ifilm's Exclusive report from behind the scenes of ‘Pufferfish’

Directed by Salmi Afkari and written by Ramin Karami, ‘Pufferfish’ is a popular animation series dedicated for children.

‘Pufferfish’ follows the story of a Pufferfish that tries to save everyone in the city with the help of its friend.

ifilm: 13 episodes of this series were aired during Norouz and now the second series is in production.

Ramin Karami, script writer: The initial idea of this series came to my mind in the office of a friend of mine who is a bit unreliable; he came to work late that day. Fortunately there was a very nice aquarium there and the initial idea of this animation came to my mind once I saw that aquarium.

Salmi Afkari, director: We presented the proposal to the Saba Animation Center. It was 13 episodes first, although they have decided that it should be 104 episodes. But the first 13 episodes were produced and aired during the Norouz of 95 (March 2016).

Ali Tafreshi, production manager: We tried to produce 3-4 episodes a month and prepare it in multiple seasons so it can be aired on the local and international scene.

Ramin Karami: In fact we started to write the script of the second season of this project based on the order we had received.

Salmi Afkari: We have weekly meetings on the script and storyline at the Saba Animation Center. We’re animating and preparing the rest of project simultaneously.

Ali Tafreshi: We plan to have items of this project on sale while it’s being broadcast; items like toys and video games on different platforms. We would like to make this animation popular for children inside and outside the country.

Mohammad Mirvahabi, art director: It’s a project for children and such projects are always pleasant for me to work on. We tried to simplify the shapes in our designs. We tried to use primary forms like circles and squares to develop the characters; this prevents children from being confused and makes the children and lets them communicate with the images. Complicated forms confuse children.

ES/HY/FM/AI