Dubai: Despite the booming success of Freej, that has being following its creator Mohammad Hareb for four years, the animator has finally decided to close the final chapter on the 3D Emirati cartoon series and concentrate on other projects.
The cultural sensation's final season is currently being produced and will be completed by December, although an exact date to air the show has not been disclosed.
The fourth season will not be featured this Ramadan as it has always done since 2006 because of financial problems such as lack of sponsorship and time restraints.
"It is very hard to pull a season of 3D animation in less than a year, said Hareb. "The first season took three to four years to complete. Although we are still in production, we have only completed eight episodes."
Hareb confessed lack of fiscal sponsorship was the biggest obstacle in completing the fourth and final season which will be broadcast on Dubai Television Channel.
"Once the financial crisis happened, the first thing that got affected was the marketing pocket, which of course means no sponsorship. And that didn't just affect me of course, it affected many others. We completed our three-year commercial contract with du, our primary sponsor, and we were stuck with no sponsorship. Unfortunately the way TV is segregated [between emirates] means that no Abu Dhabi company can sponsor a Dubai show and vice-versa."
Despite the huge success of the series, Hareb still managed to stir up controversy with some subjects handled in the show such as plastic surgery and religious extremism.
Celebrating culture
"The focus of Freej was never to talk about social issues; the focus of Freej was to celebrate culture whether it was through poetry, dialect or our way of living. We don't consider ourselves to be the flag bearers of solving or discussing [social] issues. We'd rather skew towards helping children to learn more about our culture."
He also said that the reason for much of the criticism of the show stemmed from the wide range of viewership his show attracted.
"Freej managed to pull in viewers from 4 to 70 years old, which resulted in a vast range of viewership. The mentality of these different age groups, the genders and the social hierarchy is vastly different.
Unified message
"Some will be more conservative from the rest; some are more exposed to international media. At the end of the day I'm not a government show, I'm not trying to get to the greater good of people and send them one unified message. Freej is the vision of its maker and what I think it's important."
The birth of Freej encouraged many other locally-made animated series to take the plunge and delve into the animation industry.
Hareb does not see these competitors as enemies, but as good friends joined together to strengthen the animation industry in the UAE.
