New Turkish animated film character ready for screen

ESKİŞEHİR - Anadolu Agency

Ayşe Şule Bilgiç is the mastermind and scriptwriter of the project ‘Ayas.’ The film tells the adventures of 6-year-old Ayas and his friends. AA photos

A new Turkish cartoon movie, “Ayas,” was made in the central Anatolian province of Eskişehir in three years with a 70-person team. The film, which tells the adventures of six year-old Ayas and his friends, will be released on Nov. 22.

The mastermind and scriptwriter of “Ayas” is Ayşe Şule Bilgiç. The project has been jointly created by Düşyeri and Beşiktaş Culture Center (BKM), the creators of the first Turkish cartoon film character “Pepee.”

Pepee a hope for Turkish cartoon films

Speaking about the project, “The Düşyeri team is made up of a handful of cartoon movie fans that have been doing their best to make a cartoon movie in Turkey for five years,” said Bilgiç. She said the Ayas character was born three years ago in Eskişehir studio, adding that everyone put in a great effort to create the character.

“Our first project was the Pepee cartoon movie series. Pepee became a hope that cartoon movies could be made in Turkey. As the Düşyeri team, we have dreamed of a new character and a new cartoon film.
Where should we start? Where can we find a clue? How should we create a new character? When we talked about these questions, the best example for us was a generation that grew up with Pepee. We wanted this generation to follow us again with a new character,” she said.

Bilgiç said that for the character they chose the name Aya, which means “moonlight that illuminates the dark.” “Actually, Düşyeri’s team, we experience the hardest part of cartoon filmmaking in Turkey as well as its greatest joys. It has many disadvantageous, but many advantages too. Cartoon films have not become a serious branch of films in Turkey yet. This is why we have a lot of problems.”

She said they first planned Ayas as a cartoon series but then it turned into cinema film. “Ayas has been in the life of Düşyeri for three years. We will bring it together with the audience on Nov. 22,” she said.

Bilgiç noted that while creating Ayas, they considered age groups and scientific data and added, “We give importance to entertainment in all of our projects. We want to entertain children first. You cannot teach something to a person whom you cannot entertain. Children should watch it while raising laughs. Ayas is very entertaining. It promises 84 minutes full of laughs. Everyone who has an inner child will enjoy it. If it succeeds in the box office, we, as Düşyeri, want to continue our existence on the
silver screen.”

Bilgiç has two children aged 1.5 and 4. She said, “My children are the ones who first watch what we do. We made some revisions after they watched it.”