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The dreams of success at the Oscars
December 6, 2010, Monday
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AN animated adventure movie made by a company in Hangzhou is in the runnings for an Academy Awards nomination. Xu Wenwen finds out more about the locally produced cartoon epic and its chances in the world-renowned film awards ceremony.
The Chinese animated movie "The Dreams of Jinsha" was shown at the Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles last Friday as a qualifying screening required by the 83rd Academy Awards.
The 85-minute film, produced in Hangzhou, which aims to become the country's capital of cartoon and animation, is one of 15 up for consideration at the 2011 Oscars for the "Best Animated Feature" award, along with "Toy Story 3" released by Walt Disney Pictures and "Shrek Forever After" released by Dreamworks.
It is China's first animation to be considered for the Academy Awards, and was made by Hangzhou C&L Digital Production Company and "didn't use any foreign talent," according to Su Xiaohong, the producer.
"The Dreams of Jinsha" adopted a Hollywood production concept, using splendid animation to resonate among people.
It uses traditional hand-drawn animation techniques, making it China's first cartoon to reach the international level of B2K, meaning even if the film is projected to be more than 30 meters wide, its colors remain vivid and lines of figures remain smooth.
"We never expected to make the Oscars, but initially we set very high standards and requirements," said Su. "When the film was initially screened at Cannes Film Festival, people suggested we have a try at the Oscars, so we just did it!
"Every single detail of the characters in every single cell is drawn by hand," she added. "Hand-drawn pictures take more time and energy than computer-generated images, but we believe it looks more realistic and alive."
The 2-D movie will be turned into a 3-D version in the future.
Instead of amusing audiences with funny stories, the cartoon returns to the core vales of courage and love, and dreams.
The central character is initially a selfish teenage boy named Xiao Long, who accidentally travels back to Jinsha, an ancient Chinese kingdom some 3,500 years ago, located in what is now Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.
That's where his uncanny adventure begins. In Jinsha Kingdom, there is a mysterious evil energy trying to destroy the kingdom, Xiao Long finds he has a natural superpower and works together with Princess Jinsha and an elf to fight the dark energy and help Jinsha Kingdom to maintain peace. He also learns about love and courage through the process.
In the Chinese film, Jinsha has a beautiful sea, a group of pretty fairies and a blue forest, while its storyline greatly resembles that of "Avatar." But since the screenplay was written five years ago it was merely by chance that the two stories turned out to be similar.
Choosing to make a movie about an ancient Chinese town, the movie features abundant traditional Chinese landscapes as backdrops, such as the scenery of Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan Province, while Hangzhou's roads, bridges and waters are also involved.
"We want the audience to see the film and know immediately it is a Chinese cartoon, not American, not Japanese, therefore we adopted Chinese-style color and used beautiful Chinese landscapes which are very unique trademarks," said Chen Deming, the film director.
The film took five years and cost 80 million yuan (US$12 million) to complete, which seems a huge amount in China, but "comparing with international blockbusters, it is actually a small-budget film, and the 'five years' is definitely not a long period either," said Su.
In today's Chinese cartoon and animated movie market, many hasten to finish the work at lower costs resulting in the current prosaic atmosphere.
After the success of the 1965 animation "Uproar in Heaven" and "Lotus Lantern" released in 1999, few animated movies have aroused national passions about cartoons, so "The Dreams of Jinsha" is expected to be the next local animated film to stir up the dull market.
Previously, the film had been evaluated by foreign media as a dark horse among the Oscar nominations much like "The Secret of Kells" last year, as the academy seems to love truly artistic pieces of work.
But given that only three of the 15 animated features will be nominated, with "Toy Story 3" and "How To Train Your Dragon" presumed dead certs, "The Dreams of Jinsha"s competition to get the third slot is tough.
However, every eligible movie in the category of animated features can also be nominated for Best Picture. The successful nominations will be announced on January 25, 2011.
The Chinese animated movie "The Dreams of Jinsha" was shown at the Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles last Friday as a qualifying screening required by the 83rd Academy Awards.
The 85-minute film, produced in Hangzhou, which aims to become the country's capital of cartoon and animation, is one of 15 up for consideration at the 2011 Oscars for the "Best Animated Feature" award, along with "Toy Story 3" released by Walt Disney Pictures and "Shrek Forever After" released by Dreamworks.
It is China's first animation to be considered for the Academy Awards, and was made by Hangzhou C&L Digital Production Company and "didn't use any foreign talent," according to Su Xiaohong, the producer.
"The Dreams of Jinsha" adopted a Hollywood production concept, using splendid animation to resonate among people.
It uses traditional hand-drawn animation techniques, making it China's first cartoon to reach the international level of B2K, meaning even if the film is projected to be more than 30 meters wide, its colors remain vivid and lines of figures remain smooth.
"We never expected to make the Oscars, but initially we set very high standards and requirements," said Su. "When the film was initially screened at Cannes Film Festival, people suggested we have a try at the Oscars, so we just did it!
"Every single detail of the characters in every single cell is drawn by hand," she added. "Hand-drawn pictures take more time and energy than computer-generated images, but we believe it looks more realistic and alive."
The 2-D movie will be turned into a 3-D version in the future.
Instead of amusing audiences with funny stories, the cartoon returns to the core vales of courage and love, and dreams.
The central character is initially a selfish teenage boy named Xiao Long, who accidentally travels back to Jinsha, an ancient Chinese kingdom some 3,500 years ago, located in what is now Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.
That's where his uncanny adventure begins. In Jinsha Kingdom, there is a mysterious evil energy trying to destroy the kingdom, Xiao Long finds he has a natural superpower and works together with Princess Jinsha and an elf to fight the dark energy and help Jinsha Kingdom to maintain peace. He also learns about love and courage through the process.
In the Chinese film, Jinsha has a beautiful sea, a group of pretty fairies and a blue forest, while its storyline greatly resembles that of "Avatar." But since the screenplay was written five years ago it was merely by chance that the two stories turned out to be similar.
Choosing to make a movie about an ancient Chinese town, the movie features abundant traditional Chinese landscapes as backdrops, such as the scenery of Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan Province, while Hangzhou's roads, bridges and waters are also involved.
"We want the audience to see the film and know immediately it is a Chinese cartoon, not American, not Japanese, therefore we adopted Chinese-style color and used beautiful Chinese landscapes which are very unique trademarks," said Chen Deming, the film director.
The film took five years and cost 80 million yuan (US$12 million) to complete, which seems a huge amount in China, but "comparing with international blockbusters, it is actually a small-budget film, and the 'five years' is definitely not a long period either," said Su.
In today's Chinese cartoon and animated movie market, many hasten to finish the work at lower costs resulting in the current prosaic atmosphere.
After the success of the 1965 animation "Uproar in Heaven" and "Lotus Lantern" released in 1999, few animated movies have aroused national passions about cartoons, so "The Dreams of Jinsha" is expected to be the next local animated film to stir up the dull market.
Previously, the film had been evaluated by foreign media as a dark horse among the Oscar nominations much like "The Secret of Kells" last year, as the academy seems to love truly artistic pieces of work.
But given that only three of the 15 animated features will be nominated, with "Toy Story 3" and "How To Train Your Dragon" presumed dead certs, "The Dreams of Jinsha"s competition to get the third slot is tough.
However, every eligible movie in the category of animated features can also be nominated for Best Picture. The successful nominations will be announced on January 25, 2011.
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