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It’s a novel idea: Sulake teams up with entertainment company Lionsgate to produce a full-length DVD/movie , but instead of just producing it, 10 animation studios get a chance to make a trailer. Tapping into the community it gets made for, Habbo users get a chance to vote for their favorite. Each trailer (’habbo-sode’) featured a different graphical and storytelling style; Sulake itself also made one of the trailers - Under Dove’s Wing (below). Preparations starting over 2006, the trailers got online January 2007.
These days Sulake was looking for ways to extend the Habbo brand to other media (phones, TV, clothing). Teemu Huuhtanen (President, North-America): “Habbo-sodes were submitted by key animation studios located around the world and we appreciate the immense talent contributed to this project. The opportunity to now position Habbo as a leading distribution and promotional channel of all digital content from video to music is tremendous. Furthermore, by integrating our millions of Habbo users into this project, we will be spearheading a new kind of user-generated content as we empower them with the ability to determine the future of this animated film.”
Well, all animations featured a fixed set of 7 characters, their Habbo looks provided and a sketch of their character. We don’t know results, what users liked best, but on fansites people seemed to like Sulake’s own entry best, sticking to the Habbo looks. While trailer seemed a bit rushed when it comes to background(s) (people), and story is rather an introduction, main set of characters has potential to wrap some storylines around, as the other video’s showed off (you can find them browsing Youtube).
What happened ? Well, nothing, as in, probably talks on it, but in media and Habbo, silence. For some reason it was decided to not produce it, or it started and simply never got to a release.