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Conjuring up cartoon creations
By Pan Zheng |
September 17, 2011, Saturday
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HANGZHOU'S animation industry continues to evolve as the success of the film "Dream of Jinsha" shows. With support from the municipal government, the industry looks like it has a solid future.
The 2011 China International Animation & Cartoon Festival took place in Hangzhou from April 28 to May 3, attracting about 2.02 million visitors, a 25 percent increase from the previous year.
Organizers said 425 enterprises from 54 countries and regions participated in the festival, up 16 percent from a year earlier. During the event, contracts for 212 projects worth a total of 12.8 billion yuan (US$2 billion) were signed, a 20 percent year-on-year increase.
With the theme, "Animate your city, animate your life," the festival boosted Hangzhou's economy and had a big social influence.
In the first half of this year, Hangzhou produced 9,564 minutes of cartoons, 704 comics and 491 video games, achieving total sales of 1.22 billion yuan, up 63 percent from the same period last year. Total profit reached 589 million yuan, soaring 70 percent.
While growth on the business side is impressive, Hangzhou's animated productions are also winning critical acclaim.
The animated film "Dream of Jinsha," produced by Hangzhou Shengshilongtu Company, won the Oriental Column Award as the Excellent Cartoon Movie on August 28 with three other domestic original movies. As one of the three most important domestic movie awards, the Oriental Column Award symbolizes big encouragement from the government.
"Dream of Jinsha" took about five years to make and animators produced about 300,000 hand-painted storyboards. Early this year, it was also nominated for best animated feature at the Academy Awards in Hollywood. It was the first time a Chinese animated movie had been nominated for an Oscar.
In 2004, before the first China International Animation & Cartoon Festival was held, Hangzhou's animation industry was almost non-existent, with less than 10 animation enterprises and cartoon production volume at less than 2,000 minutes.
Now there are over 200 animation and cartoon enterprises in Hangzhou with over 20,000 employees. Production volume of original cartoons has reached 35,008 minutes, 77.6 percent of the total in Zhejiang Province and one sixth of the domestic volume. Of the country's excellent cartoons, 25 percent are produced in Hangzhou. The quality and production volume of Hangzhou's animation industry has been ranked No. 1 in the country for the past two years.
At this festival, more than 145,000 minutes of cartoons have been traded in the International Cartoon Fair, and over 61,000 minutes of these will be played abroad.
Meanwhile, in the first China Comics Auction, 222 works from 145 masters from over 20 countries and regions had concluded deals worth 11.8 million yuan. The highest single transaction price was 500,000 yuan.
Highlights of the festival included the grand cosplay show and the animation float parade.
They attracted over 30,000 and 700,000 spectators, respectively. More than 10,000 people from over 500 professional cosplay groups from all over the world participated in the competition.
Fifteen carnival floats took part in the parade, three more than last year.
A recent survey by the Chinese Cultural Industry Brands Research Center of the Central South University showed that three brands in Hangzhou had ranked among the top 10 valuable domestic brands in animation and video games.
They were the China International Animation & Cartoon Festival (179.4 million yuan), Zhongnan Animation (777.6 million yuan) and Greatdreams Cartoon (137.1 million yuan).
Industry experts defined the China International Animation & Cartoon Festival as "a grand festival which changed Hangzhou's positioning in the industry."
On the other hand, another festival of animation, the Hangzhou Animation Theme Exhibition of the Second Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Art Festival, was held from July 11 to 15 at the Youth Development Center in Qianjiang New City of Hangzhou.
With over 2,000 square meters of exhibition area, the five-day exhibition involved 12 theme activities, 11 cartoon movie displays, eight cosplay shows, eight cartoon stage plays and 36 other activities.
More than 35,000 people participated in the exhibition.
To ensure animation fever doesn't fade, the Hangzhou government has painted cartoon images on more than 1,300 public facilities around the city.
Some of the images were designed by local animation artists such as Cai Zhizhong and Nie Jun while others were designed by children in the city.
All the paintings were done by students from local art schools such as the China Academy of Art.
