"In return, the young blood will pump in fresh animation content which will help Toonz in its race for the world's $35 billion animation market," Mr Dennis told a press conference, here.

The month-long workshop, scheduled to be held at Toonz from May 1, 2001 to May 31, 2001, will teach children how to make animation films, identify and nurture the creative talents in children, promote animation as a vocation and create novel ideas and concepts. This include selection by competition, conducting the workshop, actual making of the film and promotion and distribution of the film.

The completed films will be seen by an international audience through animation festivals in major centres around the world. As co-sponsor, Asianet Communications will air the one-hour special throughout the year. Each individual film made in the workshop will include the children's original promo and the live footage of the making of the film. Mr Dennis said that efforts will be made to broadcast the final product at the International Children's Day of Broadcasting in December.

Set up by the Canada-based $3-billion Chandaria Group in late 1990s', Toonz Animation had made a tidy $1.49 million business in the very first financial year, moving to achieve a pre-schedule breakeven by next month. Mr Dennis, a former Walt Disney Studio man, with a long innings with Turner Broadcasting, expects to poach a substantial chunk of $500 million entertainment contracting deals presently monopolised by animators in China, Korea, Taiwan and Phillipines.

"None of these studios can now match the Toonz challenge of better quality animation at rates 30-40 percent less than any Asian competitor," Mr Dennis claimed. Compared to the US production expenses, the quality and cost is moreattractive. While the cost of making a full-fledged feature film in Los Angles would be $100-175 million, without compromising in quality, one could make it in Thiruvananthapuram at $ 15-25 million," he added.

Following the "Week with the Masters" animation international workshop in November, Toonz Animation had recently been in news for a pat in the back for quality content from the jury of international animation festival, which included big names like Mr Bill Plympton, Mr Normand Roger and Mr Joanna Priestley.

The direct involvement of school children is also a unique experiment. While it was definitely the first time in the country that school children talent was called upon to run through the entire A to Z gamut of animation film making by an animation studio, it was likely to be the first time in the whole world that an entertainment major, known as a stickler for classical cell animation technique seeks a helping hand from school children.

As distinct from world animation studio majors like Pentafour or Crest, Toonz's international market niche is its diehard loyalty to hand-drawn frames unsupported by special effects like 3-D animation. "Toonz gives tremendous importance to human effort, rather than to machine dynamics," said Mr Dennis. "During the workshop, children will personally see and appreciate that every single frame is painstakingly hand-drawn, individually scanned, digitised and sequenced to string together an exciting 2D animation narrative," he added.