Jacinth Tan had a hard time getting her parents to believe that she would be able to have a lucrative and rewarding career in the art world — and that she would be able to support herself with it. Some of their concerns were relieved after Tan was hired by a Singaporean animation studio about thirty days after she graduated from art school. Now, they can all enjoy the fruits of Tan’s labor — a short animated series that Tan created has been picked up by children’s programming network Nickelodeon. This is a first for Singapore — and all of Asia — on the network.
Tan first stumbled upon the idea for the animated series while playing with her dog and watching a popular nature channel event about sharks. The character that was born out of this is a combination of a shark and a dog, and the series is aptly titled Sharkdog. Each episode of the series is bite-sized — just a minute and a half apiece — and there are tens of episodes planned for the Sharkdog series. Tan created a rebel of a character like the playful and mischievous Sharkdog in order to convey an important message — children should pursue their dreams, even if it means going against what is considered to be normal in society. Tan says she feels lucky that she is able to work on a project that she conceived, as well as a project with such a worthy message to its young viewers. This message mirrors Tan’s upbringing, studying art and aiming at having a career in the creative industry in spite of her parents not believing that she could do it. For Tan, Sharkdog is deeply personal.
Tan’s series was selected out of nearly 900 other submitted ideas, meaning that her message and vivid characters stood out. A representative from Nickelodeon said that the Sharkdog series was given the go ahead because of the fun comedy and ultimate meaningfulness of the story arc in each episode. Tan says she hopes that her series getting picked up by a network as major as Nickelodeon is serves as inspiration for other artists hoping for success in their own creative careers.
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To read more about Jacinth Tan’s animated series on Nickelodeon, go to https://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore/singaporean-created-sharkdog-series-nickelodeon-first.