By SAW JHUE VERN
THE irresistibly adorable animated dragon “kai xin le long long” (Happy Dragon) has become a nationwide phenomenon.
His round, pudgy face with the perma-grin plastered on became a common sight during Chinese New Year – either wishing you a “Happy Chinese New Year” on Astro, printed on T-shirts, or being the main feature of Malaysia’s longest ever music video (16 minutes). The music video was also titled after the mascot.
Animator Lee Pui San, or Moon Lee, said that she never thought her creation would become so popular.
It has become such a hit that although the celebrations are over, people are still demanding that more Happy Dragon plushies be sold. There were even rumours that some were willing to fork out around RM3,000 for a single stuffed toy!As the creator of the little dragon, you’d think she would have free access to all sorts of exclusive merchandise.
However, Moon, 28, claimed that she still had to queue up with the masses to buy a limited edition Happy Dragon soft toy for herself!“It is only right that everyone gets a fair chance at buying them. It felt great being there anyway, because I was able to see all the children and even the grown-ups’ faces break into huge smiles as they hugged their new stuffed toy; a toy I had a hand in creating,” Moon shared.
It wasn’t always sunshine and daisies for Moon. After secondary school, she was unable to further her studies because of financial constraints. Nevertheless, she soldiered on and took up a job as a salesperson, determined to save enough money to be able to get into college.After a while, though, it proved too hard a task for her, so she opted to pursue a job in a field that she liked instead – animation.
Her talent soon helped her land a job at an animation company, where she learned on-the-job, all there was to know about animation work.Eventually she resigned from that company to gain more flexibility in her work. She also wanted to make and sell her own plushies, which is a long-time passion of hers.Finally, she joined Woohoo Pictures, where she was given the opportunity to design the Chinese New Year mascot for Astro.
In the future, Moon said she would like to work on bigger animation projects much like the ones her idol, animation master Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away) does.
Her advice to aspiring animators: “Just work hard, never give up, and most importantly have an interest in what you do. Also, I’ve noticed that most new students lack strength in the basics, so working on that would help a lot.”
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