China's highest grossing animated feature aims to be an Academy Award (r) nominee ...
Ne Zha is based on a centuries-old mythical [Chinese] character with unique powers, which is one of the most recognisable in Chinese mythology. The role has often appeared in literature, in film and on TV...
"It is important to use a household character with a huge fanbase to increase our chances of success - rather than an original character with an original story, just like Disney’s first animation was Snow White,” says [director] Jiaozi. “Filmmaking is a high-risk business — we have to be practical when it comes to certain creative decisions.” ...
Creative minds in the Chinese film industry are just like creative minds in the European or American film industries. It's great to be original, it's fabulous to be cutting edge. But if you want to maximize success, you go with the familiar, the popular, the tried and true. (Sound familiar?)
And you can't fault the logic. At all. Jiaozi wanted to get his movie made. Jiaozi wanted to get as many eyeballs to watch his movie has possible. Now Jiaozi (and China) want as many Oscar nominations as possible. And because a high-profile and well-loved character was used to boost Ne Zha's success, and the feature ended up doing gangbusters, Jiaozi (and company) have a solid chance of making the nominations for a little gold man happen.
Kind of like using Iron-man to make yourself a blockbuster.
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