Netflix Animation “What This Planet Needs”

The Korean feature-length animation “What This Planet Needs,” released on Netflix, attracted a lot of attention even before its release thanks to the voice acting of actors Kim Tae-ri and Hong Kyung. Above all, the reason this work attracted attention was because it was an original Korean feature-length animation released on a global OTT platform.

Currently, the global animation market is dominated by works based on Japan's “manga” culture, both in TV series and theatrical releases, while the feature-length animation film market is firmly controlled by the United States, represented by Disney and Pixar. In this context, despite the growing prominence of “K-content,” South Korea had yet to achieve notable success in the animation field. Thus, the release of *What This Star Needs* was a much-needed breath of fresh air. Many anticipated a high-quality work created relatively freely from budget and time constraints, supported by Netflix's robust capital and platform.

One of the greatest strengths of *What We Need on This Planet* is undoubtedly its visual achievement, particularly in terms of background art. The future Seoul depicted in the work, set approximately 30 years from now, is not a dystopia or utopia filled with fantastical imagination, but rather a vision grounded in reality. In particular, the natural integration of futuristic elements into the existing urban landscape, centered around Seoul's iconic spaces such as Seun Sangga, was highly impressive. 

This demonstrated a deep contemplation of a realistic future built upon the accumulation of time over the present, rather than a future that completely transforms everything, providing viewers with a high level of immersion and persuasiveness. This scene proved that the animation techniques and artistic capabilities of Korean animation are by no means inferior to those of the world.

However, high expectations soon turned to disappointment. The first point of criticism is the voice acting. Kim Tae-ri and Hong Kyung, who play the lead roles, are undoubtedly talented actors with proven acting skills. However, their voices unfortunately did not fully blend into the animation characters, giving the impression that they were floating on the surface.

In Hollywood animation, actors with voices that match the characters' personalities and appearances are cast, or the actors' performances and characteristics are reflected in the character design to achieve a high level of synchronization. On the other hand, in *What This Planet Needs*, there was a sense of unease throughout the film, as if the actors' voices and characters were disconnected, to the point where one might question whether the casting was based on the actors' names rather than their acting abilities. This seems to be the result of a lack of understanding of the characteristics of animation as a medium and a lack of delicate acting direction, rather than a problem with the actors' acting abilities themselves.

The more fundamental disappointment lies in the core of the work: the story. *What This Planet Needs* tells the story of an astronaut on a Mars mission, her daughter left behind on Earth, and the young man and woman her daughter meets by chance and falls in love with. The story contains intriguing elements such as the sorrow and trauma of losing a mother, the bittersweetness of a long-distance relationship between Earth and Mars, and scientific themes.

The problem is that these individual elements fail to seamlessly blend into a cohesive narrative, instead feeling disjointed and lacking organic connections. The depth of emotion left in the daughter by her mother's death, the persuasiveness of the protagonists' process of falling in love with each other, and the description of how all these emotional lines interact with the science fiction background are not sufficiently developed. As a result, the audience found it difficult to deeply empathize with the characters' emotions and felt that the flow of the story was disjointed. The primary reason for the relatively poor box office performance compared to the initial high level of interest can be attributed to this lack of narrative persuasiveness.

In conclusion, The Planet That Needs Us is a work that shows both the potential and clear limitations of Korean animation. It achieved outstanding visuals and a realistic depiction of the future, but it left something to be desired in terms of the harmony between the characters and their voices, which is the core of animation, and above all, in terms of building a solid narrative that draws the audience in.

However, we must not stop here. Korea has achieved remarkable success in various cultural fields, including movies, dramas, pop music, and webtoons, because numerous works have been produced, and through this process, data on success and failure has been accumulated, and know-how has been built up. The same applies to the field of animation.

he challenge undertaken by *What This Star Needs* holds valuable significance in itself, leaving behind valuable lessons on what was lacking and what needs to be improved. We look forward to seeing more Korean animations consistently produced through global platforms like Netflix, with repeated experiments and accumulated experience. We sincerely hope that *What This Star Needs* becomes a meaningful stepping stone toward the revival of Korean animation.