White Bear (빼꼼)

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=CQA9WNihEuc[/youtube]

Suffering through all the cartoons that are Japanese — complete with awful voice-overs — is a good reason not to watch cartoons in Korea. “White Bear” (빼꼼) is a good reason to watch and laugh. This is apparently the work of an all-Korean creative team, whose subject is a white bear named “Bernard”.

14 Comments

  1. Posted April 4, 2007 at 3:24 am | Permalink

    Looks like a pretty harrowing experience for poor Bernard! Was the treadmill even going backwards for a bit there?

    Shouldn’t it be 백곰 and not 빼꼼?

  2. R. Elgin your flag
    Posted April 4, 2007 at 11:49 am | Permalink

    You are right sewing, I think it should be 빽 (white) instead of 빼 but I could have sworn it said that on the TV.

    I liked the one of him playing with an automatic baseball pitching machine.

  3. dogbertt your flag
    Posted April 4, 2007 at 11:59 am | Permalink

    That’s still only one “ㅂ” in “백”.

  4. leefr your flag
    Posted April 4, 2007 at 12:08 pm | Permalink

    It’s a play on words.

    “빼꼼” means ‘to peek’ or else is descriptive of the action.

    They probably used it for the cuteness factor. Or something. Your guess is as good as mine.

  5. dogbertt your flag
    Posted April 4, 2007 at 12:32 pm | Permalink

    빠끔

    [부사] [하다형 형용사] 작은 틈이나 구멍이 깊고 또렷하게 나 있는 모양.
    빠끔하게 뚫린 구멍을 통해 동정을 살피다. (큰말) 뻐끔 1 . 빠끔―히 [부사]
    창문이 빠끔히 열려 있다. 빠끔―빠끔 [부사] [하다형 형용사]

  6. Posted April 4, 2007 at 2:44 pm | Permalink

    I agree. As a concerned father of two (aged 2 and 3), I have been evaluating kids programming lately.

    “빠끔” was a pleasant surprise. It reminded me of the old Loony Tunes catoons. The American stuff is too touchy-feely and the Japanese stuff is essentially softcore porn.

    [I once saw some cartoon (for kids in the afternoon) in which the scantilly-clad villainess was forcing the scantilly-clad heroine into a lesbian marriage. The good girls wear white thigh-high fishnet stockings and the bad girls wear black thigh-high fishnet in Japanese cartoons.]

  7. Posted April 4, 2007 at 3:09 pm | Permalink

    I forgot to recommend two other decent cartoons.

    One is “Pat and Mat” from the Czech Republic, available on videos here, in which two characters set about to fix a problem with tools, create more problems, and finally solve the problem in an unlikely way.

    The other is “Thomas and Friends” from England. It is set on the imaginary Island of Sodor (part of the real Anglican Diocese of Man and Sodor). It’s good for train enthusiasts and those who long for the better times when men and women wore hats.

  8. Posted April 4, 2007 at 3:26 pm | Permalink

    The latter as in “Thomas the Tank Engine”?

  9. Haisan your flag
    Posted April 4, 2007 at 3:32 pm | Permalink

    English name for the Bear movie is MUG TRAVEL. You can read about it here.

  10. R. Elgin your flag
    Posted April 4, 2007 at 6:28 pm | Permalink

    Thanks for the word pun information “leefr”. I suspected as much.

    I am really beginning to hate this Japanese crap, especially the horrible Korean voice-overs. “Ho-pang Man” was fine but the latest stuff would rot the brains of any intelligent child. Does Korea not have anyone reliable to evaluate what their children are watching!?

    “Thomas and Friends” has been on PBS in the states for some years already.

  11. Posted April 4, 2007 at 8:58 pm | Permalink

    The latter as in “Thomas the Tank Engine”?

    Yes. The title was shortened, regretably in my opinion.

  12. SomeguyinKorea your flag
    Posted April 5, 2007 at 12:25 am | Permalink

    http://www.bernarbear.com

  13. SomeguyinKorea your flag
    Posted April 5, 2007 at 12:26 am | Permalink

    Crap, typo. Sorry.

    http://www.bernardbear.com

  14. Posted April 5, 2007 at 3:28 am | Permalink

    leefr, dogbertt: Thanks for the explanations.

    Personally, as a kid growing up in Canada, I found the Hanna-Barbera cartoons either insulting to my intelligence (Scooby Doo), just dumb (Flintstones), or highly irresponsible (Tom and Jerry). Much children’s TV programming in most countries is probably similarly unsuitable crap.

    On the other hand, is there is the equivalent of Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, or other educational programs in Korea, or are those missing or inadequate?

Post a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.