Big Fish and the Begonia

   Big Fish and the Begonia is an upcoming Chinese animated film directed by Liang Xuan and Zhang Chun. It is notable for Studio Mir's (Known for their involvement in the Legend of Korra, Season 4 of The Boondocks, and the upcoming Voltron: Legendary Defender) attachment to it (It's pretty obvious when looking at the style of the animation itself).  The directors have been developing this ambitious animated fairy tale over a decade via crowdfunding and their self-owned studio, B&T. The expected release in China will be on July 8th 2016, but as of now, it would see that there isn't any official news of when it will be released outside of the country.

   The synopsis goes as such:

It is a world within our world, yet unseen by any human, and the beings here control time and tide and the changing of the seasons. On the day Chun turns sixteen, she is transformed into a dolphin to explore the human world. She is rescued from a vortex by a human boy at the cost of his own life. Chun is so moved by the boy's kindness and courage that she decides to give him life again. But to do this, she must protect the boy's soul, a tiny fish, and nurture it to grow. Through adventure and sacrifice, love grows, yet now she must release him back to the sea, back to life in the human world.

   Chinese animation has certainly come a long way, especially with other animation fans calling this very film "the dawn of the Chinese animation industry", and even voting it as "the most anticipated animated film".  And as one who was a fan of older Chinese animations... that were never necessarily masterpieces when compared to all the other animations out there (I'm looking at  you, A Chinese Ghost Story, though, then again, this will also be hand-drawn/CG hybrid as well), it does my heart good to see how they going in so many directions when it comes to their animations. Aside from this film, there have been other recent Chinese animations that have been very well received, such as Monkey King: Hero is Back (Another animation by the same film company), and Little Door Gods. Though, being a bigger fan of 2D animation myself, I certainly can't help but be part of that excited group of animation fans who are really looking forward to this gorgeous film once it is released.

   There really isn't anything else I can actually say (Seeing that this film hasn't even been released yet), but once again, with films such as this, I will definitely be keeping a closer eye on the Chinese animation industry (I must shamefully confess that neither the Chinese nor Korean animation industries have truly interested me at the start of this course until I had actually looked properly into them) for years to come, especially if this is how they are going to progress. It is of course also interesting to note that this is yet another film that had only been made possible with thanks to crowd funding.

   Enlight Media, which is among China’s largest private film companies, has its sights set on becoming a global animation powerhouse, announcing an aggressive plan to produce 22 animated features through a new entity called Coloroom Pictures.

   “Most Chinese animators have struggled for years,” said Enlight chairman Wang Chang-tian. “I believe the improvement in the quality of domestic flicks will give us a Chinese answer to Pixar.”

   Other animated films that will be produced under Enlight’s Coloroom Pictures label are:

1. The Legend of the Jade Sword
2. Charlie IX & DoDoMo
3. Dragon Nest, based on a game
4. Fantasy of Journey to the West, based on a game