This week’s short film is a cute animation from Beijing’s Light Chaser Animation. A relatively new animation studio, Light Chaser was founded in 2013 by Gary Wang — the creator of Tudou.com, one of China’s top video sharing websites — with the aim of creating high quality animated films with a basis in Chinese culture.
The studio’s new short film, Little Yeyos, is a good example of that business plan in action. The Little Yeyos are seven cherubic spirits living in the mythological Chinese spirit world. The discovery of a mysterious dot of light by the meekest of the spirits sends the community into disarray as the spirits try to capture the beautiful light. Although the spirit characters start out a little too twee for my tastes, once the mystery light is discovered both the story and characters seem to solidify and altogether the result is a very fun and humorous short film. The best part, though, is the beautiful animation itself, which — true to the aims of Light Chaser — certainly rivals the sleek look of the animated films coming out of Pixar and DreamWorks. The company is looking to debut its first animated feature film in the near future and, if this short is anything to go by, it should be quite beautiful. I am really looking forward to see what comes out of this ambitious company in the future.
540 Feet 