Pucca

Did You Know?

• In the initial period, Pucca was an online animated series made with Macromedia Flash by Vooz.
• Two animated adaptations were made: one simply called Pucca and the other subtitled Love Recipe.
• The first series featured Tabitha St. Germain as Pucca and Brian Drummond as Garu.

History

Pucca originated as an animated online e-card service created in 2000 by Vooz, hosted on the Korean e-card service postnut.com. Its popularity across Asian countries led to a licensing deal with Jetix Europe in 2004, which acquired television rights. Vooz collaborated with Jetix Europe to produce original two-and-a-half-minute animated shorts, aired on the Jetix website and as interstitials on the Jetix television channel, as well as on MTV. Richard Woolf, Jetix Europe's director of international licensing, noted that the possibilities with Pucca were immediately apparent because viewers wanted more after the shorts. Following the success of these shorts, Jetix Europe ordered additional episodes, produced by Studio B Productions. These episodes were expanded to seven minutes, with more developed plots and some previously silent characters gaining voices, and aired on Jetix channels worldwide. Jetix then branched into accessories and toys, including apparel, accessories, housewares, giftware, and stationery targeting younger teenagers. The demographic later expanded to younger children through toy lines and older teenagers via video games. In 2008, Pucca was licensed to the Access Licensing Group under a merchandising license agreement in North America, with the expectation that Pucca would challenge The Walt Disney Company; the televised adaptation aired on Toon Disney's subsidiary network, Jetix.

Video games

Pucca's Kisses Game, an action-platformer for WiiWare, has players control Pucca as she pursues Garu through dangerous stages to land a kiss. Otaboo developed the game, and BigBen Interactive published it. It launched in Europe and Australia on February 4, 2011, and in North America on February 14, 2011, costing 800 Wii Points. That same day in Europe, it reappeared as a retail disc titled Pucca's Race for Kisses for the Wii. A separate Nintendo DS title, Pucca Power Up, came from Rising Star Games on May 13, 2011, created with franchise owner Vooz. This game first arrived in the United Kingdom, then the rest of the PAL region, with a North American release on September 13, 2011.