The giant Sanrio brand is making a comeback in the English speaking world! In the more recent years, the utterly relatable AGGRETSUKO stole our hearts on Netflix, and now a new deal has been struck for a new HELLO KITTY movie. The deal includes several other Sanrio characters.
Sanrio and FlynnPictureCo. has partnered up with New Line Cinema to develop a new movie based on Sanrio’s HELLO KITTY! In the 45 years that Sanrio has been around, this is the first movie deal they have made outside of Japan.
Deadline reports that Sanrio founder, President and CEO Shintaro Tsuji stated:
“I am extremely pleased that Hello Kitty and other popular Sanrio characters will be making their Hollywood debut. Hello Kitty has long been a symbol of friendship and we hope this film will only serve to grow that circle of friendship around the world.”
Beyond Hello Kitty, Sanrio has granted rights to other characters of theirs including Little Twin Stars, My Melody, and many more including (very interestingly) Gudetama. I’m going to go into a bit of detail on Gudetama because he has been a bit of a cultural phenomenon lately.
Aside from AGGRETSUKO having her own entire own show on Netflix, Gudetama has made his way into the American eye just by being this weird thing you see float around on the internet (in Gudetama’s case, mostly official Sanrio YouTube videos and memes), which was later integrated into Hot Topic merchandise. Much like how Americans fell in love with a Japanese TV Network’s, the NHK, mascot Domo-Kun. But that’s a whole other story.
Gudetama, VERY ROUGHLY translates into “sluggish egg”. He is an Egg with a buttcrack on his yolk, that thrives in being mediocre and lazy. While the Japanese see this as cute, I think many depressed Americans have identified with it. To be fair, anyone can relish in being lazy from time to time. I myself have picked up a pair of Gudetama socks because “Hey, it’s this weird Japanese thing and I love this stuff.”
I have no idea what this new HELLO KITTY movie will be like. I’m very curious to see what first images come out. Will it be as disturbing as the recent Sonic the Hedgehog leaks? We’ll just have to find out!
~Big Eyes
