‘Ddu-ddu-ru ddu-ddu-ru~’ animal spy robot shorts, are they actually illegally pirated?

‘Hommage’ is a column that recommends online video service (OTT) content worth watching on weekends. It arrives every Saturday morning.

Lately, when you scroll through YouTube Shorts, there are videos that catch the eye. They feature ‘spy robots’ that closely resemble animals. From robots that look just like real creatures such as egrets, meerkats, and penguins to a chuckle-inducing device that plants a camera inside a round object resembling elephant dung. These are short, lighthearted clips that introduce infiltration robots designed to observe ‘real’ animals up close.

The dedicated background track“Hora doruphin, dorupan, dorupon~,” the Japanese singer Kingo Hamada’s “Machi No dorufin” (Dolphin of the City·1982)has become so famous that it makes you think, “Ah, it’s another animal robot video.” For some reason, the singer’s refreshing tone on the “ddu-ddu-ddu-ru ddu-ddu-ru~” refrain gently lifts your mood. Rather than forcing a way into the animals’ world, stealthily slipping in a robot that looks just like them feels grounded in respect, which puts the mind at ease.

This week’s Hommage tracked down the ‘original source’ of these popular Shorts. Some suspected the remarkably lifelike robots were AI-generated, but to get straight to the point: these robots were built for real. They appear in the five-part 2017 documentary produced by John Downer Productions and aired by the BBC.

Roboticists, artists, and programmers created 34 kinds of robotsincluding wild dogs, orangutans, turtles, and crocodilesand slipped them into the midst of the animals. Production took a full three years. The more intelligent the creature, the more sophisticated the build had to be; the orangutan robot alone reportedly contained more than 30 components just in its head.

Riding its phenomenal success, a second season aired in 2020, and an ocean life installment () followed on the BBC in 2023.

Where can you watch this documentary in Korea? Unfortunately, due to rights issues, it is difficult to find the full series on OTT platforms. In Korea, only KBS has a contract related to this documentary with the BBC. In 2017, KBS aired with full dubbing voiced by actor Choi Soo-jong. The four-part ocean installment, , aired as a Chuseok holiday special this year, with singer Young Tak serving as narrator. However, it was available on KBS’s catch-up service for only 30 days after broadcast, and it is not currently offered.

You can at least watch some of the series on the “KBS Animal Kingdom” YouTube channel. Of the five parts, the final episode featuring the making of the spy robots has been released. As the spy robot clips spread by word of mouth, on the 19th the KBS Animal Kingdom YouTube channel re-uploaded this 48-minute video with the thumbnail reading “Here is the original of those trending(?) spy robot videos.”

A KBS representative explained by phone on the 5th, “Under our contract with the BBC, only the Korean-dubbed version, and only if uploaded exactly as broadcast without re-editing, can be posted on YouTube.” The “Spy” series counts among the BBC’s large-scale documentaries, which makes obtaining YouTube rights more difficult. Of the full run, the production-process episode is comparatively easier to license for YouTube. This helps explain why only episode 5, the making-of, has been fully released. The videos we have enjoyed as Shorts are, in fact, unauthorized copies of a BBC documentary.

Earlier works by John Downer Productions·2010) and the spy penguin documentary (·2013)are available in full on the “KBS Animal Kingdom” YouTube channel. However, the recent narrated by Young Tak will likely take longer even to return as a catch-up offering.

If you want more of the original source material, you can find additional clips on the “BBC Earth” YouTube channel. In the video titled “Spying on Nature‘s Greatest Families,” a troop of langur monkeys that believes the spy robot has died appears o mourn it, which is striking to see. The official YouTube channel of John Downer Productions also offers behind-the-scenes looks at the spy robots. There is no Korean dubbing or subtitles, but parts of the production process and some documentary footage are available.