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www.postmagazine.com 17 POST SEPT/OCT 2020 T he moon has captivated humans since the dawn of time. It is a source of wonder and mystery. It is also a great influencer of life on Earth — from humans to the creatures on land as well as those in the sea. So, it comes as no surprise that this orb in the sky is at the heart of many myths and legends for cultures around the globe. In China, for instance, there is the legend of Chang'e. The crux of the story is that the beautiful Chang'e fell in love with the archer Houyi, and she took a magic potion (the reasons vary) that gave her immortality, and then floated to the moon, where she waits for her one and only true love. Known as the Chinese goddess of the moon, Chang'e is celebrated each year on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month with the Mid-Autumn Festival. During this time, families gather to cele- brate this important event, during which moon- cakes, a bakery delicacy, are served. It is this legend that inspired the animated feature film Over the Moon, to be released October 23 rd on Netflix. "Every Chinese child grows up knowing the tale of Chang'e and believing that she lives on the moon," explains co-producer Peilin Chou (Abominable, Kung Fu Panda 3). "There's even a national holiday centered around it. Janet [Yang, executive producer] came up with the idea to tell a modern-day version of the legend through the eyes of a little girl named Fei Fei. I loved the idea of bringing the tale of Chang'e to a global audi- ence in a contemporary, fresh and unique way." In Over the Moon, from Pearl Studio (former- ly Oriental DreamWorks), screenwriter Audrey Wells (The Hate U Give, Under the Tuscan Sun) scripted the story of Fei Fei, a child who believes that Chang'e truly resides on the moon. Fei Fei's world is eventually turned upside down when her mom becomes ill and passes away. As Fei Fei and her father prepare mooncakes for a subsequent Mid-Autumn Festival four years later, her father introduces his daughter to his new wife-to-be, Mrs. Zhong, and her son, Chin. Fei Fei refuses to accept this; she also refuses to accept the notion that the legend of the moon goddess is not real. She then sets out to build a rocket ship to fly to the moon and bring back proof. The film starts in modern-day China, where Fei Fei and her family live: a picturesque water town filled with canals capped with small stone bridges. This terrestrial locale is created in the CGI "house style" that's familiar to audiences. When Fei Fei reaches the moon, however, the aesthetic is dras- tically different, with colorful geometric-shaped characters and objects set against the black back- drop of space. Animation legend Glen Keane (character ani- mator on such films as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and more, and director of the Oscar-winning short Dear Basketball) directed; Oscar-winning animator John Kahrs (Paperman) co-directed. Sony Pictures Imageworks served as the animation partner for this Netflix/Pearl Studio production, which was completed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Keeping It Real The filmmakers set out to make a film that adhered to Chinese culture. To this end, Keane, production designer Céline Desrumaux and some others traveled to China, visiting two ancient water towns there, including Wuzhen, the "Venice of China," where Desrumaux took an abundance of reference photos. The group was even invited into one of the houses, which ended up serving as a model for the interior of Fei Fei's home, down to the tiniest details. "[Desrumaux's designs] didn't look like a typ - ically-animated version of China. It was real. It's where people lived," says Keane. In fact, every object in the film's water town — every tile, window, even the design of the fire extinguisher — is based on the real version. During the family dinner, Fei Fei and her relatives are seated at a large round table heaping with CG replicas of authentic Chinese dishes. The animation is grounded in reference, very natural and believable. One of the CG supervisors, Clara Chan, even took a mooncake-making class with the crew to familiarize themselves with the pro - cess and the weight of the pastry in their hands to better replicate it in CGI. The same authenticity is not a tenet on the dark side of the moon, where the design is psy - chedelic-like, the premise being that the charac- ters there are formed from Chang'e's tears. W hile both locations have a different aesthet- ic and animation style, the artists used the same basic tools set: Autodesk's Maya and Pixologic's ZBrush for modeling; Maya for animation; SideFX's Houdini for effects; Foundry's Mari and Adobe's Substance Designer, Substance Painter and Photoshop for texturing; Foundry's Katana for the base lighting; Foundry's Nuke for com - positing; and Autodesk's Arnold for rendering. In addition, the studio used a suite of proprietary plug-ins and other internal tools. Home , on Earth In the Earth sequences, the imagery is very tac- tile, as Keane really pushed details in the models and animation, according to Chan. "That was a big deal to Glen," she says. Sebastian "Sacha" Kapijimpanga, head of charac- ter animation, agrees, noting that it took quite some time before the artists found the right amount of detail for Fei Fei, the first character they built. "Glen was very specific about anatomical de- tails," says Kapijimpanga. "It was important that the corners of her mouth behaved in a certain way." Fei Fei has dark eyebrows, chopped black hair (from a cut she did herself) and strong eyes and lips. Keane, who had crafted Ariel's fiery hair and the spiritual movement of Pocahontas's mane, sees a character's locks as so much more than a design element — more so a symbol of the character's plight. In Fei Fei's case, her hair reflects chaos, as she struggles with her mother's death. "It was such an incredibly-difficult design," says Keane of Fei Fei and some of the other characters. "If you looked at the early animation, you'd see that these characters were often coaxed into arriving at the target. There was a lot of experimenting that went on." David Alexander Smith, VFX supervisor, points out that Fei Fei's hairstyle didn't have a specific form, but rather, was guided by Keane's sketches. "Hair will typically want to relax, and we needed it to feel natural and move naturally in the wind, but not relax at all, to keep that very distinctive form," he says. According to Kapijimpanga, there was a great deal of emphasis on pushing the anatomy and the acting level of the terrestrial characters with nu- anced performance. In this regard, Keane relayed to the team wisdom passed on to him by one of Disney's revered "Nine Old Men": Don't animate what the character is doing, but instead what the character is thinking and feeling. So, rather than Fei Fei calculating what's needed to build a rocket ship to the moon.