Year-ender: Rising stars of Chinese animation

Editor's Note:

On Dec 3, the animated film Big Fish and Begonia won first prize in the full-length film category of the 15th Anilogue International Animation Festival. This success, along with the 2015 hit film Monkey King: Hero is Back, has brought attention back to Chinese animation.

2017 is also a year that saw a series of animated films and TV series that surprised people. Many animation fans excitedly commented on the internet: "Our Chinese animation is rising." Here are five big and small works newly produced in 2017.

Dahufa

Premiered on July 13, Dahufa claims to be China's first animated movie rated PG-13.

The story is about a short martial arts master who was born to safeguard the fictional Yiwei State. In the film, this little master goes to rescue the nation's crown prince in a town populated by peanut-headed humanoids.

With more audiences rating the movie on the Chinese film review website Douban, the score for Dahufa fell from 8.3 out of 10 points upon opening to a final of 7.8.

"Finally, an animation film comes along that can frighten a child to tears," Douban user Huangaima said.