娱乐英语新闻:Is "Little Door Gods" the next "Monkey King"?

BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- A beautifully and delicately home-made Chinese animation "Little Door Gods" may create a similar success as "Monkey King: Hero is Back" did in 2015.

The animated fantasy comedy produced by Light Chaser Animation will follow the adventure of two ancient door gods in a contemporary Chinese town where traditions and folklore are slowly vanishing and they are locked in a fight with Nian, the Year Beast of Chinese legend. Traditionally in China, the gods' images are pasted on front doors in the hope that they will protect each household.

The film was created and directed by Internet tycoon Wang Wei, the founder and former CEO of Chinese video streaming website Tudou.com. He retired from the company after he selling his shares in a merger with another giant Youku in 2012. He then unveiled his new project, founding Light Chaser Animation in 2013.

The top talents of the Chinese animation industry and some professionals from Pixar and DreamWorks Animation spent 29 months to make and polish the animated feature, which consists of 1,940 scenes and went through 101,555 draft versions before achieving the final cut. The producers describe it as the top production from Chinese animation, as the quality can compete with Hollywood animated blockbusters.

"I wanted to find out through this film about the value of the ancient gods today," Wang Wei said at the premiere in Tongli, Jiangsu Province. Although many Internet drama and TV shows have been made into movies and made easy money, Wang said: "We wanted to do some hardworking jobs that nobody wanted to do. Big investment may receive low return. But artistic creation is a very interesting thing and will be remembered for a very long time. We do hope the productions from Light Chaser Animation will transcend time and be passed on to later generations."

The 100-minute film will feature the voices of musician Gao Xiaosong and Internet drama actor Bai Ke. It released the ultimate trailer as the final push for the film's marketing plan.

Revenue from China's domestic animation films grew more than 65 percent in 2014. It's one of the fastest growing sectors in the film industry. "Monkey King: Hero is Back" by Tian Xiaopeng just made Chinese box office history by grossing 956 million yuan (150 million U.S. dollars) and became the highest grossing Chinese animation of all time.

"When we started our own project, I didn't know anything about 'Monkey King: Hero is Back'," Wang said, "When it came out, our company staff also helped spread the word, because we all want to see Chinese animations succeed".

"Little Door Gods", of course, wants to repeat the success, the producers said. Comparing with the money-shortage crisis constantly met by "Monkey King," "Little Door Gods" is well funded as it will also be co-funded, co-produced and distributed by Alibaba Pictures Group and Internet giants Tencent, Inc. and Baidu, Inc.

"All those companies have an Internet background and have just stepped into the movie business, so we are all newbies, but they all want to produce great movies," said Yu Zhou, the producer. "They watched us and negotiated with us for half of a year because they had to wait for the result and see if the totally original story worked. After first viewing of the film's draft cut, they decided to come in.

"No matter how big the market grows, audiences will always be the final judge, so the quality is always the priority, if you can't ensure the quality, no matter who the collaborators are, you will fail," Yu added.

"Little Door Gods," will open in China on the New Year's Day.