Malaysian netizens mock Indonesia’s new animated film quality

 

THE perpetual competition between Indonesia and Malaysia has always been a source of entertainment for the cyberspace, and for good reasons.

And recently, the heat is being turned up once again by a netizen who highlighted the poor quality of Indonesia’s new animated movie, “MERAH PUTIH: ONE FOR ALL,” in comparison to Malaysian animation such as Upin dan Ipin.

“At first I thought it was some netizen making a meme, but it was a real production,” said @shahnonsalleh while @CallSignTsoi pointed out it was 100% made by the Indonesian government.

However, @BergschrundOM corrected that the production was only backed by the government.

According to @IndoPopBase, the animated movie had a production budget of Rp6.7 bil, which is the equivalent to RM1.7 mil. That is no small sum of money. The result, however, was lacklustre.

The MERAH PUTIH: ONE FOR ALL will be released on 14 August 2025, in conjunction with Indonesia’s 80th independence anniversary.

The film tells the story of a group of children who travel to find a stolen red and white flag so that it can be used in their village’s independence celebration. 

The storm of criticism continues. “Money Laundering. The director don’t even care about opinion,” @Id77Kgt remarked.

“It’s so ugly, why do people watch this?” said another.

“They don’t. If any, either it becomes a “must-watch-or-else” task for official government or school students, or they’re bribed to watch it. There has been circulating DMs about being paid to watch this abomination,” said @ryuumajin.

Perhaps the most biting comment came from @not2ez4mee who said, “Even Upin Ipin season 1 is better than that movie.”

However, the film does have its supporters. @Naxa83 remarked that the graphic might not be good looking but it is filled with messages of patriotism and unity.

“Only the cost is a little high and it does not fulfill the audiences’ expectation,” he said. —  Focus Malaysia