Boonie Bears studio announces 'Yingge', animated film about Chaoshan hero dance

On October 19, the script seminar for Yingge, the new animated film from Fantawild Animation, was held in Guangzhou. The studio, responsible for the Boonie Bears franchise, shifts its production to the Chaoshan hero dance, a tradition inscribed on China's national intangible cultural heritage list.

The event was organized by the Guangdong Provincial Film Bureau and included the participation of the creative team and experts in film, academia, and culture. Three areas were on the table: script construction, the expression of intangible heritage, and the exploration of genre animation cinema.

Production is handled by Fantawild Animation, with Shang Linlin as general producer, Lin Yongchang as supervisor, Wen Xianjie as director, and Wang Ruijie as co-director. The script is signed by several authors, including Xu Yun and Dong Qianglong.

The film is set in ancient Chaozhou during the resistance against Japanese pirates and follows Guan Chaosheng, a young man drawn into the fight against maritime invaders.

The protagonist's arc connects with the spirit of the hero dance, known as "Chinese war dance" for its link to unity and collective resistance. The story combines youthful growth with a backdrop of loyalty to the land.

A local tradition as narrative foundation

The hero dance is a folk dance from the Chaoshan region, in eastern Guangdong. Its registration as national intangible cultural heritage places it among the most recognized expressions of southern China. The project attempts to integrate elements such as the dance's staff techniques, Chaozhou opera, and the coming-of-age ritual "leaving the garden."

The team's stated goal is twofold: to showcase local culture through animation and to explore a new path for intangible heritage cinema. At the seminar, there was talk of transforming folk representation into a larger-scale image, tied to the national spirit.

The attending experts evaluated the project as first readers of the script. The expectation that emerges from the meeting is that the film will bring the hero dance closer to a wider audience through the language of animation.

Fantawild and the Golden Rooster Award

On the same day as the seminar, the film Boonie Bears: Time Twist, also produced by Fantawild, received a Golden Rooster Award nomination in the best animated feature category. This is the 39th edition of these awards.

The studio has been working in commercial animation in China for years. The Boonie Bears franchise is its main asset and has allowed it to accumulate experience in production, intellectual property development, and film distribution. Yingge represents a thematic shift toward historical and adventure cinema with cultural roots.

For now, there is no release date or details about the voice cast. The Guangzhou seminar is the project's first public step and leaves open questions about its production schedule.