Startup studio Mandoo Pictures Inc has assembled a team of established animation professionals to work on Tibetan Rocket Dog, including, from left: Chief Operating Officer Matthew Parker, producer David Miller, comic-book artist Zheng Jun and screenwriter-director Ash Brannon. Work on the Chinese-US co-production has been underway for three years. [Photo: Zhang Qidong / China Daily]
The pursuit of cross-cultural success in the dicey but lucrative world of animated film has US and Chinese artists and investors collaborating like never before, China Daily's Zhang Qidong and Joseph Boris report.
China is poised to become the world's No 1 box office by 2020, but a recent Ernst & Young report warned that inexperience could keep domestic movie makers from reaping the benefits of greater consumption.
The global auditing firm's Spotlight on China study, released Nov 28 in Shanghai, estimates growth in the Chinese media and entertainment industry of 17 percent a year between 2010 and 2015 - much faster than the economy overall. China has surpassed Japan as the world's second-biggest market for theatrical movies by ticket revenue and is likely to take the top spot from the United States within eight years.
There are obstacles, Ernst & Young said, including "constantly shifting" tastes of Chinese audiences and the fact that they "have traditionally paid little or nothing for traditional content and have easy access to pirated digital content".
Overcoming these barriers is as high a priority for domestic movie producers as it is for Hollywood, whose output dominates first-run movie theaters in China. For those that succeed, the rewards will be huge, given projected increases in Chinese consumers' disposable income and use of digital technology, especially through mobile devices.
Amid the high-profile projections is another trend, one that homegrown producers hope will help fuel their industry. It's animation, and its growth and cross-border collaboration show great possibilities.
According to the blog ChinaFilmBiz.com, domestic box-office receipts in 2011 tripled from the previous year. China has been on a theater-building tear to bring its screens-per-capita ratio in line with other big markets.
Animated movies, like every other genre in the Chinese market, are dominated by US productions. However, China's animated-film business is growing faster than the entertainment sector as a whole, and insiders generally see collaboration from across the Pacific as the clearest path to self-sufficiency.
Tibetan Rock Dog, an animated feature based on a Chinese comic book, brought together American and Chinese artists, producers and investors for a first-of-its-kind project. The movie, slated to premiere in 2014, is being produced by Mandoo Pictures Inc, a three-year-old animation startup in Venice, California.
Whether Tibetan Rock Dog will turn out to be a breakout smash like DreamWorks Animation's two Kung Fu Panda installments is impossible to predict. But the team behind it hopes a collective passion for innovation and working across cultures will help, along with some Hollywood heavyweights.
Ash Brannon, the writer-director whose Surf's Up (Sony Pictures) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2007 and who worked on Pixar's Toy Story 2, is the man Mandoo believes can whip the script for Tibetan Rock Dog into prize-contending shape.
According to David Miller, one of the producers on the Chinese-US project and a 30-year veteran of major Hollywood studios, Mandoo's bench is deep. Operating chief Matthew Parker led the first private-equity fund in Hollywood dedicated to computer-graphic animated-film production, financing the $25 million independent feature Igor (2008); Peter DeSeve, who created characters for popular CG-animated features A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Robots and the Ice Age trilogy; veteran screenwriter Kurt Voelker; and film editor Ivan Bilancio, who worked on Disney's blockbuster The Lion King as well as Piglet's Big Movie and Hercules.
The team also includes Chinese-born Zheng Jun, art director at Mandoo. The multi-talented Zheng wrote and published graphic novels including the two-part Tibetan Rock Dog series, awarded as China's "best original cartoon-book" for 2009, and is a rock star to boot, having won a 1998 national award as best male singer.
"My original idea for the graphic novel was drafted for my daughter, combining three of my favorite things: cartoons, animals, and rock 'n' roll. I wanted to convey core values of Chinese culture, Buddhism and my life philosophy into the book; I also tried to make it fun and entertaining with kung fu, animal characters and rock," Zheng told China Daily.
Amber Wang, Mandoo Pictures' CEO and a producer on several US and Chinese movies, said Zheng's presentation of his book at a Beijing investor forum three years ago attracted the eye of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Deng Feng. (He co-founded NetScreen Technologies, which was acquired by Juniper Networks Inc in 2004 for $4.2 billion.)
Deng later called Wang and Zheng to discuss a possible investment; they were eventually joined by Xu Xiaoping, a venture capitalist who had dabbled in entertainment projects.
The idea to make Tibetan Rock Dog into a movie was born, with the four principals agreeing that tapping American expertise was crucial. Zheng, Wang, Deng and Xu soon formed Mandoo Pictures with the goal of using a cross-cultural team to produce an animated Chinese feature.
"Mandoo is the reverse of the [two-syllable] Chinese word for animation," said Zheng. "Our goal is simple and straightforward - to make Tibetan Rock Dog a world-class animated movie to introduce cross-cultural values and philosophies. To achieve that, we needed to find top-tier Hollywood talent."
Zheng, who has traveled between China and the US frequently since 2009, said the task has been daunting.
"I knew no one and started from scratch by interviewing Hollywood scriptwriters, artists and graphic designers. It's a lot of work starting a production studio in the US."
Wang, who has helped develop the Chinese market for US-made entertainment for 15 years, encountered doubts among her Chinese counterparts about Tibetan Rock Dog.
