Islamic Religious Elements in Therianthropic Folklore and Their Potential for Animated Character Design

ABSTRACT : Indonesia is a large nation that has a lot of cultural heritage from folklore with therianthropiccharacters that reflect the cultural characteristics of each region. This descriptive qualitative research focuses onexamining the religious elements of the therianthropic characters in Indonesian folklore and their potential fordesigning animated characters. The object of study was selected using a purposive sampling technique from fourfolktales from four large islands in Indonesia as primary data, namely the legend of Lembu Sura (GunungKelud), Cindaku, Burung Arue and Talokot, and Siluman Ular. Secondary data was taken from related scientificpublications. Content analysis is used to reveal the implied messages of religious elements contained in the fourfolktales. The results of the research show that: (1) The four therianthropic stories and characters are all basedon religious stories and have the potential to be adapted into animated films. The therianthropic form and itssuperpower to incarnate or take permanent form is a symbol of religious elements and representation of people‘sbelief in the power of God and supernatural powers; (2) The integration of Islamic religious elements in themes,characters, narratives, conflicts and resolution of folklore has transformed into a metamorphosis concept whichhas implications for people‘s understanding and participation in traditional to modern religious practices; (3)Therianthropic characters and religious elements in folklore have great potential to be explored in animatedcharacters to respond to social changes and technological developments that have an impact on people‘sunderstanding of religion. The collaboration between therianthropic and Islamic religious elements is also verycontributive in conveying story messages visually and spiritually, and has even become a very appropriatemedium for promoting local cultural heritage on the international stage.

KEYWORDS :Islamic religious element; therianthropic, Indonesian culture; folklore; religion