BEIJING, Aug. 15 -- With the summer vacation approaching its close, the box office of Japan's animation movie "Doraemon" has topped 5 million yuan, or 650, 000 U.S. dollars in its first week, America's "Transformers" reached 200 million yuan, or 26 million dollars so far. However, Chinese animation movies are not faring so well this summer.

The Shanghai Animation Film Studio's 10-million-yuan investment film "Warrior" only reaped 5 million yuan in the box office up to now. Though the China-U.S. jointly produced "Secret of the Magic Gourd" received 20 million yuan in box office, the result is not worthy of pride when compared with the box offices of foreign movies.

A manager from one animation company, Guo Jie, said that the lack of famous directors, script writers and marketing staff is the main reason behind China's slow progress in animation movies.

He says China has enough animation producers. China has been the processing workshop for many Hollywood blockbuster animation movies, like "Tarzan," "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo." But producing is just part of finishing a movie. A successful movie also needs good story and marketing promotion. A good and creative story is a base, while marketing will allow more audiences to know of the products. He criticized the low profile promotion of "Warrior", "When it premiered in cinemas, audiences knew almost nothing about it."

Chairman of the China Animation Association's Beijing Branch, Li Zhongqiu, stressed the actions of famous directors. "China needs famous directors, like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, to upgrade the profile of the animation industry. Good directors and script writers will change the stereotype in the present situation."

Professor from the Animation institute of the Beijing Film Academy, Duan Jia, called for people's attention to animation making, saying that animation making is made light in China. In America, however, animation movies are more profitable than acting features. Many famous Hollywood directors have also directed animation movies themselves.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)