With my rifle, buddy and mee: So Drama! serves up new animated series on ‘noodle’ recruits doing BMT

SINGAPORE — A new animated micro-series from So Drama! Entertainment is turning Basic Military Training (BMT) into something more… palatable – a delightful mix of food puns that tell a familiar Singapore story.

The six-episode Camp Noodles sends a section of five recruits with noodles for names into BMT.

The opening episode – Mee To Mee-Men, Let’s Go, rolled out on Nov 2 on Instagram – introduces five recruits arriving on Pulau Tekong, with the ominous question: What could go wrong?

With this assortment of characters that sounds like an ambitious lunch order, quite a lot apparently.

There is Mee Pok Tan, shy, anxious and presumably unlikely to volunteer to go first. Rizwan Abdul Rebus is the calm and reasonable one.

Magginathan Goreng, meanwhile, is outspoken and quick to defend his friends, and then there is the smooth-talking Spaggius de Souza.

Lionel Laksa Mai Hum adds a musical streak and makes surprise appearances.

Keeping this mixed serving in line is Encik Karipap Veerasamy, a tough but warm-hearted platoon sergeant.

The opening Instagram reel comes with a reassuring disclaimer: Actual basic military training has “no edible recruits or broth punishments”.

The series packages camp mishaps, friendship and squad humour into short instalments designed for the scrolling habits of young viewers, including Generation Alpha.

Beneath it all is a story most Singaporeans know by heart: People from different backgrounds are thrown together. They learn to see the good in their differences, and gradually become friends who have each other’s back when the going gets tough.

The idea came from Yan Kit Ying of So Drama! Entertainment’s Capability Development team.

“I wanted to create cute, relatable characters that people could easily fall in love with,” said Yan.

“Food is a universal language,” he said. “And it was exciting to explore new creative possibilities in bringing these characters and their world to life across an entire series.”

The project also began as an exploration of how generative artificial intelligence could help bring an original animated micro-series to life.

“But at the heart of Camp Noodles is really the story of a quirky, mismatched group learning to embrace their differences and grow into a tight-knit squad,” Yan said.

New episodes will be released daily on Instagram at @kakeetvee.