Chinese cartoons not that fast on the draw

• Source: Global Times
• [11:09 July 15 2010]
• Comments

Children play video driving games at the CCG Expo. Photo: Cai Xianmin

By Huang Xi

The 6th China International Cartoon and Game Fair (also known as the CCG Expo) closed on Monday and the big winners turned out to be Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, The Story of Hongmao and Lantu, The Mad Monk, Kung Fu Bunny and Tadpoles' Mummy. This was the first time the organizing committee presented awards for animation.

The five-day event was fun for youngsters in the city, a special treat for their summer vacation, and it attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors.

But underneath the exciting and boisterous films, games and cosplay performances, this year's event cast a critical eye on the Chinese animation industry, an industry that is trying its level best to stand out from the legions of international cartoons.

The art of storytelling

China has a 5,000-year history of heroes and villains, myths and magic, and benevolent emperors and despots, but domestic animators seem to concentrate on animals (like Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, and The Story of Hongmao and Lantu) or adapting old cartoons (such as Tadpoles' Mummy).

Meanwhile some of the industry's foreign counterparts are capitalizing on Chinese history with animated films like Mulan and Kung Fu Panda.

The lack of innovation and storytelling has hindered the development of the Chinese animation industry for decades even with modern technology involved in animation, production and broadcasting.

Mark Osborne, the director of Kung Fu Panda, said that China should learn from Hollywood when it comes to storytelling and that storytelling is the basis for the success of the box office smash Kung Fu Panda.

This rule has proved true for cartoon prosperity in the Western world as well as countries such as Japan where the business of animation is a gold mine.

Gundam, a Japanese animated series about robots, has had more than 600 episodes since it first aired in 1979.

The cartoon is an early coming-of-age tale that has impressed Japanese and in-ternational audiences for over 30 years, and still offers fresh ideas every season.