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Pucca

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File:Pucca.gif
Left: Garu; Right: Pucca

Pucca (IPA pronunciation: [pu ka] poo-ka) is a media franchise from the South Korean company Vooz Character Systems.

The main character Pucca is the young ward of three Chinese noodle house owners. The Noodle House is located in Sooga Village, a small Chinese village in the mountains. Pucca is in love with the ninja, "Garu" (IPA pronunciation: [geɪ ɹu] gaa-roo). However, he desperately tries to avoid Pucca's advances, and (usually) does not return her affection. While Garu is a skilled ninja, Pucca always seems to best him in combat, and unintentional competition, simply by sheer wit.

The characters are quite popular in Europe and Asia, with TV animation in cartoon channels in Europe and South America. These animations are compiled into a DVD, available in Germany. A UK children's book publisher (Hodder's) has also published a series of Pucca children books. The UK also has pencil cases/tins, stationary and notebooks/diaries. In Israel, a Pucca branded snack was launched on May, 2006.

There is also an on-going manhwa series in Korea, which has been translated into Chinese and German, of Pucca and Garu travelling around the world through an enchanted board game.

History

Pucca was designed by Vooz Character Systems in January 2000. After some success as the flash animation series Pucca Funny Love, it was licensed for merchandising late in the middle of 2001. This gave it a firm foothold to further expand to a global market in 2002. In 2004 it had been turned into over 2000 different products in about 60 different countries, and by 2005 it had reached 2500 different products in 72 countries. In 2006 the animated series was made in North America, and the franchise reached 3000 products in 100 countries. It was announced on the Vooz Character Systems site that a Pucca online bike-racing game was in development by Gravity (company) for their Stylia casual game portal.

Characters

See List of characters in Pucca

Pucca Funny Love

Pucca Funny Love [Hangul:뿌까] is an online animated series made with Macromedia Flash.

Many of its greeting cards and flash episodes center around Pucca's comical attempts to steal a kiss from Garu and the competition at times between the two characters. There is little to no dialogue in these flash cartoons so that fans all over the world can enjoy them. The most popular place for westerners to access the Pucca Funny Love cartoon series is Puccaclub.com.

Animated Series

The Canadian-produced animated series by Studio B Productions can be seen in the United States on Toon Disney's Jetix line-up on Monday and Friday nights.

In the series, Pucca and Garu are the only human characters who were never given the opportunity to speak, but instead gave them giggles, grunts, and other various sounds, much like their online Flash cartoons. Although, there are occasional instances in which Pucca can be heard to say one to three syllable phrases, and it is said by Ching that she is a good singer.

Some Pucca episodes follow patterns. Many episodes take place in Alternate Reality versions of Soogaville, with alternate versions of the characters (Space stations, jungle, ETC.) and many episode names are play-on-words: Puccahontas (Pocahontas), Romancing the Clone (Romancing the Stone), etc.

Voice Acting Cast

Actor Character
Shannon Chan-Kent Chief(Jing Jing)
Louis Chirillo Additional Voices
Micheal Daingerfield Chang
Brian Dobson Uncle Dumpling
Michael Dobson Ho
Brian Drummond Garu
Bill Mondy Clown
Richard Newman Master Soo
Tabitha St. Germain Pucca/Ring Ring
Chantal Strand Ching
French Tickner Santa
Lee Tockar Dada/Tobe/Abyo
Dave 'Squatch' Ward Muji
Dale Wilson Linguini

Episodes

See List of Pucca Episodes

Awards

[1]

Year Result Award Category / Recipient(s)
2006 Nominated Leo Best Overall Sound in an Animation Program or Series: Marcel, Duperreault, Todd Araki, Jason Frederickson, Kirk Furniss
Best Screenwriting in an Animation Program or Series: Colin Yardley, Larry Raskin
2006 Nominated Leo Best Direction/Story Boarding in an Animation Program or Series:

Greg Sullivan, Jayson Thiessen, Dallas Parker

Books

Title Publisher First Released
Pucca's Most Wanted Vooz 18 November 2004
Pucca and Garu: First Meeting Vooz 18 November 2004
Pucca: Hands Off My Dumplings! Vooz 19 May 2005
Pucca's Fishy Tail Vooz 19 May 2005

German Books

Title Written By First Released Translation
Pucca und Garu: Wir gehören zusammen Martin Stabno 31 October 2005 Pucca and Garu: We belong together
Pucca: Das bin ich Martin Stabno 31 October 2005 Pucca: That is me

Photo Frame Books

Title Publisher First Released
Pucca Photo Frame Book 1: Various Kissing Ways Vooz 13 January 2005
Pucca Photo Frame Book 2: Making Sweet Music Vooz 13 January 2005

Key Chain Books

Title Publisher First Released
Chopstick Dance with Pucca Vooz 17 March 2005
Ninja Training with Garu Vooz 17 March 2005

Trivia

  • In the episode 'Datin' & Dumplings', a character who appears to be an obvious reference to Tomb Raider heroine Lara Croft visits the restaurant, and, encouraged by Pucca, ends up going on a date with the three chefs.
  • "Puccalove" mobile content subscription services and a supporting online site were available in Japan from 2004 through 2006.
  • In "For Whom the Bell Tolls", Abyo tells Garu to (not exact quote) "beware of my fists of fury," "Fist of Fury" being the title of a Bruce Lee movie.
  • In the beginning of "Soap Opera", Ring Ring is singing Chinese opera similar to a beat song from the Pop'n Music series.
  • The characters' names sometimes are used in J-Music from Japan.

References

  1. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0795256/awards
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