South Korea's Aspirations for it's Animation

          The latest hit Disney movie "Frozen" has also been a hit in South Korea, and this was known to me even though I'm all the way over here in the States. The article/news portion here analyzes that the popularity of Frozen in Korea (apparently, the country that loves Frozen the most outside of the U.S. is So Ko) shows that Koreans are deprived of some good animation, particularly ones that people of all ages can enjoy. Two 100% Korean animations that have been successful are mentioned in the article and it's "뽀로로 (Pororo)" the penguin and "Larva". 

          When I think of "Pororo", I think of my cousin's son, who was less than a year old when I first met him and he would be needing attention and what not until "Pororo" would come on T.V. and magically, he'd remain calm and watch the show. This is not just a special case for my second cousin here, it's a national thing in Korea - all the children love "Pororo" and the parents do as well, not just because it may calm their children down but because they find the show amusing themselves as well. The first time I encountered pictures of the two characters from "Larva" was on the popular Korean chatting app Kakaotalk and these characters were in emoticons for your fun chatting experience! Hence, for a while, I had no idea that these hard-to-identify creatures were characters of some animation show. 

         But I did end up sensing "Larva"'s popularity as well and "Pororo" is too popular to miss out on its popularity. However, I'm not very convinced that these show that Korea is about to debut something as huge as Disney's "Frozen". I mean, they did mention that Korean animation does have the potential, it's just that they're not funded enough to demonstrate their skills. But I need more proof than a highly popular penguin and some caterpillar(? I am having trouble recalling what animal the "Larva" characters are right now) to show me that Korea is going to produce the next "Frozen". 

        Of course, it doesn't necessarily have to be the next "Frozen". What they're aiming for in Korea is animation that will offer to little children something healthy to watch for their development and something that people of all ages can enjoy. I can't say whether they're reaching for something that will mesh these two goals together in one project, but that wouldn't be a bad idea either. Anyway, I'm just glad that more Koreans are aware of this need to provide more animations that are appropriate for children and that they're want to go beyond further to captivate audiences of all ages. Why? Well, I'll tell you that on my next blog post, because the reason for this is a whole another topic on its own.

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