KOCHI: The short animated video of a toddler narrating a story of a dog with a bow had been viral on social media platforms recently. Its creator, freelance animator Mili Eugene, got the idea to come up with such a series while spending time with her nieces and nephews. The Ernakulam native, who is also an illustrator, is releasing the peculiar series ‘Kidilam Kidz’published on her social media page.
The hilariously adorable voice messages shared by her nieces and nephews on their family WatsApp group originally triggered the idea for Kidilam Kidz says Mili. “Almost all my maternal cousins have small kids. I used to save their voice clips. The pandemic period helped me work on them,” says Mili. Brainstorming for the Kidilam Kidz started last year. The main inspiration was her five-year-old nephew Isahak. She has released five such videos so far.
“Last year, I came across the voice note sent by Emma, my four-year-old niece. Her narration was hilarious to me. So I animated it and posted it on social media along. The biggest challenge for me is curating these ideas and forming a storyboard as these voice notes are collected at random. I don’t have much context,” says Mili.
Mili has been an animator for almost seven years now. She now plans to curate grandma stories as animation videos, thanks to the great response she received for Kidilam Kidz. “Many young parents reach out to me on social media and tell me funny stories about their kids. With nuclear families becoming the norm, children don’t have grandparents telling them stories.
So I want to give them a taste of that. My recent animated short movie, Kali Karyamayi is the story o Naranath Bhrandan and the goddess Kali,” she says. vMili’s love for all things animated stemmed from Disney characters like Ariel. “I wish to inspire more girls to enter the field. Apart from creating my fun series, I also take part in animation sketch challenges on social media which helps me explore my creative skills. The Witch Weekly series was my most recent experiment with facial features and colours,” concludes Mili.