Promotional material for Kung Fu Panda 3 Photo: IC

Aimed at stimulating international co-productions and strategic alliances in the cultural and entertainment sectors, animation projects between China and Hollywood are leading the charge in film production and elsewhere.Disney has been an active presence in China for decades, and has continually stepped up its commitment to co-productions, weighing in with Lu Chuan's critically-acclaimed nature documentary feature, Born In China, that the mouse-house co-produced with SMG Shanghai Pictures.Disney also recently co-produced the live-action romantic comedy, Dreaming Man, starring Chen Bolin and Jelly Linset, with partners from Shanghai Media Group and Shanghai Artrendwave, due out at the end of the year.Aside from their formidable theme-park presence and incomparable brand merchandizing machine, Disney also expends significant resources and personnel mentoring Chinese animators with the studio's powerful and unbeatable know-how.They host the Disney US-China Animation Exchange Program each year to bring powerhouse Disney executives and world-class creatives, like John Lasseter, chief creative officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios; Andrew Millstein, president of Walt Disney Animation Studios; and Ed Catmull, president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios together with China's leading animators and animation executives to exchange top-shelf ideas and proprietary techniques."We invest a lot of time, money and efforts into our relationships, in order to create better stories for global audiences and get our best artistic efforts on the screen. We look forward to the opportunity to exchange ideas with our friends in China," Millstein told Xinhua in an interview.Disney also regularly hosts master classes and lectures at China's top universities, including the Beijing Film Academy and Communication University of China, and supports numerous Chinese film festivals and China's homegrown version of ComiCon the International Cartoon & Animation Festival in Hangzhou.

Entertainers are pictured during the first anniversary celebration ceremony at Shanghai Disneyland in June. Photo: IC

Anthony Vogels, former senior vice president of Imax, is confident co-productions have a real chance in the global market. "Just look at Kung Fu Panda, that was a Chinese story, a US script and US animation technology. That was a great success," he said.In response to the resounding successes of Kung Fu Panda and Kung Fu Panda 2, Dreamworks Animation and Oriental DreamWorks have also moved into the co-production race, registering Kung Fu Panda 3 last year as its first official US-China animated co-production, with partners China Media Capital, Shanghai Media Group and Shanghai Alliance. Plans are in the works for more co-productions to follow.Another US company swinging for the fences with China co-productions is industry-leader Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment. Stan Lee, one half of the legendary Stan Lee-Jack Kirby industry-redefining team behind the Marvel Comic Universe that has come to dominate Hollywood, is jumping on a fast boat to China, partnering with China's Camsing International Holding Ltd to bring new Stan Lee characters, stories and universes to audiences in China and worldwide."We hold a treasure of intellectual property created by Stan Lee, a universally renowned figure. His ability to this day to create an emotional connection with each character is uncanny. We have already announced Stan Lee China and the Shanghai Stan Lee Comic Con and are looking for other ways to capture the legacy of Stan Lee and nurture new product into the marketplace that he will be proud of and his fans will run to see," Shane Duffy, CEO of POW! Entertainment, told Xinhua."Camsing benefits from Hollywood everyday with its ability to inject worldwide brands into their everyday platforms. Licensing, production and distribution opportunities are now more apt to part of the everyday vernacular of the company," added Duffy.Chinese companies are trying to learn not only the ideas and experiences to make good stories from Hollywood, but also the technologies and skills to improve animation production.Strategic alliances and international co-productions are nothing new to China's own Perfect World (PW) video game developer. Though PW began with Chinese-themed games, such as Perfect World and Legend of Martial Arts, by adroitly partnering with Microsoft and Sony's Xbox and Playstation platforms, the company rose rapidly through the ranks to become one of the top game companies in China.PW has also strategically moved into the global motion picture and television business by securing a place at the coveted Hollywood table by investing a reported $250 million into Universal Studios' high-profile production slate.Now, looking to foster better design and improve the digital visual effects industry in China, PW recently announced it is entering into an alliance with Hollywood's famed Gnomon School of Visual Arts Workshop Program to bring a robust online curriculum of Master Classes in Hollywood-style Entertainment Design and Digital Visual Effects Production to China in Chinese.Founded by Alex Alvarez in 1997, Gnomon is one of the leading visual arts schools in the world. Its faculty includes top-level working professionals from the motion picture and video game industries, who teach professional-level production design and digital visual effects for film, television and video games."Entertainment is a very competitive industry and it's always a big challenge to hire and keep the best visual artists who have the talent and skills we need to excel. We noticed many of the digital artists we hired still needed at least six months more of on-the-job training to reach the professional skill levels we require," Kai Hu, deputy general manager at PW's Educational & Technology Co told the Xinhua News Agency."We welcome international students at Gnomon and are delighted that the Gnomon Workshop online curriculum, from beginners to advanced courses, will now be available to students and professionals in China," said Lynette Clee, senior editor and creative content manager of Gnomon.If these recent deals are anything to judge by, the race to find winning co-productions and alliances between the US and China is just beginning to gather momentum.