"They think we're crazy for investing four to five years in producing an animated movie," she said. "Most of the domestically produced animated movies you see today in China take a year or two to finish. But we stuck to what we believe - that it takes time to develop high-quality characters and, to get a movie of incomparable quality, this is what we have to do."
Three years into the making of Tibetan Rock Dog, the executive's ambition is for Mandoo to be one of the top players in China's animated-movie industry by 2017.
Wang has noticed two big cultural differences on animated projects: Chinese crew members don't spend a lot of time on preproduction, while the Americans pay close attention to developing characters' look and personality. Therefore, sequencing varies, with Chinese animators taking a year or two on a feature, compared to four or five years for top Hollywood studios.
"Another difference is how the story is told," the Mandoo chief said. "There are thousands of interesting stories in Chinese culture and history, and many attempts at animation have been made domestically but few have been interpreted into a universal language. Hollywood writers seem to know how to tell a story in a universal language and with such humanity. That's why American animated films are loved by everyone."
Wang, who oversees daily operations including production, said talent is an animation studio's greatest asset. "If you have the right crew, you have everything."
Jonathan Jiang, founder of Chinese animation company Dragon Dreams Entertainment, is raising funds to make 10 movies over the next five years, including an animated feature he plans to produce for the domestic and international markets. A tech entrepreneur, he founded MessageSoft, which made anti-spam programs for businesses and was acquired by a British company in 2004.
His new company, Jiang said, has a "secret weapon" in proprietary, cloud-based rendering technology and digital movie production, areas in which US studios' prowess has long been unmatched.
Dragon Dreams' "real-time rendering technology" is considered a breakthrough, with the potential to process images 10 times faster than other current methods. Using the kind of graphics microchips that are standard in PCs, the software can generate movie-quality scenes. It and lead developer Kun Zhou, of Zhejiang University, were recognized on a Massachusetts Institute of Technology publication's 2011 list of innovators under age 35.
"Imagine we can make animated films a lot faster and with better picture quality - we'll save millions on each movie, and that is our advantage in the business," Jiang said.
He also helped establish Original Force in 2008, and has turned it into one of China's biggest animation and video game production companies, with over 800 employees in Beijing, Nanjing and Tianjin. Its clients include Warner Brothers, Disney, DreamWorks, Sony, Microsoft Corp, and game makers Zynga Inc and Electronic Arts Inc.
Jiang wants to push Dragon Dreams further, turning it into a company that creates content from stories rooted in Chinese culture and makes it accessible to both Chinese and international audiences.
"With our rendering technology, proven track record, international team and the emerging Chinese market, I am confident we can co-produce and produce animation that will attract Chinese audiences and compete with global players," he said.
Research commissioned by Dragon Dreams shows that although computer-generated, or CG, animated features represent just 2 percent of all movies made over the past decade, they account for almost 10 percent of the market - with a fat average of $275 million in worldwide ticket sales. Such bang for the buck makes animation a favorite of businesspeople as well as cartoon fans.
The Chinese government is now emphasizing development of creative industries at home. Xi Jinping, on a February visit to the US as China's vice-president, announced that the country would permit the entry of 14 movies in 3-D beyond the 20 already under quota. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has encouraged city and provincial governments to support animation projects, especially films that draw on Chinese culture and domestic talent.
At the same time, US animation companies are seeking strategic partners in China to co-produce animated movies. Among them is Reel FX Inc, a Texas-based studio linked to the recent hit Rise of the Guardians and a co-producer (with Avatar director James Cameron) of the upcoming live-action Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away.
"We have been quietly meeting with a large number of representatives from China, laying the groundwork and relationships that are so very important to successful and mutually beneficial long-term cooperation," Chuck Peil, head of business development for Reel FX, recently told China Daily.
According to Dragon Dreams' Jiang, the biggest stumbling blocks to producing screen-worthy animated features are talent and start-up financing. Raising cash to keep seasoned animators on staff is a full-time job, he said.
"Creating a unique theme takes time; developing unique characters takes time. Recruiting, retaining top talent takes time and money. Preproduction and production need constant funding, which can be a continuous challenge."
In keeping with Beijing's focus on the economic benefits of media and entertainment - through production and consumption - some State support has been forthcoming. Jiang said his company has an investment pledge for $5 million from the Jianye district in Nanjing's municipal government. The Party secretary general for the district, Feng Yajun, told China Daily that his administration would support ventures that bring the best of Chinese culture to the world.
"We would like to present Jianye as a home base for top US-China original-content creation companies like Dragon Dreams," Feng said, pointing to Nanjing's rich history and culture - it was the capital of six ancient dynasties - and the district's status as a tech hub. "We offer free office space, tax benefits, human-resource support, financial investment - you name it, as long as it's to support a new venture. Using the platform we provide will help promote Chinese culture and history to the world."
"Kung fu is Chinese, the panda is Chinese, but the movie Kung Fu Panda is made in Hollywood," he said. "Why can't we make our own movie similar in nature to Kung Fu Panda?"
Wang, the Mandoo CEO, echoes Jiang's views and experience. An investor herself, she pitches to venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and even friends. She said her company got a $3 million loan from Tianjin Hi-Tech Holding Group Co, a State-owned enterprise run by the Tianjin city government.