(Ecns.cn)--China's domestic animated films have received favorable reactions from industry experts after years of painstaking efforts to improve their bungled image. Yet the reaction from domestic audiences doesn't seem to be that affirmative.
High praise but low earnings
Two domestic animated films, "Legend of a Rabbit" and "Kuiba," that previewed in movie theaters on July 8 and 11 have been praised as talented works by experts. Many experts have said that they were proud to see that the Chinese animation industry was already at such a high level.
But at the box office, both films did not escape the doomed fate of many previous Chinese cartoons. Once again these films met condescending looks from audiences, some of whom did not even plan to see the films to confirm their opinions.
In the first three days of screening, "Kuiba," an animated movie about a boy named Manji who faces his destiny, only earned a box office revenue of 1.18 million yuan ($118,637). The movie's director expressed his frustration with this figure.
"Chinese audiences have too many biased views towards domestic cartoon films, deeming them of low quality," said Sun Lijun, director of the "Legend of a Rabbit," a domestic 3D animated film featuring anthropomorphic fighting animals.
Emulating American 3D cartoons like "Kung Fu Panda," "Legend of a Rabbit" spent 120 million yuan ($18 million) and was produced by a team of 500 animators for over three years. Before making a debut, Sun was confident that this high-tech cartoon would earn his team at least 150 million yuan ($23.1 million), but the current performance disappointed Sun.
"I know that for a long period of time, Chinese audiences have been let down by the quality of previous domestic cartoons, but we are improving and we need your support," added Sun.
Screening times not great
Besides these two already screened films, there are two other domestically-made cartoons going to be shown in the middle and end of this month. Though this July has been a month for domestic animated films to preview, the schedule of these films in the movie theaters has turned out to be unsatisfactory.
On "Kuiba's" debut date, the number of showings for this film in all Beijing theaters is 80 and most of the showings are scheduled at off-peak times in the day. Though the "Legend of a Rabbit" had better luck with 200-showing times a day, it is still way off the American 3D cartoon "Kung Fu Panda 2" which showed over a thousand times per day in Beijing.
"The time schedule is really a problem. The few showing times cannot satisfy the audience," said the producer of "Kuiba." Most theater managers only care about the box office hits and they have little interest in domestic cartoons.
During preview showings, some managers even fell asleep or walked out of the theater, which upset the film makers. "Please give domestic cartoons a chance and help to support them," wrote Wang Yunfei, manager of the cartoon-making company that produced "Kuiba."
