Boom Chiki Boom! on Stage

Boom Chiki Boom!!!!Are you familiar with OSMU? It's an acronym for One Source Multi Use which is currently a buzzword in Korean business. Boom Chiki Boom! is a good example of OSMU.

Boom Chiki Boom! is a preschool program that encourages kids to dance and interact with the characters on screen. It promotes activity and health. Boom Chiki Boom! is used in many ways. It is a computer generated program as seen in the poster above.

It is also a live-action show featuring actors in costumes. It is also a stage show performed for a live audience as seen above. Boom Chiki Boom! translates quite easily from screen to stage. The same costumes and performers can be used, after all.

The sets and props are recycled for the stage show as well.

For example, this pig speaker from the original set is used for this stage show. In fact, it can also be found rendered in the computer generated show.

This gold pig couch seemed irresistible and kids kept defiantly trying to sit in it without permission. One kid succeeded. And I think an adult tried, too!

The stage show reuses the script and audio from the live-action costume show. The only major difference is these two hosts above. They exist solely in the stage show. They help make the performance more interactive and also to give the costumed performers some breaks inbetween "episodes".

The hosts had lots of energy and made the audience really feel involved.

In a segment about balls, they bounced a big red ball around the audience. They also passed out small plastic balls to everybody.

In a segment about paper, they spread giant sheets of paper over the audience. Then everybody was encouraged to shred it to pieces. They didn't have to tell the kids twice!

All that interactivity sure can leave a mess!

The only element that doesn't translate well from the screen to stage is A-Do. A-Do is a mischevious puppet who is puppeteered by someone hidden behind the pig couch. Unlike the television show, the audience can't see A-Do closely via camera zooms. This takes away some of his edge and charm. It's a shame, too, since he's my favorite character.

Boom Chiki Boom! is a good example of creating a property and applying it many different ways. It's a young property, so I'm interested to see how it develops. I'm rooting for it since it is an original Korean property.

You can take a behind-the-scenes look at the English voice acting for Boom Chiki Boom! that I posted about previously.

Fifteen Little Piggies

Pork is a big part of the Korean diet. Many restaurants display pig characters to let you know what you can eat inside. There are all sorts of ways to represent pigs. This is a sample of around 15.

It's unlikely to see pigs represented as real-life pigs like these:

These boar designs are quite traditional.

This pig is a little cartoon like, but it's still more like a pig than a human.

You are much more likely to see pigs as cartoon characters. They stand on two legs, wear human clothes and even have their own personalities:

Many wear aprons or chef hats to underscore that they are delicious.

This one seems euphoric in its getup.

This one is lazy and cares nothing of formality. It skipped right passed getting dressed to impress and is wearing the pot it will be served in as a hat! And to top it off, it's sticking its tongue out at us!

Some dress in ways that suggest they will offer you excellent service. Especially if you are made of bamboo.

Pigs can be proudly patriotic.

This pigs seems humble and friendly in overalls. It's like the pig next door.

Sometimes pigs are paired with other food on the restaurant menu:

Pork and beef are an unbeatable team.

Even abstract pigs can team up with abstract cows.

They seem utterly bewildered by why the abstract humans are so happy.

This pig seems in total harmony with its fish friend. That is until . . . . . .
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Oh no!