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 Babies,
I’m about to share with you an immeasurable treasure. After wallowing in
the morass of the majority 2007’s TV season… (- Okay, big statement;
there were a few exceptions, such as our adored Brotherhood and 24,
amongst a few others, but I can’t think of the year without feeling the
sadness of how bad Heroes was. *sigh*) Well, just not the best year
ever, but I’m here to tell ya, kiddies, the last weeks of the year's end
blessed me with the best thing to come my way since some brilliant
person decided that you can actually roast peanuts in honey. This
21-minute slice of heaven is courtesy of a little Chinese
noodle-delivery girl named Pucca.
It
would be totally understandable if that name or the fabulous show it
graces is unfamiliar to you. While a great success in Asia and Europe,
Pucca has only been made available to North American audiences at the
quirky behest of the ToonDisney channel’s Jetix programming. Quirky
because the timeslot for the show has jumped around three times in the
few months I’ve been watching, which ain’t exactly conducive to
developing a fan following. No matter. Pucca is so instantly addictive
that if you watch it once, you will follow it wherever it goes.
Here’s the skinny, Pucca is a little girl from idyllic Sooga Village who
delivers noodles from her uncles’ restaurant via her trusty and
freakishly speedy scooter. No surprise that her moped is super-powered;
indeed everything about Pucca is mega-mega. This charming child with the
odango-hairdo is blessed with super-speed, super-strength, and a super-jones
for the local ninja, named Garu. Unfortunately for lovestruck Pucca,
Garu takes his bid to become a greatest ninja of all time extremely
seriously and that means no distractions, especially from the amorous,
smooch-seeking noodle girl. Pucca is nothing if not determined and will
use her gifts and a heavy dose of kung-fu know-how to overcome any and
all obstacles, including Garu’s enemies (- and sometimes his friends)
and his own obstinance to get her man; kind of like how Pepe Le Pew
would be if he were a little girl who knew karate.
Neat thing about Pucca is as basic as a concept as that seems, it’s the
magic of the show’s imaginative writers and producers that elevates that
simple concept to something fun and entertaining on every level. Each
show features three different 7-minute stories that place Pucca, Garu,
and their friends, the sword-wielding Ching, and Garu’s best pal, action
hero in training, Abyo, in a variety of locations and historical
periods. One episode will find them tooling around Sooga Village trying
to save it from the threat of evil ninja, Tobe and Muji, a zombie master
with a prehensile mustache. Another sequence will find them in Ancient
Greece with Pucca as a goddess presiding over the first Olympics (-
and giving a slight edge to her champion, Garu). Watch the Sooga
Village versions of the characters visit their Old West doppelgangers.
Abyo and Garu dance flamenco and prepare for the “r-r-r-r-running of the
bulls” in Spain. Little Dutch girl Pucca delivers Pannekoeken in wooden
clogs. Puccahontas helps Garunimo pass the test to become an Indian
brave. Through the sharply clever scripts and wonderfully
rendered characters, the show travels anywhere to any time and it’s all
interesting and so much fun to watch.
Pucca was created in 2000 by the Vooz Character Systems
of Korea, and was originally meant to be a sort of Hello Kitty
presence. She’s on e-stationary and literally thousands of licensed
products from cutlery to clothes to comic books to video games to
adult-sized rideable scooters (- I know I should shun earthly
desires, but Shiva, how I yearn to wrap my trunk around the pink
Pucca-cycle! See the adorableness in the gallery and remember it's never
too early to plan for Christmas!) . Pucca was first animated
in a series of 2-minute Flash shorts called Funny Love, where the seeds
of the character and her adoration of Garu were born. The Pucca
television series takes the online shorts a lot further, fleshing
everything out by adding characters, story arcs and dialog - that is,
dialog for everybody other than Pucca and Garu: Garu has taken a vow of
silence as he studies ninjitsu and Pucca is just so cute she doesn’t
have to speak a word; all we hear from our heroine are occasional growls
of frustration when someone messes with her man or adorable giggles and swak-ing noises when she traps her prey for some kissy-kissy. While the
design of Pucca is deceptively uncomplicated, the characters all look
like Sanrio-esque oblongs and squares. It’s what the animators do with
their expressions and the amazing multi-layered 3D quality of the
backgrounds that lifts Pucca from being a set of cut-outs on a flat
surface. Garu’s hut is set in a jungle of bamboo, far away from the main
village: The scenes of him training, leaping from tree to tree through
early morning mists, each bamboo blade sharply drawn and exquisitely
layered, giving the forest such depth that the scenes look nearly as
convincing as those of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or House of Flying
Daggers. Studio B, the animation production company in Vancouver that
creates the TV series, spares neither expense nor frames on a cartoon
design that one might initially dismiss as being “simple,” before taking
a closer look.
