Pucca - History

History

Originally, Pucca was a "animated online e-card service" made in 2000 by the company Vooz. The popularity of the e-card increased so rapidly in both Korea and the rest of Asia that it was licensed by Jetix in 2004, who also acquired television rights for the service. Vooz went on to continue working with Jetix, making the original two and a half minute long animated shorts, which were then aired on both the Jetix website and as in-between full cartoon show shorts on the Jetix television channel. Pucca shorts were also often featured on the channel for MTV. Jetix's director of international licensing, Richard Woolf, stated that "the possibilities with Pucca were immediately apparent, especially because you were left wanting more after watching the original shorts".

More episodes were ordered by Jetix after the success of the initial shorts, with Studio B Productions in charge of making them. The new episodes became more fleshed out to depict Pucca as being a real television series, with more extensive plot being involved and some of the non-speaking characters gaining voices, along with the length of the episodes being extended to seven minutes in total. The new episodes were shown on many of Jetix's worldwide channels.

After the success of the show in television, Jetix began branching out into accessories and toys in order to bring in further revenue from the, now, franchise. These new products included "apparel, accessories, housewares, giftware, and stationery" focused largely on attracting younger teenagers. Since then, the age demographic has expanded to include younger children through the creation of various toy lines and older teenagers through the publishing of video games set in the Pucca universe.