Yona Yona Penguin

Plot

An animated adventure about three children who travel to a fantasy land.

Cast

Production

Madhouse has announced this film as being a "3D anime", or a film which brings an anime sensibility and design structure into the 3D CGI world. Unlike in other Japanese CG productions, such as Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, photo-realism is not emphasised. Rather, attention has been focused on giving the feel of a traditionally-made anime to a completely computerized production. As Madhouse's expertise has long been in the creation of traditional 2D animation, much of the actual 3D animation was done by the French animation studio Def2shoot, the Thai studio Imagimax, and the Japanese studio Dynamo Pictures, with Madhouse providing direction and storyboards.

Release

In a move away from the typical anime release schedule, distribution deals for showing the film outside Japan have been signed with the Hong Kong based Golden Network (for Asia) and the French based management company Wild Bunch (for Europe). Rights to release the film in the United States are currently set to be given by Japanese studio Shochiku and Madhouse's U.S. division. Three versions of the film are to be produced: one for the Japanese market, one for the French market, and one for the English language market. The Japanese version of the film, which will use the original script (it is unclear if changes will be made to the other versions) was originally scheduled for a December, 2008 release, but was pushed back to 2009. The other versions remain tentatively set for release in 2009. At the 2008 European Film Market (a film trade fair held in tandem with the Berlin International Film Festival), the film was licensed by Wild Bunch for 11 European markets. The film was distributed in the UK by Metropolitan, in France by JBK, in Russia and other former Soviet countries by Central Partnership and in South Korea by Next Entertainment World (NEW).