Cartoon movie master sounds warning for the future

ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency

Derviş Pasin, who has made several cartoon movies for TRT, including 'Boğaç Han,' 'Karınca Ailesi,' 'Tomurcuk,' 'Evliya Çelebi' and others, still continues producing cartoon movies for children in his atelier. aA Photo

Though now 72 years old, Derviş Pasin remains a key figure in the creation of children’s cartoons, but the master animator has warned about the future of the art in Turkey, saying more support is needed.

“I hope TRT will always support cartoon movie makers. All of us should serve TRT Çocuk,” said Pasin, praising TRT’s channel for children. “If this channel is closed, Turkish cartoon movie production will come to an end.”

Pasin, who has made cartoon movies, including “Boğaç Han,” “Karınca Ailesi,” “Tomurcuk,” Evliya Çelebi” and others, still continues producing cartoon movies for children in his atelier.

Stating that cartoon movie making dated back to the 1930s in Turkey, Pasin said many cartoon movies were produced in those years by trial and error before figures like Oğuz Aral, Tekin Aral, Altan Erbulak, Mıstık, Yalçın Çetin and Tonguç Yaşar produced commercial cartoon movies.

He said single-frame cameras were needed in cartoon film production, discussing the impossibilities of the time.

“A single-frame motor was produced from wiper motors disassembled from junk military jeeps. We have survived since those days. Later on the cartoon movie maker Çetin went to Germany and worked as an expert at a studio there for a long time. After he returned to Turkey, we learned from him how to make a real cartoon movie. I started making cartoon movies in 1966-1967,” he said.

Pasin said his 75-episode cartoon movie project “Karınca Ailesi” (Ant Family) was the first to be sold by national broadcaster TRT. “I saw our poster in a video store during one of my visits to Greece. Greek children were watching our cartoon movie. It was the biggest happiness I have experienced in my life. I said ‘we made it.’ We saw that we could be successful without the necessary substructure.”

Pasin said carton movies could not be made to earn money. “It is the last thing in Turkey to make cartoon movies to earn money,” he said.

In the past, Turkey overcame financial and technical problems to carve out a place for itself in the cartoon movie sector, while adding that the first six episodes of French cartoon film “Papyrus” were made in Turkey.

He also said he had made other films for Greek state television and that French producers celebrated the work of Turkish animators.

Still, Pasin drew attention to the tendency among some producers to cut corners in the interests of finding savings.

The price for one-minute ad films is $50,000 at Disney Studios but between 2,000 and 4,000 Turkish Liras in Turkey. “Animators compromise on quality to earn money. This is why a movie that should be told in 12 frames is told in four frames,” he said.