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From Tom and Jerry to Pokémon: Animated franchises embrace partnerships with K-pop artists

Published: 18 Nov. 2025, 14:25 Updated: 18 Nov. 2025, 18:15

A composite image showing collaborations between K-pop artists and animated franchises [JOONGANG ILBO]

From Tom and Jerry to Pokémon and the Smurfs, multiple animated franchises are embracing Korean idols as official partners, signaling that an era of K-pop in cartoons may be in full swing.

While past collaborations — such as BTS’s team-up with Line Friends to create BT21 or NewJeans’ with The Powerpuff Girls — hinted at this trend, recent partnerships are expanding more quickly and in increasingly diverse forms.

Industry insiders point to the global success of the Netflix animated movie “KPop Demon Hunters” as a turning point, as the film features a K-pop trio as its protagonists.

Although “KPop Demon Hunters” debuted in June, it remains in Netflix's global top 10 and recently became the first animation on the platform to surpass 300 million cumulative views. One of the songs from the fictional girl group, “Golden,” also spent eight weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States and earned multiple Grammy Award nominations, including for Song of the Year.

“K-pop operates on a fandom-centered business model,” said pop music critic Cha Woo-jin. “That mirrors the intellectual property [IP] structure of animation franchises, which also rely on a loyal fan base.”

On Nov. 10, the boy band BoyNextDoor released a single titled “Say Cheese!” to celebrate the 85th anniversary of Tom and Jerry. The lyrics are in English and Japanese — as the song was created in collaboration with Warner Bros. Japan — but K-pop artists participated in writing and producing the track, imbuing it with a distinct K-pop identity while maintaining the mischievous energy of the classic cartoon.

HUNTR/X from Netflix's animated film ″KPop Demon Hunters″ [NETFLIX]

“Tom and Jerry: The Forbidden Compass,” the franchise’s first 3-D feature film, will have its theatrical release in Korea in January and will feature another collaboration with BoyNextDoor.

Pokémon is also embracing the K-pop wave. On Nov. 4, the girl group ILLIT released “Secret Quest,” the newest ending theme for the TV series “Pokémon Horizons: The Series.”

Choi Yoon-sun, the head of theme song production and distribution at KT Genie Music, said, “Our main target is Pokémon fans under the age of 10. ILLIT was chosen because it already has strong name recognition and a friendly image among that demographic.”

Choi added that collaborations between K-pop artists and animation franchises — from producing theme songs to releasing character goods based on shared universes — are expected to grow.

K-pop has also made inroads into “Beyblade X,” the fourth generation of the long-running Japanese series. On Oct. 24, girl group i-dle performed the opening song “Invincible” for episode 101. The 25-year-old franchise had previously featured Tomorrow X Together’s “Rise” as the opening for an earlier episode in April.

Seventeen members pose for photos at an Airbnb event at the Hanwha General Insurance's Hannam office in central Seoul on June 4. [NEWS1]

The convergence of K-pop and character IPs is blurring genre and audience boundaries. This month, boy band Seventeen is rolling out a collaboration with the globally recognized Smurfs.

A Smurfs-themed version of their music video for “God of Music” (2023) will be released first, followed by goods featuring Smurf characters designed to reflect each member's personality.

Domestic animation is also taking advantage of the hype. IVE’s Liz became the first K-pop artist to sing the main theme for a TV series in the “Catch! Teenieping” franchise.

A child looks at a Teenieping doll at a fair in Goyang, Gyeonggi, on May 5. [NEWS1]

In a music video released last month, Liz's bright vocals accompany the characters Romi and Princess Teenieping on an adventure to find the lost Legend Tennieping. The Teenieping brand also launched merchandise featuring aespa — dubbed “aespaping” — which has been on sale since November.

“This kind of collaboration with K-pop idols is helping expand the character fandom beyond the MZ generation to include K-pop and Korean content fans more broadly,” said SAMG Entertainment, the studio behind Teenieping.

“By turning celebrity IPs into characters, it becomes possible to extend storytelling into animation, comics and games — areas that real-life celebrities may struggle to explore directly,” said Lee Sung-min, a professor of media arts and sciences at Korea National Open University.

“This also gives [companies] an edge in merchandising and global marketing,” added Lee. “Collaborations with popular animations and the character-based expansion of K-pop idols are becoming key strategies in turning K-pop IPs into super IPs.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY HWANG JEE-YOUNG [[email protected]]