Toonz to animate Santa Claus for 2010 Christmas release.

Toonz Animation is all set to foray into feature-length 3D animation, and how! The Thiruvananthapuram-based studio which had earlier created the animation for Hanuman is now going to animate the life of Santa Claus.

Singapore based Toonz Entertainment, which owns the Indian animation studio Toonz Animation India, has tied up with Gang of 7 Animation USA and Hyde Park Entertainment USA to produce a CG animated feature film “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus”, based on the classic book by L. Frank Baum, the creator of ‘The Wizard of Oz’.
Apparently, this is the first time a story explaining Santa Claus and all the Christmas traditions has ever come to the big screen. The movie chronicles the life of Santa Claus and will be directed by Tom Tataranowicz, Rich Arons and Dick Sebast, who have supervised Disney, Marvel and Hanna Barbera features. A supporting team of artists, who have worked on pictures like ‘Finding Nemo’, ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Iron Giant’, will also work on the Santa Claus movie.

The project is currently in its pre-production stage, with production set to commence in November at Toonz’ Technopark campus. The movie is expected to be released in time for Christmas 2010. Hyde Park will distribute it internationally and share North American rights with G7 Animation. Looks like mythology will just not let go of its spell on Indian animators!