Much has been made about Chinese cinemas dropping Avatar to make way for the new film Confucius (see here and here ). My own experience of trying to go see Confucius (there were only 2 screenings both at awkward times) made it clear that – in Shanghai at least - if Avatar was pushed aside for anything it was to make room for 喜羊羊与灰太狼 ‘Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf’ (which has screenings every 15 minutes).
Animation is at the forefront of Shanghai’s bid to develop a creative economy. This is mostly, no doubt motivated by the enormous popularity of cartoons throughout East Asia – but also, I would suspect, driven by China’s rivalry with Japan. Shanghai’s mayor recently listed animation, along with finance services and the world expo as one of the city’s top priorities.
Pleasant Goat (Xi Yang Yang) is probably the most successful cartoon in China. (Zoe, for one, can’t get enough). So for their first cinema experience I took the kids – now on holiday - to a 1030 am screening.
The cartoon looks pretty good and there are moments in the film when the animation is pretty creative. Yet, when compared with the best of international animation (Toy Story, Kungfu Panda, Spirited Away) Pleasant Goat still has a long way to go.
First, the story telling reeks of being written by committee. It is wildly convoluted with endless twists, and keeps veering from one thing to the next. Second, the characters are totally lacking in charm (I had to keep popping headache pills to get me through it) and finally, unlike the cartoons listed above which manage to appeal to both kids and adults simultaneously, Pleasant Goat is appropriate for neither (this problem seems to plague much of the shows that are supposedly aimed at kids on Chinese TV).
Nevertheless, the movie does contain some pretty interesting social commentary. The plot – such as it is – is pretty subversive. The enemy is a tiger – lord of 2010 – who runs an army of machines. His main act of villainy is to stamp the character chai 拆 (a mark that means ‘to be demolished’ and is a familiar sight throughout China’s urban centers) on people and things and then get his drones to raze it to the ground.
The tiger aided by his two henchmen demolish the goats village and enslave them as workers in the giant amusement park they have built over their homes (careful Disney).
My companion who joined us with her 3 year old also told me that the film was popular amongst young couples (who came to celebrate valentines day). The reason is depiction of the wolf’s marriage. Mrs Wolf is a domineering type who regularly hits her acquiescent husband over the head with a frying pan. This acceptance of domestic abuse is apparently an admirable quality. People say, my friend informed me, that if you want a good husband look for someone like Mr Wolf.