Creating China’s Charming Demon Boy

How Ne Zha, an unusual Chinese animated movie about a mischievous demon boy became one of the surprise hits of the year.

How Ne Zha, an unusual Chinese animated movie about a mischievous demon boy, became one of the surprise hits of the year.

In a year full of the usual animated sequels — talking toys, adventurous princesses and friendly dragons — China’s Ne Zha has emerged one of the most unusual animated offerings. The beautifully crafted feature tells the intriguing story of a gifted young deity (Ne Zha) who is born from a heavenly pearl by the Lord of Heaven. However, since an ancient prophecy has predicted that he will bring about the destruction of the world, he is shunned as an outcast and has to make some major decisions to restore order among humans.

The film, which was released in China last summer, has earned over $728.99 million worldwide and became the country’s most popular animated movie of all time (Kung Fu Panda 3 holds the No. 2 spot!). In an exclusive email interview with Animag, the film’s director Yu Yang shares some of his thoughts and experiences on the making of this phenomenal movie.

“I was studying pharmacy (in Sichuan University),

but I’d loved animation since childhood, so I started to learn 3D animation software and then switched to becoming an animator,” he tells us. “However, it was hard to make a living as an animator in China, because in the past, the quality of most Chinese animated features were pretty bad. Generally,

audiences received Chinese animated movies poorly, so not many of them made much money. Very few investors were willing to put their money in animation, and most animation companies had gone bankrupt.”

A Successful Career Change

Yang says he had to fend off people’s misunderstanding of his career change and he also had to continue surviving in this business. “It was a rough period,” he recalls. “But when Coloroom Pictures approached me with the proposal of investing in my animated feature, I quickly came up with the idea of a project that defies stereotypes and focuses on the twist of fate. I wanted to rely on the efforts of our domestic

‘When we were finally able to transform our vision to the big screen, our animation industry also gained a lot of valuable experience from this project.’ — Writer-director Yu Yang