`Hammerboy' Pucca Picked as Year's Top in Animations, Characters

By Lee Yong-sung
Staff Reporter

Animation film "Mangchi (Hammer Boy)" and cute cheeky girl Pucca were selected by Korea Culture & Contents Agency (KOCCA) as the winners in the local animation and cartoon character field for 2004.

" Hammer Boy", the feature animation based on a popular comic book by Huh Young-man, was chosen as the winner of the Presidential Award for Best Animation. It beat out 47 other animations, including second-place winners "Wanghu Simchung (Empress Shimchung)", "In the Forest" and "Fortress".

Pucca, created in 2000 as part of a popular line of online greeting cards, will receive the Best Character Award for the second consecutive year.

Second place awards in cartoon characters went to Mashimaro, also known as "Yopgi Tokki (Bizarre Rabbit)", baby dinosaur Dooly, popular computer game character Fortress and Pororo the Little Penguin.

The cartoonist Huh, who is in his late 50s, will receive the Best Cartoon Award for "Sikgaek", a comic book about food.

The awards ceremony will take place at the COEX Grand Ballroom, southern Seoul, on Dec. 13. The winner for best animation will receive a cash prize of 12 million won, while winners of the cartoon and character categories will each receive 10 million won. The awards will be presented by Culture and Tourism Minister Chung Dong-chae.

Winners were selected based on sales, licensing and customers' opinions from a survey of 2,000 people.