• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.17
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• pp.133-146
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• 2009

In modern days, the iconic symbolicity of animal characters functions as a sign by the social promise after being made with voluntary intentions. Representing a public organization or corporation, an animal character is put to active use as a symbol. Today illusionary animal characters serve as important icons, and product developers incessantly put out animal contents. This study set out to examine the applications of animal characters in modern times according to media development by integrating animal characters into animation, which was the beginning of animal characters, based on the theoretical background of "symbolicity" in the aesthetics history. It also analyzed the symbolicity of "Haechi," which is Seoul's animal character and one of the good examples of utilization of a promotional animal character by a corporation or public organization.