Pucca’s writing crew has mastered the elusive art of creating an
animated show that truly pleases all age groups. This is what’s
remarkable about Pucca; there’s really something for everybody. The
obvious cuteness of the Pucca character and her sweet, winning
personality are great for little girls, the martial arts fighting action
will keep the boys’ attention, and the wit and intelligence of the
scripts are broad enough for the youngest ones to enjoy, whilst being
sharp enough for their parents or older siblings to keep watching even
after the little ones are in bed. One of the fun aspects of Pucca that
adds to its crossover appeal is the wide variety of pop culture
references abundant in every episode. When one episode takes Sooga
Village into outer space, Abyo is made up as C-3P0, Pucca’s uncles are a
Vulcan, Ferengi, and a Klingon, villain Muji is cowled like Darth Vader
and Pucca herself is a lovely shade of green with antennae like a Star
Trek Andorian. Pucca’s trip to Japan is filled with tributes to not
only Godzilla (- Who turns up unexpectedly through other episodes),
but his underrated nemesis, Gigan. The group explores the neon and
overwhelming traffic of Ginza. Pucca destroys a Dance Dance Revolution
machine, moves on to some karaoke (- which we come in too late to
hear) and battles sumo wrestlers who combine themselves into a giant
mecha-sumo; luckily Pucca brought her magic wand and with a twirl
becomes Super Sailor Pucca. In the aforementioned Pucca Goes Dutch
episode, Pucca’s way with oil paint impresses the ear off of Vincent Van
Gogh. A creepy Halloween segment is based on the Japanese horror film
The Ring, with Pucca letting her hair down to scare everybody. Pucca faces danger in another episode at the hands of an
amorous pop star clearly patterned after 90’s-prime George Michael. Even
the characters are a designed as pop culture homage; Abyo not only looks
like Bruce Lee - right down to the yellow Game of Death jumpsuit - but
he makes his predecessor’s cat noises and has issues keeping his shirt
on when faced with the happy prospect of a fight. Ching is sweetly drawn
with Zhang Ziyi in mind. Pucca’s rival the spoiled, jealous Ring-Ring
transforms into a costumed, painted-faced Beijing Opera singer and
attacks with her hair and high notes. Garu’s main rival is the
irrepressible Tobe, who’s like Wile E. Coyote to Garu’s Road Runner, and Tobe’s striking resemblance to Japanese film legend Toshiro Mifune is no
coinkydink. If you get the references, great, but what makes Pucca
exceptional is that the show works either way.
If
you’ve noticed some Warner Brothers’ references here, that’s no accident. Pucca
has achieved that great balance of being relevant to all ages in very
much the same way as the classic Warner Brothers’ shorts. Yet another
way that Pucca compares to the WB toons is in its excellent voice cast.
All the voice actors of Pucca are great; I know she’s limited to what
she can do on the show, but Tabitha St. Germain’s growls and giggles on
behalf of Pucca are adorable. I have to say a little something in
particular about the amazing work of Lee Tockar, who lends his awesome
talent to bring pugnacious Abyo and scheming Tobe to life. Tockar’s
all-out, full-strength interpretations of the two characters is one of
finest performances given through an animated character since the late
Warner Brothers’ legend, Mel Blanc. Tockar inhabits the two with
full-fledged personalities. If you hear Abyo and Tobe once, you will
never forget them. I’ve been driving the acolytes crazy quoting Tobe and
Abyo lines all over the Temple. Not only is the quality of Tockar’s
voice unforgettable, but his line readings are singular, delivered with
a wit and perception that elevates the already great material. And he’s
not a bad singer, either; I want a Tobe & Abyo’s Greatest Hits CD, now!
Seriously. (- Actually, the music on Pucca is fabulous and I would
love a soundtrack)
I’ll tell you a thing about Pucca, no matter what kind of day you’re
having, if your boss turned you down for that raise, if your teacher
caught you with that crib note during the big test, if the shoe sale
ended yesterday, if your macadamia coupon expired last week - whatever
it is; watching five minutes of Pucca will put more right for you than a
handful of happy pills. From the bouncy power J-Pop of the fabulous
sing-a-long opening theme song, to the adorable giggle of our little
super-powered heroine, you’ll be hooked instantly. Cute, clever, witty
and fun, Pucca is the best thing there is on TV right now and deserves
to be the biggest thing. Why aren’t more people watching?
Get with it, people!
~
Mighty Ganesha
January 27th, 2008
PS:
Just so you can’t say I never did anything for ya: Pucca is currently
playing in the US on the ToonDisney channel weeknights at 8:30. As they
say on TV, check your local listings, or click below to visit the Jetix
Pucca website:
Pucca Loves Garu...
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