next decade.

“I would draw them based on what I saw in encyclopedias and natural history books. I loved drawing animals and dinosaurs. That is what sparked my interest in the arts.”

His ‘Saya Seekor Dinosaur’ was, in a way, a homage to his childhood love and fantasy of dinosaurs living side-by-side with humans, either as pets, beasts of burden, or flying free.

“This was my first solo exhibition. Being my debut exhibition, I thought it would be great to recognise the very thing that got me into art in the first place.”

Starting in science and multimedia

Foo was a pure science student in secondary school but took art as an extra subject because he was good at it.

“When I entered university, I took up multimedia, because back then there weren’t any courses that were specific to animation. My passion was animation. For my final year, I majored in animation.”

He noted that almost two decades of his career were spent either teaching or practising his craft in studios.

He does animation-related work for corporate videos. “It is only recently that I managed to do what I love, which is children’s content… children’s series and games.

All the art pieces from the ‘Saya Seekor Dinosaur’ exhibition have been sold and delivered to their respective owners.

He also has no plans to come out with a coffee table book on his work because he wants to give those who bought his work the full value of owning these one-off pieces.

“However, there is some consideration about turning it into a storybook where each picture will have a short story attached to it. I am still considering it.”

Bringing folklore to life

Foo says that he is not the initiator of ‘Walinong Sari (2022)’.

“The person who initiated this and who I have to thank is Honey Ahmad. She doesn’t really write for children, she writes more for adult content. We have been working on small projects that did not come to fruition in the past.

“This time we got an MDEC (Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation) grant. They had a fund called DC3+ during the first year of the pandemic. Honey came across the novel ‘Lipurlara Nusantara’ by folklorist Ninot Aziz.

“The book has a bunch of stories from Malay folklore and one of them was about a Pahang princess called Walinong Sari. Honey wanted us to do this story,” he said.

“It is very pertinent to today because it is about a relationship between the father and the daughter and the father learning to let go of the daughter and allowing her to pursue her passion.

“Honey wrote the script and came to me to direct this film. She was the one who initiated the project. She found the funding and then came to me.”

Foo and Honey have known each other for 15 years and Honey was involved in producing cooking shows. Foo would help produce introduction videos for the show.

“One of the bigger projects we tried to work on 15 years ago was an animated project that never took off, called ‘Alam Maya’. This film was done halfway and funds ran out. We could not finish it.

“Since then we have always wanted to work on something we could call our own. She wrote a completely self-indulgent script and she gave it to me to direct. I was completely self-indulgent too as I did not have anyone to report to.

“So it was a really good experience for me. I had full creative control over the entire film.”

The production started in 2020, right smack during the pandemic and lockdowns.

“For economic and logistics purposes. This project was done entirely at home. I had problems roping people in to help me.”

He essentially needed to find people who take directions well.

“I also needed a technique and style that was not complicated. So it was a technique that I could control well and if there were problems I could troubleshoot it and rectify it,” said Foo.

Wayang kulit stylings stand out

‘Walinong Sari’ stands out because of its “Wayang Kulit” style of animation.

“This style of animation is called puppeteering animation. We drew everything digitally and we moved them using the software as though we were moving puppets.“

This style helped with the logistics aspect that he was facing. There was also another reason.

“I felt in Malaysia we are always obsessed with trying to fashion ourselves after animation steals from abroad, such as anime, or the styles inspired by Pixar or Disney. We don’t have our own distinctive style.

“Therefore, I felt we had to come up with a visual vocabulary that is uniquely our own.

“We were also inspired by the paintings of Cheong Soo Pieng. He was a painter in Malaya in the 1940s and 1950s. He has a distinctive style that is very Malaysian. So I combined his style with Wayang Kulit in an animation film.”

So, in one animated short film, Foo combined local folklore, with local puppetry, local art and local talent.

The film has been nominated for awards and won some.

“To be honest, it has been such a long process. I feel very excited. For many years, I have been teaching at Utar (Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman) and I have not had many chances to practise my craft.

“With these projects, I now get the chance to practice what I know again to the extent that I left my teaching job this year and I am now an IP developer for a local animation studio here in Kuala Lumpur,” he said.

Right now, Foo is not sure what his next project will be but he finds his new job at Circle Studio exciting. He has a special role at the studio, which is to become an art director and intellectual property developer.

Foo said that he loves drawing but also loves to tell stories. Now he gets to do both.

Emmy-nominated filmmaker Cheyenne Tan's stories about a better world

Sci-fi horror film 'Ceroboh' explores outer reaches of paranoia

Hailing from Ipoh, Ranjinder now heads Hollywood PR firm

'Selfish' - Doctors Without Borders NGO holds first film event