Some animated movies are crap, but today’s home video releases include one title that is actually about crap. Central Park Media has released the award-winning, clay animated Korean feature Doggy Poo, based on the best-selling children’s book by Jung-Saeng Kwon. The film took the Viewer’s Choice Award at the 2003 Big Apple Anime Fest and was awarded Best Pilot Prize at the 2003 Tokyo Int’l Anime Fair.
Directed by Oh-Sung Kwon, Doggy Poo is the story of a freshly deposited lump of canine feces that quickly learns he is not the most embraced thing on the planet. He is befriended by a lump of earth that falls off a wagon and eventually comes to learn that he has a purpose in life. The film was exec produced by Hong-Gee Kim for Itasca Studio.
The DVD features an English language dub and a subtitled version. There are also 80 minutes of supplemental material, including The Making of Doggy Poo, alternate angle color storyboards, the original Korean and U.S. trailers, a music video and photo galleries. In conjunction with the release, Central Park Media is putting out a soft-cover children’s book and an original soundtrack album featuring 15 songs. Both will be available where the DVD is sold.
The original Doggy Poo book won the prestigious Children’s Literature Award in 1968. Author Kwon went on to publish more than 110 short stories, a book of poems and eight children’s novels, including Tears of God and Mong-Shil.
The Doggy Poo DVD retails for the suggested price of $19.99. A Collector’s Series version, which includes a limited-edition, eight-song CD soundtrack, is available for $24.99.
Among the other animated titles available today are Sing-Along Songs: Home on the Range, a 37-minute collection of tunes from the upcoming animated feature (Walt Disney Home Video, $19.99), and the award-winning 1971 classic, The Point. Written and produced by Harry Nilsson and directed by Oscar-winner Fred Wolf, the toon centers on a round-headed boy named Oblio who lives in a land where everything and everyone has a point. Although Dustin Hoffman was the special’s original narrator when it first aired on ABC, the home video version features the voice of Ringo Starr. The 74-minute BMG release is priced at $14.98.
Also at video stores today are Beast Wars: Second Season (Rhino, $29.95), Dragon Ball Z Vol. 50 (Funimation, $19.98) and Juanita Jones Vol. 3 (Studio Works, $14.99).
