Princess Iron Fan/铁扇公主

This is a very fascinating animation; surprisingly, also it was produced in 1941, its quality is as good as, if not better than, most of current animations in Mainland.

Its quality lies in two facts: first, there is a solid story based on the original novel "Journey to the West", and almost everyone knows the story in advance yet the movie is very good at telling it. Second, the amazing cartoon skills do a good job. The animation connected amazing the Disney style (for the animal roles) and the traditional Chinese picturing skills (for the human being roles). The audience can even tell that the cartoonist must have watched some real persons' performance for certain parts of the animation in order to draw such detailed, explicit and subtle pictures. The expressions on the roles' face are so vivid that you may forget this is a 1941 animation. The songs and the dances of the roles apparently followed the style in 1940's in China. While the animal roles' part are typically with Disney style, especially for their characterization and how they make fun.

It is said Tezuka Osamu(手塚治虫), the renowned Japanese cartoonist, decided to devote himself to animation business, yes, everyone having watched this animation would understand the reason why.

Princess Iron Fan (1941) Cartoon / Anime subs English sub:

Performance impression:
Directors: Wan Guchan(万古蟾), Wan Laiming(万籁鸣)