North Korean animation is not really renowned world-wide, but you might have seen some of its products without even realizing it. Indeed, its quality can be surprisingly good! For example, North Korean animators drew some of the scenes in “The Lion King”, one of Disney’s biggest bestsellers. On the other hand, it is also responsible for some extremely funny, cringy or violent series too. If you are curious about North Korea’s cultural exploits in this area, make sure to check out this episode.
Episode 50 – Why does this podcast have to come to an end? (at least, for now) – Ask me about North Korea
- Episode 50 – Why does this podcast have to come to an end? (at least, for now)
- Episode 49 – What is the role of military in North Korea?
- Episode 48 – Why are the North Korean-Japanese relations as bad as it can get?
- Episode 47 – How to release North Korean music covers? (Interview with Justin Martell)
- Episode 46 – What does North Korea export to the outside world?
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:
North Korean animation is not really renowned world-wide, but you might have seen some of its products without even realizing it. The SEK Studio (North Korea’s primary animation producer) created more than two hundred films and series. In the 1980s, the studio employed around six hundred workers, and twenty animation directors and even massively cooperated with international companies by providing animation services for foreign clients in Italy, Spain, France, China, Russia, Japan and indirectly even for the United States. Apparently, North Korean animators drew some of the scenes in “The Lion King”, one of Disney’s biggest bestsellers. The latter was confirmed by a Canadian Québécois author, Guy Delisle, in his memoirs, “Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea”. The memoir itself, by the way, is a black-and-white graphic novel – a rather quick, pleasant, and interesting read.
Let us come back to the topic though. One has to admit that the quality of North Korean animation is surprisingly good for such an isolated country. If you do not trust me, check it out yourselves – the most illustrative examples in that respect are the new releases of two North Korean classics called “A Squirrel and A Hedgehog” and “Boy General” (not to be confused with Netflix’s “The Boy General”). Anyway, these two series look quite acceptable and even pleasing to the eye. “Boy General” looks like an average, not very expensive anime, while “A Squirrel and A Hedgehog” clearly has some Western impacts in terms of design and drawing. In their work, North Koreans are apparently using modern tablets and computers purchased from China – I am not that sure about the software though. An additional factor stimulating the animators to perform well might be occasional visits from their beloved Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un. For example, “Boy General” was actually developed at his personal request because he thought the series to be quite popular among children. The order was immediately implemented, and fifty new episodes were released during the next four or five years. If you are curious and want to watch some, I will attach links to these series in my podcast blogpost. All of them are available in open access.
Example of a “Boy General” episode:
What are the most common narratives of the North Korean animation? Well, when answering this question, I would like to kindly remind you that like most of the other media in the country, North Korean cartoons are state propaganda tools, but aimed at children. So, the most common themes and narratives in those cartoons are patriotism; self-sacrifice and collectivism; fight against imperialism; the theme of war, often combined with an invasion of the motherland by foreigners. Some of these cartoons are quite violent and full of murder and torture scenes despite the allegedly absent age limit.
Let us examine the animation series called “A Squirrel and a Hedgehog”.
Example of a “A Squirrel and a Hedgehog” episode:
“A Squirrel and A Hedgehog” is set in a fictional country called Flower Hill. Within Flower Hill, there are various villages with different anthropomorphic animals like squirrels, hedgehogs, rabbits and so on. Some of these villages, surprisingly, have their strong military. Anyway, in the very first episode, Flower Hill is invaded by a force of weasels and their subservient minions, the mice. The conflict between the two sides starts spiralling out of control as squirrels and hedgehogs start murdering mice and weasels, who then receive the support of the Wolf Empire.
The interesting fact is that many foreigners see a pretty obvious political narrative hidden in the film with squirrels and hedgehogs being the North Koreans, while mice are the South Koreans, weasels are the Japanese, and wolves are the Americans. That would quite accurately represent the country’s view on its own geopolitical environment, but this interpretation is never revealed in the series and was rejected by the producers on multiple occasions. The SEK Studio staff claims that the series “was created to teach love, friendship, and patriotism to children”, although at a later stage they did admit that the weasels, mice and wolves symbolize foreign invaders and imperialists.
