I have previously seen this being promoted in one of the FB pages of an individual that I followed regularly (due to his charitable activities) and forgotten all about it until I saw it while shopping for Christmas presents few weeks back. I grabbed 2 (one to give to our 3 kiddos while the other to give to a close friend of ours)
Ever since I was a young child, I think not just me, but most of us around that age have heard or watched the Sang Kancil (mousedeer in English) cartoon series. Back then it was quite a big deal for locally made cartoons and what more in our national language. Wayang kulit or shadow puppet in English is one of our traditional play which I really wanted our kiddos to be exposed to as well. So you can imagine how excited I was to be able to get this!
It comes with a stack of hardcover boards for the puppet shadow scenes (tied to a side by a big rubber band), a torchlight and 2 Eveready batteries. I experienced a bit difficulties trying to put in the batteries, needed to rummage through my storeroom for a screwdriver in order to unscrew the tiny but very strongly secured screw at the upper portion of the torchlight. Also took a bit of tinkering to figure out which directions to put in the batteries and then screwing back the tiny screw in place.
There is also 2 separate hardcover boards where you can use one of them as a background and the other where you need to take out the Sang Kancil and giant characters and DIY your own shadow puppet story. But anyway, I decided to just follow the stories provided in this box. In each cardboard, there is a small image guiding you to point your torchlight there for better shadow effect.
It follows the story of Sang Kancil that wanted to go to this castle on a mountain and the experiences it endured along the way and how it got out from tricky situations. I like the creative storyline but am a bit disappointed with the ending as I feel it could be expanded more. But not bad for a shadow puppet story in this modern world! You can even play the sound effect as you tell the story from the book to your kiddos.
I am looking forward to more stories from hereon. I hope with this gift, our kiddos will continue to cherish and preserve the shadow puppetry and local childhood stories like what I've been growing up with. Malaysian parents, this is a must to get for your kiddos!
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