Studio 100 Rides Animation Wave as Hong Kong Market Takes Aim at Booming Toons

variety.com:

Clifford Coonan The gobsmacking success of Chinese animated feature “Ne Zha 2,” which recently topped $2 billion in China to become the first ever to break that record in a single market, has got toon-makers in Asia, well, animated… “Ne Zha 2” is now well on track to become one of the six best-performing movies of all time.

These are heady days for toons in Asia. The HKIFF Industry Project Market has seen a staggering 60% jump in animation submissions versus last year — of the 48 projects in the project market, six are toon features. “Animation may be an area that Hong Kong is trying to play a role to become some kind of a hub that people can come and exchange ideas and projects … we think this may be an area for growth,” HKIFF industry director Jacob Wong told Variety. “We have people coming in from Japan, a traditional powerhouse production country for animation.

And then we have people coming in from China, who recently produced this mega-box office animation hit (“Ne Zha 2”). And then we have people coming in from Indonesia, which is a major animation production country in Southeast Asia.

They do a lot of animation for children, which is a really big market,” said Wong. The animation slate in the project market comprises both industry veterans and rising toon talents, including Hong Kong director Toe Yuen (“My Life as McDull,” 2003 Annecy best film winner) whose “A Mighty Adventure” (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia) was shot live in Taiwan, with 90% of computer animation completed in Malaysia.