On the horse of high expectations

Da Hufa (Grand Sentinel). Its Chinese-style drawing got people talking about it. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The Chinese-style drawing in Da Hufa and the violence throughout the film also got people talking about it.

Which brings us back to talk of the good old days.

"The standard of Chinese animation has certainly declined compared with where it stood between the 1940s and 1960s," says Lu Shengzhang, 71, former dean of the school of animation at the Communication University of China in Beijing.

"In those days animations made by Shanghai Animation Film Studio were acclaimed throughout the world.

The first Chinese feature animation, Princess Iron Fan, was produced in 1941, four years after Disney's ground-breaking animation Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which remains one of the highest grossing films of all time.

"It was under the influence of Princess Iron Fan that Osamu Tezuka, Japan's father of manga and the creator of Astro Boy, abandoned his medical studies and instead pursued a career in cartoons and animation," Lu says.