CATDOLL: The director of "Moon Guardian" praised the shocking Chinese animation and cooperated with MiLi Pictures on a new film

Alexandre Heboyan, the director of "Moon Guardian" who won the Best Film Award in the Feature Film Competition Unit of the Tokyo Anime Awards, recently revealed that he is working with China's MiLi Pictures on a new film. "This will be a great comedy action film with a VR (virtual reality) theme that I like very much." This is the most in-depth type of cooperation between French filmmakers and Chinese film companies. The French National Film Center (Centre National de la Cinématographie) attaches great importance to this project. MiLi Pictures is the first Chinese animation film company to invite a French director to make a film. The new film is expected to be released in 2019. During this period, the complementary advantages of the co-creation of Chinese and French filmmakers will surely bring a new pattern to Chinese animation. "We use Chinese costs to make world-class quality animated films so that audiences around the world can like them. Famous animators from the United States, Australia, France and other parts of the world have joined MiLi, which not only brings creativity but also enriches our film library." Zhang Qing, chairman of MiLi Pictures, said.

Alexander tells students his creation story

Alexander Hamboyan's last work was "Moon Guardian" which was released in France in 2015. The film has a unique concept and its art style is highly praised. The film has an IMDb score of 7.3 and a Douban score of 8.5. It has won the Tokyo Animation Award for Best Film in the Feature Film Competition, the Toronto International Film Festival Children's Film Festival Youth Jury Award for Best Feature Film, and the 2015 Annecy Animation Film Festival in France. The best animation feature film nomination, etc. are the highest international honors. French critics commented that this director "has sown thousands of creative ideas in animation." This time, he will set off again with Chinese animators to create incredible and childlike new works.

Design draft of "Moon Guardian" directed by Alexander

Design draft of "Moon Guardian" directed by Alexander

Design draft of "Moon Guardian" directed by Alexander

"The new film is about a tiger detective who uncovers a huge secret. It also has a VR theme." In his opinion, "the development speed of Chinese animation is shocking." He visited MiLi Pictures in the middle of this year and learned about the production strength of this Chinese team. "In China, I have seen some teams that already have certain professional qualities and skills, and have a strong desire to learn. They are making progress with every film. I very much hope to work with such a team."

Alexander will work with Chinese animators to create a new film

French animation has always been known for its unique artistic style that is different from Hollywood. The French director joining the Chinese team is bound to inspire the creative thinking of domestic filmmakers. During the creation of "Moon Guardian", Alexander rented a boat on the Seine River as a studio, allowing artists to get close to nature and inspire their creative inspiration. "When a boat passes by, the river surface is rippled. At this time, we stop writing and follow the waves. When the boat passes and the waves calm down, we pick up the brush again." "For example, when creating Cire, we didn't know what the wax girl should look like at first, so we went to the candle shop to buy 15 candles, brought them back to the studio and lit them all. We didn't do anything, just kept observing, thinking while watching, which helped us a lot in shaping the character." Alexander said.

Design draft of "Moon Guardian" directed by Alexander

Design draft of "Moon Guardian" directed by Alexander

"Movies are the starting point for us to deepen our layout of global family entertainment. MiLi Pictures has always been an advocate and practitioner of family entertainment. With more and more filmmakers from around the world joining in, the gap between Chinese animation and the world's top standards has been rapidly shortened, while also bringing Chinese stories to the world." Zhang Qing said that under the international creation and Chinese production model, well-known directors from the United States, France, and Australia are very optimistic about the Chinese market and have joined in one after another, rapidly enriching MiLi's film library and animation image library, making full preparations for the further development of animation peripherals.