General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Power Battle Watch Car (파워배틀 와치카)

Power Battle Watch Car (파워배틀 와치카) is a South Korean full 3D animated television series about children who partner with artificial-intelligence miniature cars called Watch Cars in competitive battle-league racing. It was co-produced by the animation studio SAMG Animation (삼지애니메이션), Hyundai Motor Company, CJ E&M, and the advertising agency Innocean Worldwide, and it was the first children's automobile animation from a Korean automaker to use the company's own brand and car names.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Full 3D animated TV series planned at 52 episodes of 11 minutes each¹
Production	SAMG Animation, Hyundai Motor, CJ E&M, and Innocean Worldwide; toys by Youngsil Up²^•³
Broadcast	Special on MBC on December 21, 2015 at 4 pm; season 1 from April 7, 2016, Thursdays at 4 pm on MBC, later on Tooniverse²^•³
Premise	The boy Jino and the AI Watch Car Bluewill compete to become champions of the Watch Car Battle League⁴
Car designs	Bluewill based on the Hyundai HND-4 plug-in hybrid concept; other Watch Cars modeled on the Avante, Sonata, and Porter¹^•⁵
Theatrical films	Power Battle Watch Car: Bulkkoch-ui Jilju (2016) and Return of Watch Mask (2017, 73 minutes, 23,675 admissions)⁵^•⁶
Overseas reception	Rated 8.9 on Kinopoisk, among the top five Korean films by audience rating as of November 2023⁷

Spoilers

Premise and characters

The story is set in a near future in which small, intelligent robotic cars, the Watch Cars, have become companions to children and adults, and a Watch Car Battle League has been created in which the cars and their masters compete. Twelve masters and twelve Watch Cars fight fair matches to decide the world champion, while a dark organization that seeks to eliminate Watch Cars threatens the league. The protagonist is the boy Jino (지노), whose partner is the Watch Car Bluewill (블루윌); his friends include Roy, Maru, and Ari.³^•⁸^•⁹

The name Watch Car is a compound of "watch" and "car", meaning a miniature car controlled through a watch.³ The first season's opening match pits Jino and Bluewill against the undefeated reigning champion Kai and his Watch Car Blood.¹⁰

Hyundai's car designs

Bluewill is based on the Bluewill (HND-4), a plug-in hybrid concept car that Hyundai Motor showed at the 2009 Seoul Motor Show, retaining its distinctive rounded lines.¹^•⁵ The other lead Watch Cars are modeled on Hyundai production cars: Avan, Roy's red car, on the Avante compact; Sona, Ari's car, on the Sonata; and Poti, Maru's car, on the Porter truck, which had led its sales category for about 20 years.⁵

Production and broadcast

Hyundai Motor announced the project at a production launch event at the COEX Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul on May 20, 2015, attended by about 200 people, describing it as the first time a Korean completed-car maker had co-produced a children's 3D animation using its own brand and car names. The stated aims were introducing the brand to children worldwide and strengthening Korean companies in the animation and character market.¹ Innocean Worldwide, the advertising agency within the Hyundai group, was the first Korean ad agency to take a direct role in animation production.²

A 30-minute special aired on MBC on December 21, 2015 at 4 pm, showing Jino's first Battle League match against the undefeated champion Kai.² Season 1 began on April 7, 2016, airing Thursdays at 4 pm on MBC as two 11-minute episodes per day, with the 52 episodes split into 26 in the first half and 26 in the second half of the year; reruns became available through cable and IPTV services from April 21, and the series reached the animation channel Tooniverse from April 30.³ A Korea Communications Commission programming report records 750 minutes of Power Battle Watch Car scheduled on MBC in 2016.¹¹ Streaming databases list the series as two seasons of 13 episodes each, with season 1 running from April to July 2016, and rate it TV-Y7.¹²^•¹³

Licensing and merchandise

Innocean and SAMG Animation pursued character licensing across about 200 product categories including publishing, stationery, and pharmaceuticals, and pushed sales of broadcast rights abroad, signing an agreement with the Indonesian terrestrial channel Global TV. The toy company Youngsil Up released character toys nationwide in March 2016.³ Youngsil Up's chief executive named Power Battle Watch Car, in which cars transform into robots, as one of the company's main new toy lines for 2016, positioned against Sonokong's Turning Mecard in the battle-toy market.¹⁴ Korean book publishers issued tie-in volumes, including a learning-play book from Daewon CI in August 2016 and comic volumes from Haksan Culture House between May and November 2016.⁴^•¹⁵

Films and reception

A theatrical film, Power Battle Watch Car: Bulkkoch-ui Jilju (불꽃의 질주, roughly "Blazing Sprint"), centered on Roy and his Watch Car Avan, was announced for release in August 2016.⁵ A second film, Power Battle Watch-Car: Return of Watch Mask, directed by Lee Young-jun and produced by Kim Su-hoon, was released in South Korea on June 1, 2017 with a running time of 73 minutes on 246 screens; it drew 23,675 admissions and grossed $121,203. Its plot follows Jino, now Hero's Cup champion, who enters the notorious Ultimate Watch-Car Battle League undercover as "Watch Mask" after an evil gang steals and nearly keeps his Bluewill.⁶

The franchise reached Russian audiences as well. According to Kinopoisk data as of November 12, 2023, Power Battle Watch Car (2017) held an audience rating of 8.9, placing it among the top five Korean films on the service by rating, alongside Parasite, Train to Busan, Oldboy, and Snowpiercer.⁷ In the United States the series carries an IMDb rating of 7.5 out of 10 and has streamed on services including Tubi and Amazon.⁹ The Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles screened the animation for children in a 2018 program.¹⁶

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026