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j a n • f e b • m a r c h 2 0 2 1 c g w 1 9 My-Makers child who believes that Chang'e truly resides on the moon aer losing her true love. 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 introduc- es 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 rock- et ship to fly to the moon and bring back proof that Chang'e exists. The film starts in modern-day China, where Fei Fei and her family live: a pictur- esque water town filled with canals capped with small stone bridges. This terrestrial locale is created in the CGI "house style" audiences are familiar with. When Fei Fei reaches the moon, however, the aesthetic is drastically different, with colorful geomet- ric-shaped characters and objects set against a black backdrop of space. Animation legend Glen Keane (char- acter animator 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-win- ning animator John Kahrs (Paperman) co-directed. Sony Pictures Imageworks served as the animation partner for this Netflix/Pearl Studio production, which was completed during COVID-19 lockdown. Keeping It Real The filmmakers set out to make a movie that adhered to Chinese culture. To this end, Keane, Production Designer Céline Desru- maux, 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 in - vited 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 typically animated version of China. It was realistic. It's where people live," 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-mak - ing class with the crew to familiarize themselves with the process and the weight of the pastry in hand, to more ac- curately animate the process in the film. The same authenticity is not a tenet on the dark side of the moon, where the de- sign is psychedelic-like, the premise being that the characters are formed from tears shed by Chang'e. While both the locations have a differ - ent aesthetic and even animation style, the artis ts used the same basic tools Artists drew inspiration for Fei Fei's village from actual settings in China.