Tuzki, the animated emoji rabbit who rose to fame within China’s WeChat, is to be the subject of a blockbuster cartoon. The film, to be released in 2018, is one of 20 projects in production from Tencent Pictures, the studio wing of the tech giant which owns WeChat.
One of their first films was Warcraft, Duncan Jones’s critically maligned yet financially successful Warcraft game adaptation.
Tuzki, first created in 2006 by Beijing-based illustrator Momo Wang, was one of the first animated emojis to be made available for download inside WeChat. Around 20m sticker sends happen each day, according to Tuzki’s official Facebook page.
This move was credited with an enormous boost to the Chinese social network, which operates only on mobile devices and has around 800m active users.
Nearly 10m Tuzki figurines were distributed in China by KFC in 2013. Stuffed fluffy versions are also popular.
