Pucca: Ninjas Love Noodles (DVD)

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Originally designed as a set of Flash cartoon videos and greeting cards on the Internet, "Pucca Funny Love" is a creation of Vooz Character Systems in South Korea that just happened to be one of those weird things to take off and become an instant overnight success. The franchise snowballed into a variety of merchandise products such as plush dolls, key chains, books, apparel, school supplies, and even cell-phone accessories.

In 2006, the "Pucca" craze kept its momentum rolling when it received the green light as a series of animated shorts produced in Canada. Each mini-episode runs approximately seven minutes, with three of them filling the half-hour time slot on television. The show's popularity secured numerous nominations for the Leo Awards, winning "Best Screenwriting in an Animated Program or Series" two years in a row, as well as "Best Overall Sound in an Animation Program or Series." This DVD "Pucca: Ninjas Love Noodles" features an assortment of thirteen shorts from the first season.

The title character of the series is "Pucca" (pronounced Poo-kah), a mischievous 'tween girl that lives in the fictional Asian Sooga Village. Pucca has a huge heart, loving life and adventure, but most importantly, she's smitten for a young ninja named Garu. Pucca spends most of her waking hours trying to plaster kisses all over the poor boy, and reminds me of Pepe Le Pew from "Looney Tunes," only she's much more adorable and I'd wager she smells a lot better, too. Garu, however, wants nothing of this lovey-dovey nonsense. All he wants is a little peace and quiet to meditate and sharpen up his ninja skills, but he always has to keep one eye open in order to avoid getting pounced on. Both Pucca and Garu remain true to the original Flash cartoons by rarely speaking, usually only communicating by their facial expressions or minimum sound effects like giggles and grunts.

Since the above scenario of an infatuated girl continuously chasing around a boy for a little tonsil hockey would get stale after a while, the animated series has a wide variety of supporting cast members to keep things fresh. Pucca's three uncles own the Go Rong Restaurant and find their way into most of the episodes. Ching (Pucca's nosy blabbermouth best friend) and Abyo (Garu's pal who is a Bruce Lee wannabe) also show up frequently. Tobe is Garu's nemesis, a dark warlord in command of an incompetent band of ninja warriors, and I like him most of all. While he's evil, he's a great source of comic relief since nothing ever goes his way.

One silly thing that left me a little puzzled, and which I could have done without, is that Santa Claus himself is one of the recurring characters. It just seems totally out of place having St. Nick live and go about his daily routine in Sooga, but maybe it was the cheapest way to add someone famous without paying an absurd royalty. At least kids will recognize him, and he might appeal to them, but personally that part just didn't do much for me.

I have no complaints about the cute anime-style animation that is along the same lines as "Powerpuff Girls," with the characters having oversized heads on top of stout little bodies and a relatively simplistic artistic design. They almost look like they are taken directly from a "Mega Man" video game on the original Nintendo. Don't think that the animators were skimping by trying to cut corners, though, as most of the fine detail went into the beautiful background scenery. A good portion of it is even computer generated, which gives it a three-dimensional feel.

Although the Sooga Village is predominantly Asian, other cultures manage to slip through from time to time. Uncle Linguini has an Italian-American accent, sounding like he just came off the set from the "Sopranos," while the voices of Master Soo and Uncle Ho seem to have run-of-the-mill, stereotypical Jewish-Italian impressions. It's all lighthearted humor, tastefully executed, and probably done to appeal to a broad audience.

Also available on DVD is "Pucca: Kung Fu Kisses," another assortment of thirteen shorts from the first season.

1) "Noodle Round the World." The episode title says it all, as the three Go Rong chefs create one record-breaking noodle that spans the globe.

2) "Misplaced Face." After an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction before the entire town, Abyo literally loses his face, and his friends help him get it back.