The domestic animated film "Legend of a Rabbit"
zhongman.com--China's domestic animated films have received favorable reactions from industry experts after years of painstaking efforts to improve their bungled image. Yet the reaction from domestic audiences doesn't seem to be that affirmative.
High praise but low earnings
Two domestic animated films, "Legend of a Rabbit" and "Kuiba," that previewed in movie theaters on July 8 and 11 have been praised as talented works by experts. Many experts have said that they were proud to see that the Chinese animation industry was already at such a high level.
But at the box office, both films did not escape the doomed fate of many previous Chinese cartoons. Once again these films met condescending looks from audiences, some of whom did not even plan to see the films to confirm their opinions.
In the first three days of screening, "Kuiba," an animated movie about a boy named Manji who faces his destiny, only earned a box office revenue of 1.18 million yuan ($118,637). The movie's director expressed his frustration with this figure.
"Chinese audiences have too many biased views towards domestic cartoon films, deeming them of low quality," said Sun Lijun, director of the "Legend of a Rabbit," a domestic 3D animated film featuring anthropomorphic fighting animals.
Emulating American 3D cartoons like "Kung Fu Panda," "Legend of a Rabbit" spent 120 million yuan ($18 million) and was produced by a team of 500 animators for over three years. Before making a debut, Sun was confident that this high-tech cartoon would earn his team at least 150 million yuan ($23.1 million), but the current performance disappointed Sun.
"I know that for a long period of time, Chinese audiences have been let down by the quality of previous domestic cartoons, but we are improving and we need your support," added Sun.
Screening times not great
Besides these two already screened films, there are two other domestically-made cartoons going to be shown in the middle and end of this month. Though this July has been a month for domestic animated films to preview, the schedule of these films in the movie theaters has turned out to be unsatisfactory.
On "Kuiba's" debut date, the number of showings for this film in all Beijing theaters is 80 and most of the showings are scheduled at off-peak times in the day. Though the "Legend of a Rabbit" had better luck with 200-showing times a day, it is still way off the American 3D cartoon "Kung Fu Panda 2" which showed over a thousand times per day in Beijing.
"The time schedule is really a problem. The few showing times cannot satisfy the audience," said the producer of "Kuiba." Most theater managers only care about the box office hits and they have little interest in domestic cartoons.
During preview showings, some managers even fell asleep or walked out of the theater, which upset the film makers. "Please give domestic cartoons a chance and help to support them," wrote Wang Yunfei, manager of the cartoon-making company that produced "Kuiba."
The domestic animated film "Legend of a Rabbit"
Lacking publicity
Although many do not plan to see these cartoons, it is a comfort for cartoon producers that most of the audience who have seen these films spoke highly of them. "It is really beyond my expectation and the story moved me," said an audience member after watching "Kuiba."
"The 3D digital visual effects were good and could compete with American 3D technology," said another audience member who gave high marks to "Legend of a Rabbit." "Besides the music and the story itself were also excellent," added the audience member.
According to the feedback from the audience, the two films are of comparatively high qualities, but because they were lacking publicity, many people did not have a fair idea of these cartoons. "We may have paid too much attention to the content and ignored the importance of publicity," said Wu Hanqing, who was on the production team of "Kuiba."
"Failure to properly publicize the movie resulted in the current situation," said Sun who also thinks that his 3D work was not advertised widely, as the poster for the film was rarely seen in many theaters.
Criticized by some in the audience
The traces of imitation were too apparent for some audience members who refused to watch these two movies. The "Legend of a Rabbit" is being criticized for being too similar to the movie "Kung Fu Panda." The main character reminds people of "Po," the hero in that movie, while Manji from “Kuiba" reminds people of the Japanese monkey character in "Dragon Ball."
Although the 3D-cartoon director denied that the story is a copy of the "Kung Fu Panda," he still feels speechless. "'Kung Fu Panda' impressed the audience and as movies both covered Chinese elements, it is inevitable for audiences to associate both films together."
Japanese and American cartoons have been in China for over 20 years, and many cartoon producers and Chinese young people have accepted and learned about their styles. "But the story of these cartoons are original and were created by the Chinese producers," said Sun.
"It is a problem in the entire industry, and if we continue to use the old traditional style, like in the cartoon 'The Monkey King,' and do not learn some new things from others, we may fail in the market," said Sun.
Sun appealed to the audience to be more tolerant of them and give them more time and support to let them make Chinese cartoons better.
