It takes courage and fortitude to design an animated series centring around four very unlikely cartoon heroes — traditional Emirati grandmothers — and create a niche for them in the bustling world of Popeye, Garfield, Tom and Jerry, and Shrek. As the creator of the Middle East’s first media brand, Freej, 33-year-old Mohammad Saeed Harib has proved that if you dare to dream, you will also get the determination to achieve itThe journey of Freej began in 1998, when as a student of general arts and animation at the North Eastern University in Boston, Harib was asked to create a superhero based on his culture. “Our culture is very rich in superheroes such as Aladin and Alibaba, but I could not find a suitably modern Arabic character that could fit the bill of a superhero,” Harib tells Gulf News.“Digging into the history of the region, I read a lot about our grandfathers and their struggles as pearl divers, but found hardly any mention of grandmothers. In the absence of grandfathers, they acted as matriarchs, raising children in a very harsh environment, going out to work and also instilling the correct values in her children. That’s why I created the figure of Um Saeed, a grandmother.”Harib designed her differently from other old women around the world: she wears a mask on her face and henna on her feet. “Being a senior citizen, I knew, she was a very unconventional superhero. But now the idea of a superhero has also changed: they are like us, and we can all relate to them. Our grandmothers lived a very simple life but their wisdom is truly amazing: they can advise and insult in the same breath,” he says.But turning a classroom cartoon into a successful TV show wasn’t easy. He spent three years making business plans, risk assessments and finding money for the project. “Back then it was not easy to find finance for media projects in Dubai and animation was unheard of,” he sayshttp://www.fyrne.com/Article_pages/Profile_mohammed_saeed_harib.htmlRead more…
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