Honestly, you would be surprised by how much violence, gore, and swearing you see in this movie. All these cute hedgehogs and squirrels regularly call mice, weasels, and other opponents “disgusting scum” and spit out similar swearwords that I would probably not translate in this podcast episode – I want to remain family-friendly, ehm. Yet many scenes with mass shootings and torture are also something very common. Despite that the series is extremely popular in the DPRK and even has a small fan base outside of the country.
Why is it so popular, you would ask? Well, the answer is quite obvious. There are no alternatives in the DPRK. Few countries have such a strong censorship system, where people do not have access to any other media products. There is no Internet, no privately owned TV-channels, and relatively few books of non-political nature. Thus, those cartoons and films which are shown on TV or in cinemas and watched by almost everyone.
To be fair, not all of these cartoons are as aggressive and violent. For example, a series called “Clever Raccoon Dog”. As the title suggest, the main protagonist is a raccoon dog, who interacts with his friends – a bear and a cat – and learns something new every day. Each episode has a scholastic or educational element – ranging from basic science to the rules of road safety. Other common themes include the benefits of sports, responsible child behavior, as well as maintaining good relations with family and friends. No blood, no torture, no disemboweled guts flying around. Just a cute educational series.
On top of these two, there is also the third type or what I would call “the completely crazy type”. These do not fit into any of the aforementioned categories. The cringiest series that I personally know is called “Simba the King Lion”, which is as you might have guessed is a rip-off from the original “Lion King”. That said, the North Korean version features representatives of other famous cartoons and tales in that series – including Bambi, The Jungle Book, and even Snow White. The series features Mufasa, Simba, robot mice with machine guns, tanks, lions shooting with magic lasers from their chests, alcohol, a prophecy-based plotline, a forced trip to New York through a tree hollow, an evil queen, and several football or soccer games, which result in the defeat of an evil dragon. The series was produced in cooperation with an Italian studio, which allegedly wrote the crazy script, so the North Koreans are not to blame, yet it is cringy as hell. Also, it is unclear though whether the series actually ever aired in North Korea. I’ll attach a funny review by Saberspark to the podcast blogpost.
Anyway, if you want to check out any other series, make sure to visit my website, there will be some links to all of these YouTube videos and channels in English.
Now, let us reflect a little bit though. As we have discovered today, these animated films can be educational and entertaining, but most of the time their content is highly political, violent, and, at times, just weird. Perhaps, you might find some of those amusing, while artists could better assess their quality in terms of drawing and animation. What I want to add from a broader sociological perspective is that there is sad irony about many generations of young North Koreans being educated through these cartoons, which might outlive the North Korean regime itself. As the social polls and interviews with North Korean refugees in the South suggest, these artworks can be a serious source of communist nostalgia. So, even if the Kim regime collapses, it is quite likely that its cultural heritage will live on, and it is unclear what its impacts might be.
What do you think about North Korean cartoons though? Have you watched any of them? What were your impressions? Leave your opinion in the comments below or in the review section. If you like this episode, please leave a positive review on the podcast platform, subscribe to podcast, or make a donation on my website – www.askmeaboutdprk.wordpress.com. Also feel free to provide your feedback on this episode’s quality and ask any questions about North Korea that you might have. Thank you for listening! Stay healthy and stay tuned.
Follow-up readings and materials:
- GPIC (2021). Animation in North-Korea, https://www.gpic.nl/NKAnimation.pdf
- NK News (2016). Propaganda starts early: North Korea’s cruel and crude cartoons, https://www.nknews.org/2016/07/propaganda-starts-early-north-koreas-cruel-and-crude-cartoons/
- YPT (2013). Squirrel and Hedgehog: North Korean Cartoons https://www.youngpioneertours.com/squirrel-and-hedgehog/
- KBS (2019). Animation in N. Korea, http://world.kbs.co.kr/service/contents_view.htm?lang=e&board_seq=374843
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