Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula

Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula (Gang/Friends: The Adventure Begins) is Malaysia's 1st locally made full length 3D animation by Les’ Copaque Production Sdn Bhd of Upin & Ipin fame.

It was about 2 friends, city slicker Badrol and Lim visiting the former's hometown- Kampung Durian Runtuh. They met new friends, though reluctantly, the village kids- mischievous twins Upin and Ipin, animal talking Rajoo, and hot-tempered beauty Ros. And also a mysterious critter. Together, they got involved in the recent mising durian mystery and had the biggest adventure of their lifetime. Unless of course, they come back in a bigger sequal *LOL*

For a debut local 3D animation movie, Les’ Copaque' sure have no qualms throwing everthing but the kitchen sink. We have stereotype characters, udder jokes, car chases (of sorts), Disney-like song dance sequence (more Bollywood, me thinks), big fireball explosion, teary moments and monsters fight ala King Kong, all packed into its 90 minutes time frame. While more is good, but it doesnt help if they compromised on the story which was rather straight forward and a bit far fetched. What I really like about the movie was the comedic elements which we Malaysian can truly related to. Not to mention the cute twins which got one of the best laughs out scenes in the movie.

Of course, it's hard not to compare it visually with the likes of Pixar and Dreamworks but hey, this is by the way, Malaysian's 1st and frankly, I think it was a really good start for them :) Saying that, there still a lot to improve in term of animation and some of the characters design especially the cuddly main one ;)

It a shame if most of us shun this feature just because of its "locally made" tag. Sure, Geng is in Bahasa Malaysia (with a nice post production English sub), but it is made by Malaysian for Malaysian and it can be pretty enjoyable for all of us. Do watch it and be proud :)