Kampung Boy (TV series)

Kampung Boy
Title card
Genre	Comedy drama
Created by	Lat
Theme music composer	Dave Andrew Farid Ali
Country of origin	Malaysia
Original languages	Malay (Malaysian release) English (International release)
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26
Production
Production locations	North America Philippines
Running time	26 minutes
Production companies	Lacewood Studio Matinee Entertainment Measat Broadcast Network Systems
Original release
Network	Astro Ria Astro Ceria
Release	14 September 1999 (1999-09-14) – 12 September 2000 (2000-09-12)
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Kampung Boy is a Malaysian animated television series broadcast from 14 September 1999 to 12 September 2000. It is about the adventures of a young boy, Mat, and his life in a kampung (village). The series is adapted from the best-selling graphical novel The Kampung Boy, an autobiography of Malaysian cartoonist Lat. Twenty-six episodes – one of which won an Annecy Award – were first shown on Malaysian satellite television network Astro before being distributed to sixty other countries.

A main theme of Kampung Boy is the contrast between the traditional rural way of life and the modern urban lifestyle. The series promotes the village lifestyle as an environment that is fun and conducive to the development of a healthy and intelligent child. It raises the issue of modernisation, proposing that new values and technologies should be carefully examined by a society before being accepted.

Lat's animation has won praises for its technical work and refreshing content, although questions have been raised by Southeast Asian audiences over its similarities to Western animation and its deviations from the local style of spoken English. Malaysian animation critics held up Kampung Boy as the standard to which their country's animators should aspire, and academics in cultural studies regarded the series as a method of using modern technologies and cultural practices to preserve Malaysian history.