Happy Family:The Secret of Jeju

Happy Family:The Secret Of Jeju is a 2003 Danish-American-Canadian, traditional and 3D animated movie released on April 27 2003

## Plot

Jeung Choi, his family, his friends and their families travel to Jeju-island. While traveling Jeung Choi, Otto, and Kim Choi find a crystal and causes the evil woman to turn everyone to stones!

## Summary

Jeung Choi, Otto, Kim Choi, and Walter are on their way to Jeju Island on a plane, when they encounter a storm due to a sudden change in air currents. Otto is surprised to see all the passengers turned to stone. Also, in the plane that sank into the sea, Otto is a mysterious man outside Seeing this, he approaches and touches the man, turning him into a stone. Otto struggles in surprise, but Jeung Choi wakes up soon and wakes up from the dream to hear that the plane has passed safely.

## Production

In 1993, Fox Kids renewed *Hey Happy Family* for a second season, and gave creator Marc Brown the chance to develop two feature-length adaptations. As work on the first season was completing, in 1994, Brown, with Film Roman and CiNAR engaged in the production of the first film, titled *Otto and the Sea Monster*. The *Sea Monster* project was originally produced for home video as the last 3 episodes of season 1, but eventually became ,Happy Family The Movie: Otto In Africa when executives at Universal decided to release it theatrically after successful test screenings. According to Max Howard, The President of Warner Brothers Feature Animation, the decision was also buoyed by the financial success of Otto in Africa

Around 1996, After the success of Otto In Africa, Talks about making *a Happy Family Sequel* into a feature film existed since the beginning of the season 3. The first attempt was in 1996, when Film Roman made a two-year contract deal with Warner Bros to produce new material, but an unnamed CiNAR executive did not rule out the possibility to make films based on their existing properties, one of those that was proposed was *Garfield*, and *Bobby's World* However, in 1997, Universal Pictures acquired Happy Family Productions Features from CiNAR, and Universal would distribute the films instead. As a result, the contract from Warner Bros expired, with no films produced (although *Tom And Jerry* got a theatrical film from Turner Pictures in 1992). Production on *Happy Family:The Secret Of Jeju* started a year later in 1998.

A day before the release of the movie, an episode prequel titled "Hickory Come Back" was aired as the series finale. The film's beginning and ending parody Universal's Jurassic Park series. This previously inspired the second season of the episode "A Tale of Otto", that aired during the show's second season in 1995.

This film was the second Happy Family media since Season 4, to use digital ink and paint, rather than the traditional cel animation that CiNAR and Film Roman previously use.

Two songs were cut from the film during production. The first revolves around Otto in a nightmare sequence where Hickory criticizes their life without him through a song. The second depicts the Jeung Choi and Otto pushing the Wagon through the woods, debating what to do about Kim Choi in an army chant style song. These two scenes were cut from the Theatrical Australian releases. However, these scenes are shown on Cartoon Network Universal Kids and NBC television airings of the film. These scenes were also present in the print novelization.

The film was released in theaters with a *Little Otto* short titled "Mouse". This short was later broadcast in *Little Otto* Episode 21. However, the VHS, DVD, Peacock, and Blu-ray (through The Happy Family Movie Collection) release contains a Felix the Cat short "Felix Creates a Spot". Which was produced by Film Roman's Subsidiary "Film Roman Feature Animation" in 1998, about UNICEF'S Cartoons For Children's Rights campaign

The movie is currently available on the Happy Family English Official Channel, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Tubi and Peacock

## Planned Sequel TV Series

In May 2002, Film Roman and CiNAR decided to make a sequel TV Series focusing on Jang-Soo, but Marc Brown decided to make Little Otto for ION Television instead

However in 2007, the idea was scrapped

In 2019, WildBrain and Dreamworks Classics partnered with National Gugak Center to make the Series again, and called it "Happy Family:Jeju Adventures", the show was produced at Xilam Animation in France and Ludo Studio in Australia,

In May 2020, Marc Brown decided that it will air on Gulli and TF1 in France, VRT in Belguim, Universal Kids in the US, and CBBC in the UK,

## Trivia

* This is the first movie to use digital ink-and-paint
* The events of The Ballad of Otto are mentioned
* This is the last movie to be made under the name CiNAR

* In the Happy Family:City Adventures episode, "The War of the Camps" Otto mentions that he went to Jeju by riding a camper in 2003, meaning This movie takes place 19 years after this movie premiered
* This movie premiered on Cartoon Network in 2020 as part of Asian-American Heritage Month
* This movie also premiered on BBC1 in Christmas 2018