Chinese rockstar Zheng Jun who wrote and illustrated the graphic novel on which Rock Dog is based, has played down the situation, telling the media, “I heard the story, and I have seen some statistics. I don’t really believe it, and there is too much being said out there.”

Huayi Brothers has also tried to shield its star American director Ash Brannon (Toy Story 2, Surf’s Up) from the pissing match with its competitor. During the film’s Beijing premiere on Monday, a translator was prevented from translating a question about the situation so that Brannon wouldn’t “wonder why Chinese people are doing things like this.”

We’ve been covering the film on Cartoon Brew since last year because it’s a trailblazing effort for a Chinese-American co-production. In one of the first examples of reverse-outsourcing in feature animation, the funding comes from China, but the production took place entirely in the United States at Dallas-based Reel FX, the company that made Free Birds and The Book of Life. To increase its odds for success in the global marketplace, Rock Dog was produced English-first with an American cast that includes J.K. Simmons, Luke Wilson, Eddie Izzard, and Lewis Black.

Creator Zheng Jun has talked about the challenges of trying to create an international film while staying true to its Chinese roots. “I had to fire several of Hollywood’s best screenwriters because they insisted on their ideas,” he recently told the Wall Street Journal. “If we had followed those ideas, this film will be a pure Hollywood film which doesn’t have much to do with us.”

Rock Dog is scheduled to receive a U.S. release later this year, but no American distribution plans have been revealed yet.