Popular animation character Pororo the Little Penguin is a pilot. His appearance is marked by the oversized helmet and goggles he always wears. He enjoys sleigh rides, flies airplanes, and even races cars. The cute little penguin has been loved by preschool children in 127 countries around the world since his debut ten years ago. Now his creators aim for something even bigger: Pororo’s first feature-length film. They hope that Pororo can pull a large audience to make it a blockbuster movie.

Pororo, The Racing Adventure, a cinematic adaptation of the Korean computer-generated cartoon series, is now playing in theaters in Korea after opening to great fanfare on January 23. The 3D film was also released in China on January 25.

Pororo (left) races with Crong in the movie (photo courtesy of Ocon). Pororo (left) races with Crong in the movie (photo courtesy of Ocon).

Unlike the TV series, the film’s background is not limited to Pporong Village, but is set in a place called Northpia which is alive with street parades and sled racing courses down steep curved slopes, icy tunnels, rugged mountains, and foggy hills.

The story goes like this. Curious Pororo and his friends accidentally cause an airplane to make an emergency landing in their home village. On the airplane are some turtles being shipped to Northpia to deliver ice sleds and racing cars. Pororo and his friends follow them to Northpia to participate in the race. Upon arriving, they make it to the finals but a more complicated course awaits them.

The 77-minute film made the headlines from the beginning. It cost KRW 8 billion and took three years to make.

The film opened at more than 6,000 screens across China thanks to state investor ACG China, which invested KRW 2.2 billion, or 30 percent of the entire budget. The investment allowed the film to be classified as a domestic film in China, realizing a big screen debut in the country.

A scene from Pororo, The Racing Adventure (photo courtesy of Ocon) A scene from Pororo, The Racing Adventure (photo courtesy of Ocon)

According to Ocon, the film’s producer, the size of its opening is impressive as even DreamWorks’ animation Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) was shown at only 4,000 screens in China.

Pororo and his friends including Poby the polar bear and Crong the dinosaur have developed a big following since the animation’s debut on EBS in 2003.

“Pororo has kept evolving and a film adaptation is also an evolution,” said Kim Il-ho, CEO of Ocon, in an interview with Yonhap. “There have been many attempts including TV series and a musical and now we came to produce a film.”

Kim said making a film adaptation was not easy because many people consider Pororo just for children.


The poster for Pororo, The Racing Adventure (photo courtesy of Ocon)
 The poster for Pororo, The Racing Adventure (photo courtesy of Ocon)

“Film is for family entertainment,” he said. “It has to have a feature length and a large scale. But it is not easy with a small number of characters and simple episodes.” Kim said he created a plot in which Pororo adventures outside the village so that they can provide new sets and spectacles.

The movie is already generating a huge sensation in the local film industry, as it is likely to be Korea’s first animated blockbuster. According to industry sources, the film ranked first among family movies and third in overall box office reservations upon its release.

So far, Leafie, A Hen into the Wild (2011) is the biggest hit among Korean animated films, drawing 2.2 million viewers and surpassing the previous record of 720,000 set by the digital version of Robot Taekwon V (2007). Korea produced earlier animated films such as My Beautiful Girl, Mari (2001) and Oseam (2002) but they drew only 54,400 and 25,500 viewers respectively.

This is a special year for the country’s animation industry, as another feature-length animated film is in the making.

Dooly the Little Dinosaur also celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. It is not an exaggeration to say that Dooly and Pororo are the characters that have transformed the local animation industry.

A scene from the Dooly the Little Dinosaur musical at Lotte World in July 2009 (photo: Yonhap News) A scene from the Dooly the Little Dinosaur musical at Lotte World in July 2009 (photo: Yonhap News)


A film adaptation of Dooly is slated for release later this year as part of the anniversary. The story is about two alien girls who invade the earth but Dooly saves the earth and becomes a hero. In addition to the movie, the City of Seoul and Dobong District Office plan to break ground to build a museum dedicated to the cartoon character. This is the second feature-length film for Dooly since The Adventure of Ice Planet was released in 1996.

There seems to be a bright future for the Korean animation industry, as many successful cartoon characters such as Larva, Robocar Poli, Dibo the Gift Dragon, Pucca, and Vroomiz are waiting to be made into feature films.

These cartoon characters can generate fortunes through character-related businesses such as publishing, merchandising, films, games, and theme parks. It takes a lot of time and money to develop popular characters but once they are established, the cost to produce and distribute related goods gets lower and lower. 


[Source : Korea.net]