'Hello, Woochi' stimulates imaginations

A scene from “Hello, Woochi” / Courtesy of Earlybird Pictures

This is the second in a special series on Korean animation studios. ― ED.

Kim Dae-chang, director and CEO of the Earlybird Pictures

By Baek Byung-yeul

Children in the 1980s and ’90s used to watch hand-drawn animations at theaters and on television. But nothing is permanent. Due to advanced techniques, computer graphic animations have become more dominant in entertainment, starting with the Pixar’s “Toy Story” in 1995.

While the so-called 2D animations have lost much of their appeal, a new hand-drawn animated feature, “Hello, Woochi,” is ready to hit the big screen this week and possibly change that.

Based on cartoonist Ha Min-seok’s children’s comic book series of the same title, “Hello, Woochi,” is a product of local animation studio Earlybird Pictures.

The plot of “Hello, Woochi” is simple, as it targets children under the age of 10.

The 88-minute feature portrays the adventure story of a fictional taoist wizard Woochi, who travels over 500 years into the year 2015 in Seoul, after scolding a king who exploits his people. There, he becomes friends with other protagonists Suk and Sancho, who are good at martial arts. But Woochi soon gets trapped in a magical room that turns him into a powerless kid by the king, so the three friends join forces against the tyrant.

Kim Dae-chang, director of the feature and CEO of Earlybird Pictures, said he decided to work on making an animation version of “Hello, Woochi” to stimulate the imagination of children.

“When I was young, I developed my imagination through hand-drawn animations,” Kim said in an interview with The Korea Times at a cafe in Hapjeong, western Seoul, on Sept. 23. “They had a big influence in making me a more optimistic person. Not only those animations, but also I was greatly affected by comic books, and I would like to let children these days get the chance to feel as I did.”

On the day of the interview, Kim premiered his film for children at a local theater. When asked about their responses, he grinned broadly, saying “the premiere was a grand success.”

“Almost every child there burst into laughter louder than I expected,” he said.

Kim said he made his animated feature using hand-drawn techniques as they can meet the purposes of his intentions.

“I believe that 2D or hand-drawn animated features are more suitable when recreating the original comics into animation than using 3D techniques,” he said.

Kim did not deny that the lower production costs were partially attributed to his studio’s decision to make a hand-drawn feature.

“We spent 7 million won ($600,600) including subsidies by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA),” he said. “This is an example of completely creating an indie film.

“If we had enough money, we would probably have tried to make it into a 3D film. But with the money we had, the output couldn’t have been better than what we made.”

With help from KOCCA, it took almost five years to finish the feature. They spent two years, ranging from signing a contract for the publication rights to completing the creative process of making the characters featured in the film. And the studio needed more than two years to finish the post-production work.

“I don’t have too much expectation on ‘Woochi’ in terms of making a profit,” he said. “As ‘Woochi’ is planned to be screened at local theaters only and we already knew the 3D animated feature is a course of nature that no one can defy. Right now, what we are doing is investing. With the creative system we have developed, our studio has accumulated know-how in creating hand-drawn animated features with relatively low production costs. As we have plans to make sequels of ‘Woochi’ and other 2D features based on different comics, I am pretty sure that we can find our own profitable niche market soon.”

“Hello, Woochi” will screen nationwide from Thursday.