Prodigi Connect and Lokanima Partner to bring Fun Cican to animation

Prodigi Connect, a Dubai-based AI video production company, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Lokanima, an Indonesian creative venture, to develop Fun Cican, an established children’s property built around music and characters, into animated content. An earlier attempt to animate Fun Cican was halted because conventional production proved too slow and costly.

The agreement comes as Prodigi Connect expands its push to bring AI-native production to the Gulf’s advertising and content market, where it already delivers campaigns for brands in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

“Most of what we make is brand and campaign work, and we are already doing that for clients here in the UAE and in Saudi Arabia,” said Lijo Ittoop, Founder of Prodigi Connect.

“We took on a full animated character because it is the hardest thing you can ask this technology to do. If it holds up there, every brief in between becomes straightforward.”

Under the memorandum, Prodigi Connect provides the production pipeline, workflow and quality standards, while Lokanima brings the intellectual property relationship, local creative direction and access to Indonesian production talent. A first sequence has been produced and is available to media on request.

“Indonesia has the creative talent and the studios. What they need is faster tools and a bigger market. By working with Prodigi Connect, Lokanima brings India’s AI production expertise to Indonesia’s creative industry, so our studios can upskill, take on more work from brands and agencies, and build their own IP. We see this as the start of an India–Indonesia corridor for creative content,” said David Santoso, CEO, Singhasari SEZ.

For brands and agencies, AI-native production changes the economics of making content. Concepts reach finished film in days rather than weeks, at a fraction of conventional cost. One production can yield many versions across platforms, formats and audiences. Campaigns can run in Arabic and English with the same characters and treatment, and formats such as animation and CGI become viable for brands that could never justify them.

“The constraint on advertising has never been ideas,” said Lijo. “It has been what they cost to make and how long they take. Change that and the brief changes with it.”

Prodigi Connect delivers content for clients including Damas, Grundfos, Ascensia and Brooklyn Ice Cream, alongside campaign work across more than 20 countries. It does so as Dubai builds its position as a place where content is produced, not only distributed.