Ever wonder who created the WeChat stickers, whereby part of their creation was loved by Hong Kong superstar actor, Jackie Chan? Here’s the story of Pocotee & Friends.
Dylan Ang Beng Leong is a successful Malaysian entrepreneur who started his business from the ground up. He is best known for his role as the founder of Safe Tree Sdn Bhd, a character licensing company which owns a very famous cartoon character, Pocotee & Friends. After strengthening their foundation in Malaysia, Pocotee & Friends expanded their business from all the way to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and more.
Dylan Ang, founder of Pocotee & Friends
It all started when Dylan was strolling around at an art market and saw the character of Pocotee that was created by a female designer. Dylan instantly approached into the idea and invested into making the Pocotee character a lovely, expressive caricature character. Initially, it was called Pocotee House and slowly rebranded the concept of Pocotee & Friends to get a clearer marketing strategy.
Since 2009, Pocotee & Friends has published 4 to 6 grid comics, sharing interesting events surrounding them; Meanwhile, they also publish some regular mini edition stories, these simple but humorous stories and drawing style has given people a lot of laughter. Hence, gaining fans and loyal followers online in a short period of time. Some fans even would queue up in front of a shop and get their fix of Pocotee & Friends.
Pocotee & Friends character
All of the characters are based on the day to day lives of our human personality that we have experienced or seen from others before. It is no wonder that many are able to relate to these characters.
Some of the characters from Pocotee and her friends
Pocotee is a very energetic but hot-tempered girl. However, she enjoys the humorous banter and making jokes with her friends. Her two favourite food in the world is bananas and chocolate. She is also clueless to face that Mr.Jiu (Banana) is in love with her.
Mr Jiu is a timid banana. Whenever he gets spooked or is feeling ill, his peel will turn into green. When he is feeling confident and brave, his shy face will turn into a handsome look. He often gives an offering of his banana to Pocotee but she just goes away after eating it, leaving him yearning for her even more.
Bear Boss is Pocotee’s rigorous employer who frequently demands Pocotee to work overtime. Usually in a good mood but when is prone to fits of insanity, he will turn into the angry bear.
PocoMao is Pocotee’s highly intelligent feline pet who communicates in human language. Equip with a supercilious personality, PocoMao often expresses his superior to others and is easily jealous when Pocotee plays with other cats.
Please Jeh is a delightful young woman who often daydreams of winning the Miss International Pageant. Being vain is her main character surrounded by Please Jeh.
Dino Dino is a cunning twin little rascals who often playfully terrorize the others. The twins are often mischievous but are easily calmed down by offering them something sugary for their sweet tooth cravings.
Hapichick was born in the year of the rooster. It was created last year for Chinese New Year celebration. He spreads his love around and is very caring towards others. He adores it when people praise him during his performance dance and he flies around with tiny wings and daydreams of being a peacock.
Hapimo is a Malayan tapir. He’s too lazy to walk and prefers to crawl. Hapimo enjoys having fun and cheering up others. He brings joy to everyone around him. Tapir character was created to support and educate people on our very own Malaysian wildlife species.
Jackie Chan holding a drawing of him presented from Pocotee & Friends
Pocotee & Friends has collaborated together with movie companies for more than 40 artworks including 12 Golden Duck (features Sandra Ng & Louis Koo) merchandise; the most known artwork is caricature portrait of artists such as Jackie Chan from Police Story 2013, Donnie Yen and Mike Tyson from IP Man 3, and Eddie Peng from To The Fore.
P.S. Jackie Chan loved their design so much so that he invited Dylan and his team to celebrate Jackie’s 60th birthday party in China! How lucky are they?
Famous Hong Kong actress, Sandra Ng loves her Pocotee & Friends design too!
With the recognition coming in from celebrities, they’ve since collaborated together on merchandises, ranging from mugs, t-shirts, WeChat stickers, kids attire, water bottle and the many more.
>They go behind the motto of “every stroke of the brush reflects our passion, devotion and dedication towards our dream!”. With this determination, they have received numerous awards and recognition for their work in local and also overseas media. One of the most prominent awards is Winner of DIGI WWWOW Judges Choice Award 2014 and the National Intellectual Property Award 2016 (Copyright Category) – Silver.
The team that made it possible! yes, the whole company is run by four people!!!
What’s next for Pocotee & Friends? They are planning to be more determined than ever and create a crossover character which reflects the liveliness of the Pocotee & Friends.