New short animated film, The Namazu, makes waves at Comic-Con

Dani Bowman is a 18-year-old autistic girl with a love of anime style animation. Dani aspires to follow in the footsteps of other cartooning greats with her own animation company, Powerlight Studios. What is even more impressive is that Dani is autistic. Dani illustrates, writes and voice acts nine different cartoon series, each with about 30 unique characters. Her stories, and her own story, have captured the interest of several production companies with the goal of taking Powerlight Studios to network and cable TV. Dani came up with the name of Powerlight Studios at age 11, and shortly there after created her first series, “Gemstar & Friends”, followed by “The Adventures of Captain Yuron”. Dani’s imaginative adventures are loved by kids and admired by adults for their magical simplicity and heart-warming story lines that capture the imagination. Many of Dani’s series started with a random scrap of paper found somewhere around the house.

“When I started my company at 14, I was introduced to Joey Travolta and I have been working with him on several projects ever since, including the Goliath Series of anti bullying books, Eeya’s Story, an award winning autism PSA, and his anti-bullying campaigns.” Bowman said.

Like many other people with Autism, Dani Bowman doesn’t let it get in her way.  She has appeared at San Diego Comic Con many years in a row and this year is no exception. Her new short animated film, The Namazu, features the voice talents of Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants) and Stella Ritter (actor John Ritter’s daughter) and the original song “Better for You” by Lauren Dair Owens (young Zooey Deschanel on Fox’s  “New Girl”) and Will Clay. The short animated film is produced and directed by Kevin Sean Michaels, who made the Academy Awards long-list for the 2011 film, Ingrid Pitt: Beyond The Forest.

Dani is a fan of Japanese culture, anime and manga style cartoons and loves sushi! Part of Dani’s mission in creating Powerlight Studios is to deliver a positive message about the special abilities that autistic individuals have. Commonly sited statistics state that 1 in 110 children today are autistic. A more alarming statistic is that 87% of autistic adults are unemployed according to the Autism Society of America. It is especially sad considering that autistics excel in visual and drawing skills but have historically, if employed at all, ended up working in low skill occupations. Powerlight Studios is developing an Autistic Artist’s Network to promote the works of other Autistic artists with the goal of helping them become self sufficient.

This is the official trailer for the upcoming new animated short, “The Namazu”