FunMail and Comedy Central announced today an agreement to integrate South Park animated characters into FunMail's Animated Messaging system. Under the agreement, the globally recognized South Park characters will be integrated into FunMail's system and be accessible with FunMail's text-to-animation technology.
"We are very pleased to be working with Comedy Central," said FunMail CEO Adam Lavine. "We think FunMail users worldwide will love to send messages with Cartman, Kenny, Kyle and Stan, and it will make the whole FunMail experience more dynamic and fun."
Under the agreement, South Park characters will be accessible through both wireless and desktop versions of the FunMail Messaging System. Users enter a message using a keypad or keyboard, and a natural language processing component analyzes the message, then builds an animation starring the chosen character which is displayed on the wireless device. After approving the animation, the user sends the FunMail message just as they do with plain text messages, and almost immediately the message is received at the receiving device, either a computer, a PDA or another mobile phone.
"We think FunMail represents a `best of breed' technology in this space," said Kevin Delaney, Comedy Central's Vice President for New Media. "The innovative and unique nature of the FunMail technology, combined with FunMail's enthusiasm for animation, makes us comfortable entering into an agreement to license important assets such as the South Park characters."
Animated FunMail messages sent from an wireless phone, such as a DoCoMo i-mode, are scaled up in length and have relevant sound tracks added for viewing on computers. Likewise, animated messages sent from computers are automatically scaled to the correct size and format for wireless phones. FunMail animated messages are scaled in less than a second, and take virtually no time to arrive at their destination.
FunMail announced last week that the FunMail Animated Messaging System had launched on the NTT DoCoMo I-mode platform in Japan. "We're excited about the potential for South Park characters in Japan, but the real opportunity lies in the rest of Asia and Europe," said Lavine. "In certain territories like Taiwan and Korea these characters are extremely well known, plus wireless messaging is growing at an incredible pace. We'll be the first company to offer a wireless messaging service using South Park."
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