WHO would have guessed that while eating fried chicken, a Malaysian would come out with the idea of creating a kung fu-trained chicken as an animation character. Today, the animation is known as Chuck Chicken.
Shown in over 80 countries, Chuck Chicken has also become one of the highest-rated 2D animation series in China. However, it wasn’t all fun for Animasia Studio in Puchong during the production process.
Its Chief Operating Officer Wong Kuan Loong aka Ah Loong says it all began during the year 2000 when the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was being aired.
The blockbuster featured an international cast of Chinese actors and actresses, including Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen. Kung fu became so popular that Ah Loong hit upon on the idea of a chicken character that knows martial arts.
As he was running his own creative studio with four people at that time, Ah Loong says they began to work on character design, animation and music to create a short film of about five minutes long. They started by sharing it with family and friends as there was no other platform to showcase their product unlike YouTube nowadays.
He says everyone who saw the short film liked it and kept asking for more. So when Ah Loong met his current partner Edmund Chan, they formed Animasia Studio. The production process began in 2002.
CHUCK THE CHICKEN
The action-packed animation series is set in a bird-filled island called Rocky Perch, and tells the story of Chuck Adoodledoo and his friends, Flick and Wing, who provide kung fu style security and protection to the citizens of the island.
When Chuck inherits a special amulet in the shape of a golden egg with amazing powers, he uses his powerful new abilities to fight evil Dr Mingo and the other villains in the island.
It took them 12 years to finish one whole season of the Chuck Chicken series.
“We collected feedback from industry players — such as the TV stations, the buyers — in terms of character design, story-telling and colours. We modified accordingly. The Chuck Chicken you’re watching today has gone a few rounds of modification in terms of character design.
“We also got lucky when the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) supported our work and we got to kickstart the show for mass production, even hiring an international scriptwriter,” says Ah Loong.
GOING GLOBAL
Animasia Studio managed to license Chuck Chicken (52 episodes x 11 minutes) to a Disney Channel for a start, which targets 7 to 11-year-olds. It premiered on Disney Channel Southeast Asia in August 2015 throughout the region, including Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The 2D animated series was also broadcast in multiple languages — English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia, and Thai, among others.
Other channels include Disney China, Nickelodeon India and in the Middle East, as well as provincial TV stations in China. Recently, it began to show in European countries including Spain, Portugal, the UK, France, Germany, and Italy. The show also streams on iQiyi in China, Netflix worldwide, and Disney XD Asia channel.
Locally, it is aired on TV3 and TV9. Ah Loong says the biggest hurdle in making the animation was getting funds during the early stages. “We did not have enough money to hire people and had to do everything, including the sound effects, on our own.
“The four of us (in the beginning) divided our work for the first trailer short film,” he says, adding that the company has now grown to over 100 employees. Even so, Ah Loong says there are still challenges. After the product is ready, they must showcase it to potential buyers, he says. They have participated in numerous exhibitions just to showcase the finished products to programme buyers.
OTHER VENTURES
Besides clips, teasers, and full episodes of Chuck Chicken on YouTube, Animasia Studio also produces other original content on the platform. “Due to our deals with streaming platforms like Netflix, we cannot put all the full episodes in our YouTube channel. Therefore, we produce shorter series of episodes just for YouTube consumption. It’s packed with more action,” says Ah Loong, adding that the originals can reach hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.
The channel has over 200,000 subscribers today. It also received the Silver Play Button award for passing 100,000 subscribers, just nine months after being on the platform.
Meanwhile, the company officially launched a game called Chuck Chicken Magic Egg in collaboration with MarketJS earlier this year. It’s available on Facebook Instant Games for iOS and Android, as well as on Play Store. In the game, users play Chuck as he takes down villains by throwing the magic egg around while saving his friends. For every level completed, users earn stars to unlock cool collectible Chuck Chicken cards.
KIDS OBSTACLE COMPETITION
Animasia Studio has also given licensing character rights of Chuck Chicken to Sambill Park, a local mobile funfair business. Its managing director Daniel Wong says the characters are featured in Chuck Chicken Junior Warriors Competition, a new multi-stage obstacle course competition designed to promote physical activity among kids.
The 91-metre inflatable obstacle international competition for children aged 7 to 12 years old is inspired by the American Ninja Warriors TV game show. Now in its second year, the first qualification round will be held at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on April 6 and 7.
Divided into categories based on age and gender, the course will include a rubber running track, inflatable obstacles, a slide, tunnel, tram, pool, mountain, maze, puzzles and more. The qualifying rounds will be held in five other selected schools, before the semi-final and final at Sunway Velocity Mall. The champion will then go to Singapore in September to compete in the national level.
FUTURE PLANS
At the end of last year, Animasia Studio signed a deal with Multi Capital Network, a theme park consultant to MCM Studio, to license Chuck Chicken, Chuck Chicken Power Up and another one of its animation series, Harry & Bunnie, to appear as indoor attractions in an upcoming entertainment mall in Johor.
According to Ah Loong, the studio is also in the pre-production stage of developing Chuck Chicken’s second season of getting scripts and storyboards done. Animasia Studio is also working closely with its China partners to co-produce the 3D animated feature of Chuck Chicken The Movie. However, there is no confirmation on the release date yet.