About Ploey & Ploveria

Ploey and Ploveria are two bird characters from the Icelandic-Belgian 3D animated film Ploey: You Never Fly Alone. The film follows the journey of a young golden plover who hasn’t learned to fly before migration time and is therefore left behind in the frozen North. Supported by his gentle friend Ploveria, Ploey must endure the harsh winter and outsmart dangerous predators to reunite with his family in the spring. 

The Project: Imagining original characters accurately

Unlike mature IPs with a wide variety of merchandise, this project had no prior reference. The goal was not to make plushies that looked similar to Ploey and Ploveria, but to communicate the true essence of the characters in physical form. The products were therefore expected to serve as authentic extensions and core promotional elements of the film.

Our client had very high expectations for this plushie project: supporting commercial promotion, expanding the endearing characters, and building a foundation for long-term merchandising. The film director and production team were deeply emotionally attached to the characters; they were most concerned whether the plush versions made the characters feel "alive" and faithful to their animated essence. Any minor deviation risked being perceived as "the character isn't right."

“We realise that you have a challenging assignment but belief that these three changes would improve the likability of the puppets. And we share with the excitement and look forward to going out with the samples to our buyer here.”

Merchandizing Manager of GunHil ehf. (the producer of Ploey: You Never Fly Alone)

The Task: Realizing the characters beyond the silver screen

The core task was to translate digital 2D animation designs into huggable plush toys that preserved each character's unique personality and the cohesive world they shared. 

Ploey and Ploveria shared a unified art style but differed in proportions, expressions, and temperament. As plush makers, we needed to ensure stylistic consistency across the duo while preserving their individual charm.

Major challenges included:

• Lack of market testing: There was no existing products to take reference of; all samples had to be developed from scratch based on animation stills, trailers, and notes from the production team.

• Details as the spirit: The characters' appeal centered on facial and body details—eye size, eye-white proportion, gaze direction, limb proportions, fur hue and density, and the like.

• Hard-to-quantify calibrations: Adjustments of the samples were more often aesthetic than technical. This necessitated multiple rounds of feedback from the client often on the emotional aspect as well as patience and commitment from both sides.

The Action: A character-first approach

We treated this project as a co-creation process that prioritized character integrity (the “wholeness”) over standard production procedures.

1. Defining the "right face": After a few rounds of sampling, we found that even though we got the overall forms right, the facial expressions of Ploey and Ploveria felt flat. We investigated it and determined that eye-white proportions were too restrained, making the gazes of the characters lack spark. We created a range of side-by-side variants—same body, different eye-white ratios or embroidery options— to select what best made the characters feel alive. 

Here is an example of how a small detail can affect how the facial expression of the characters are perceived –

“Another thing on the prototypes. We have tried a very simple white reflections in their eyes which brings more live to them. We would like that to be added. You can see the difference on the enclosed doc and here is the idea.” Customer

2. Meticulous material selection: Given the challenges discussed, it would have been counter-productive if we had chosen the fabrics based on cost or generic softness. Instead, we selected fabrics based on nuanced criteria such as pile length and texture to achieve life-like vitality. We avoided long fibers that looked rough or short ones that felt lifeless. We compared multiple fabrics under different lighting conditions.

Certainly, we made sure that our client’s colour requirements were fulfilled –

After having viewed the options you sent, we suggest that colour 37 will be used for legs and beak. 

- Customer

3. Applying physics: Gravity does not exist in animation, but in the real world, plush toys must stand and pose naturally. Early samples of the characters looked top-heavy. To achieve a stable, believable posture, we adjusted seaming and redistributed filling to lower the center of gravity.

This methodical, patient process was supported by our factory's flexible team. Together with our client, we took collaborative steps toward authenticity.   

The Result: From vision to validation

After extensive refinements, the final versions of Ploey and Ploveria achieved strong character essence and overall fidelity. The client approved them for mass production and launched the plush series online. We were proud that the facial optimizations we made dramatically enhanced liveliness of the characters and their emotional connection to the film.

Market reception was positive; consumers praised how well the toys captured the animated personalities and felt like genuine extensions of the story. 

More than just producing plush toys, we serve our clients act as a true creative partner to get the character right from conceptualization through to market-ready products.

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