Page 30 - aruba-today-20190921

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 21 September 2019
DreamWorks, Shanghai studio hope 'Abominable' suits China

By TERRY TANG ends to replace all of that,
Associated Press but it was worth it," director
For the new animated mov- Jill Culton said.
ie "Abominable," bringing a It's understandable to feel
big city in China to life with some pressure not to of-
accuracy means that even fend China's 1 billion poten-
the trash has to look right. tial moviegoers. It's been 20
Chinese animators collab- years since a Hollywood
orating with DreamWorks cartoon with a plucky Chi-
animators urged them to nese heroine opened in
dump metal trash cans China. The film, Disney's
from backdrops because "Mulan," brought little hon-
"we don't have metal trash or to its box office grosses.
cans." DreamWorks Animation
"It took nights and week- and Shanghai-based Pearl

This image released by DreamWorks Animation shows characters, from left, Peng, voiced by Al-
bert Tsai, Everest the Yeti, Yi, voiced by Chloe Bennet and Jin, voiced by Tenzing Norgay Trainor,
in a scene from "Abominable," in theaters on Sept. 27.
Associated Press

Studio hope "Abominable," hai down to the bamboo ment size of a typical Chi-
which opens Sept. 27 in the building scaffolding. nese family and even the
U.S., can make the cross- The visuals are a product of inclusion of pork buns on
over leap. the open back-and-forth the dinner table, said Peilin
The movie is their first joint dialogue between anima- Chou, Pearl Studio's chief
production since a Chinese tors in the East and West, creative officer. Feedback
media conglomerate took Culton said. She wanted from early test screenings in
over Oriental DreamWorks to make sure they were China has been "a compli-
in 2018 and rebranded it doing more than throwing ment and a relief."
Pearl Studio. Most of the "Chinese pieces and parts "(Viewers) thought the film
voice cast, which includes in just to please the audi- was locally made in China,"
Chloe Bennet of Marvel's ence." said Chou, who worked on
"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," is "If you're trying to design "Mulan." ''They didn't feel
of Asian descent. The film L.A. and you live in Shang- like it was a foreign film
opens in China on Oct. 1, hai, you would totally get coming into China."
which is a public holiday it wrong," she said. "So, if "Mulan," the centuries-old
celebrating the 70th anni- you're going to do a mov- Chinese legend of a young
versary of the founding of ie in China and that's the woman who disguises her-
People's Republic of China. goal you want —authenti- self as a man to fight in the
"Abominable" centers on cation —I don't know any army, got a frosty reception
the bond between Yi, a way around not working when it opened in China in
teenage girl grieving the with someone who's based 1999. While it grossed more
loss of her father, and a there who knows the cul- than $300 million globally, it
Yeti. She and her friends ture." earned $30,000 in 22 days
embark on a 2,000-mile Animators and designers in Mulan's supposed home
(3,219-kilometer) trek to were meticulous in what's province of Hunan, ac-
bring their big-footed bud- being touted as the first cording to a story from the
dy, who they name Everest, major animated feature South China Morning Post
back to the Himalayas. about a family in modern and reports citing the offi-
The group lives in a name- China. In designing Yi's cial Xinhua News Agency.
less Chinese metropolis that home, the team wanted The film performed even
closely resembles Shang- details about the apart- worse in Shanghai.q

Book of letters by Che Guevara coming

out in English in 2021

Associated Press Guevara. The Spanish edi- es, he promises to send a
NEW YORK (AP) — A book tion was recently published photo soon so his family will
of letters by Ernesto Che in Cuba. know what he looks like,
Guevara is coming out in The late revolutionary's "a little older and uglier."
English in fall 2021. correspondence touched He tells his son, Tatico, that
"Letters 1947-67" will be re- upon everything from poli- should imperialism still ex-
leased in the United States tics to family. ist when he's a man, they'll
by Seven Stories, the pub- In a 1966 letter to his chil- fight it together. If it has
lisher announced Thursday, dren, written the year be- been overthrown, they will
and includes an introduc- fore he was executed by "take a vacation on the
tion by daughter Aleida U.S.-backed Bolivian forc- moon."q