"We want all of our visitors to feel the city's culture through these street cartoon works, which represent Hangzhou's city image," said a government official.
The 2011 China International Animation & Cartoon Festival took place in Hangzhou from April 28 to May 3, attracting about 2.02 million visitors, a 25 percent increase from the previous year.
Organizers said 425 enterprises from 54 countries and regions participated in the festival, up 16 percent from a year earlier. During the event, contracts for 212 projects worth a total of 12.8 billion yuan (US$2 billion) were signed, a 20 percent year-on-year increase.
With the theme, "Animate your city, animate your life," the festival boosted Hangzhou's economy and had a big social influence.
In the first half of this year, Hangzhou produced 9,564 minutes of cartoons, 704 comics and 491 video games, achieving total sales of 1.22 billion yuan, up 63 percent from the same period last year. Total profit reached 589 million yuan, soaring 70 percent.
While growth on the business side is impressive, Hangzhou's animated productions are also winning critical acclaim.
The animated film "Dream of Jinsha," produced by Hangzhou Shengshilongtu Company, won the Oriental Column Award as the Excellent Cartoon Movie on August 28 with three other domestic original movies. As one of the three most important domestic movie awards, the Oriental Column Award symbolizes big encouragement from the government.
"Dream of Jinsha" took about five years to make and animators produced about 300,000 hand-painted storyboards. Early this year, it was also nominated for best animated feature at the Academy Awards in Hollywood. It was the first time a Chinese animated movie had been nominated for an Oscar.
In 2004, before the first China International Animation & Cartoon Festival was held, Hangzhou's animation industry was almost non-existent, with less than 10 animation enterprises and cartoon production volume at less than 2,000 minutes.
Now there are over 200 animation and cartoon enterprises in Hangzhou with over 20,000 employees. Production volume of original cartoons has reached 35,008 minutes, 77.6 percent of the total in Zhejiang Province and one sixth of the domestic volume. Of the country's excellent cartoons, 25 percent are produced in Hangzhou. The quality and production volume of Hangzhou's animation industry has been ranked No. 1 in the country for the past two years.
At this festival, more than 145,000 minutes of cartoons have been traded in the International Cartoon Fair, and over 61,000 minutes of these will be played abroad.
Meanwhile, in the first China Comics Auction, 222 works from 145 masters from over 20 countries and regions had concluded deals worth 11.8 million yuan. The highest single transaction price was 500,000 yuan.
Highlights of the festival included the grand cosplay show and the animation float parade.
They attracted over 30,000 and 700,000 spectators, respectively. More than 10,000 people from over 500 professional cosplay groups from all over the world participated in the competition.
Fifteen carnival floats took part in the parade, three more than last year.
A recent survey by the Chinese Cultural Industry Brands Research Center of the Central South University showed that three brands in Hangzhou had ranked among the top 10 valuable domestic brands in animation and video games.
They were the China International Animation & Cartoon Festival (179.4 million yuan), Zhongnan Animation (777.6 million yuan) and Greatdreams Cartoon (137.1 million yuan).
Industry experts defined the China International Animation & Cartoon Festival as "a grand festival which changed Hangzhou's positioning in the industry."
On the other hand, another festival of animation, the Hangzhou Animation Theme Exhibition of the Second Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Art Festival, was held from July 11 to 15 at the Youth Development Center in Qianjiang New City of Hangzhou.
With over 2,000 square meters of exhibition area, the five-day exhibition involved 12 theme activities, 11 cartoon movie displays, eight cosplay shows, eight cartoon stage plays and 36 other activities.
More than 35,000 people participated in the exhibition.
To ensure animation fever doesn't fade, the Hangzhou government has painted cartoon images on more than 1,300 public facilities around the city.
Some of the images were designed by local animation artists such as Cai Zhizhong and Nie Jun while others were designed by children in the city.
All the paintings were done by students from local art schools such as the China Academy of Art.
"We want all of our visitors to feel the city's culture through these street cartoon works, which represent Hangzhou's city image," said a government official.
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