The Glassworker is an upcoming first-ever hand-drawn Pakistani animated movie. The movie is directed by Usman Riaz. Set to be released under the banner of “Mano Animation Studios” The Glassworker will be released in Pakistan on 26 July 2024.
The film will be released under the distribution of Geo Films and Mandviwalla Entertainment. The film is scheduled to premiere worldwide on 9th June at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival in Annecy, France.
Storyline:
The movie is set to feature a story about a young boy Vincent and his father Tomas, who runs a glass shop in Waterfront Town known as “Oliver Glass”. Their life soon gets disrupted when their city gets engaged in a war.
During the trailer, a group of army men soon arrive in their shop asking them to help build weapons to be used in war to which his father clearly refuses.
Soon when the Barrage balloon attacks their city, the boy and girl get trapped inside a building lit up with fire. They then try to reach out to the girl before he gets thrown out of their property by the guards.
The girl then leaves the city using a train and no one knows what happened to that boy.
Development of the Movie:
Working under the vision of Usman Riaz, the team of “The Glassworker” is based in the Karachi City of Pakistan. They also extended their network and collaborated with a lot of talented artists and creative geeks based in Malaysia, Philippines, Japan, Peru, Argentina, United States, and United Kingdom.
The film was also at one point announced to be released last year in 2023, but it has been made clear that the movie is ready to go and will be in theaters on 26 July 2024 all around Pakistan.
Youtube Trailer Video:
Characters and Cast:
The movie has a very experienced and talented team of voice artists in both English and Urdu language. This film also has one of my favorite Pakistani creators Taimoor Salahuddin aka Mooroo.
| Character | Urdu Artist | English Artist |
| Tomas Oliver | Khaled Anam | Art Malik |
| Vincent Oliver | Mooroo | Sacha Dhawan |
| Alliz Amano | Mariam Riaz Paracha | Anjli Mohindra |
| Colonel Amano | Ameed Riaz | Tony Jayawardena |
| Young Vincent | Mahum Moazzam | Teresa Gallagher |
| Nadia Amano | Faiza Kazi | Mina Anwar |
| Malik Khan | Dino Ali | Sham Ali |
| Penni | Aysha Sheikh | Maya Saroya |
| Principal Bhatti | N/A | Nila Aalia |
| Professor Ansari | N/A | Alex Jordan |
| Mrs. Popolzai | N/A | Bex Wood |
My Thoughts:
I am a big fan of movies whether it’s a live-action or animation. I think this movie can play a crucial role in the development of Pakistani cinema to take it to a whole new level of creativity and movie direction.
After watching the trailer of this movie it was hard for me to accept the fact that a group of Pakistani creative artists has just achieved the animation level of Pixar, Disney, and Arcane.
I think that every animation fan should go into theaters and give this movie a try because as per the trailer, this movie has the potential to deliver something really awesome that we might not be ready for yet.
