![]() ![]() The voice cast also included a trio from “Fresh Off the Boat”: Constance Wu, Jimmy O. Meanwhile, producers Aron Warner (“Shrek”) and Chris Bremble (VFX supervisor at Base FX) helped set up the pipeline, and head of story Radford Sechrist (“How to Train Your Dragon 2”) and production designer Shelly Wan (color artist on “Inside Out”) provided crucial artistic leadership on the $25 million production. ![]() Olivier Staphylas (“How to Train Your Dragon”), who served as head of character animation, brought a stable of young animators he trained in China and India. It was set up by a Chinese consortium that included Jackie Chan’s Sparkle Roll Media and Flagship Entertainment Group, and marked the debut animated feature by Base Animation, a division of visual effects studio, Base FX, based in Xiamen. He had Long all worked out.”īut it was important that “Wish Dragon” be made in China to retain any semblance of authenticity. I prepared all these notes for John, but he didn’t need them. “He’s patronizing and a bit arrogant and, in a weird way, has a very delusional view of the world. “He’s your best friend for his own very selfish reasons,” Appelhans continued. That’s where the genie steps in: a wise-cracking, cynical con-artist with a dark past and an addiction to shrimp chips. “And that was the inspiration for the story: When the world is changing so fast, how do you keep your bearings? How do you figure out what matters to you when anything’s possible?” “Wish Dragon” Sony Pictures Animation “We’d go back three months later to do more research and they’d be gone, completely replaced by a mall,” he added. During research trips, Appelhans observed half-demolished neighborhoods being gentrified. Part of the challenge was making a love letter to the transformation that started in Shanghai 10 years ago. Where to Watch This Week’s New Movies, from ‘Fast X’ to ‘Master Gardener’ In a naive way, I tried to recreate that experience through this story and hope people get a better understanding of China.” The result is “Wish Dragon” (streaming Friday on Netflix), an American-Chinese co-production with Sony Pictures Animation, in which working-class college student, Din (Jimmy Wong), teams up with pink, fluffy, snarky genie, Long (John Cho), to reunite with his long-lost childhood friend, Lina (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), now a famous model.Īs Appelhans watched a friend in Shanghai “struggling with family and class and concepts of success, it seemed like that timeless story… about a peasant boy who lives with his mother, meets a wish-granting genie, falls in love with a princess, loses himself, and finds himself again, could have newfound relevance today,” he said. When visual development artist Chris Appelhans (“Coraline”) realized that “Aladdin” was originally a Chinese folk tale while visiting Shanghai 20 years ago, he had an aha moment about writing and directing an animated genie-in-a-bottle retelling set in modern Shanghai. ![]()
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