What began as a dream in in 2004 for Chinese-born director, Kerr ________, became a histoic event in China today as Animen was released in theaters across China by Kerr’s Studio, Shanghai Hippo Animation Design. Animen, the first fully CG animated 3D feature film released in China, is a masterful fusion of the 1990’s cartoons with video games of the current century; imagine Star Wars meets the Ninja Turtles, in 3D. The movie took over 6 years to produce and consists of over 60,000 sketches and drawings resulting in highly-detailed action scenes, battleships, and characters. The movie blends lots of Chinese elements such as Chinese opera and Kung Fu style action with themes unique to the American culture. Lucky for us in the States, we don’t have to live in China to enjoy this movie; the movie will shortly be released in the US as well after being perfectly dubbed in English by Executive Producer Sam Baldoni and Producer, Justin Baldoni. historic event in China today with the release of the highly-anticipated future film,
Celeb Magnet spoke with a very excited Kerr 14 hours before the release of Animen, which happens to be Kerr’s first movie. Kerr could not be happier with the buzz his very first movie has already received: Over 5 million searches have been conducted on Animen and the trailers have been viewed 3 million times. He estimates that 100 million people in China already know about this movie and if the pre-release excitement turns into actual movie sales, Kerr will be a very successful director right out of the gate. So, how did Kerr get into the directing business? He actually studied business on a full scholarship in Connecticut and received his MBA in 1990 from _________. While studying in the States, he met a lot of people in the film business, including Sam Baldoni, which only fueled Kerr’s life-long passion for film-making. After graduation, Kerr moved back to China and became an investment banker, but he never let go of his childhood dreams of becoming a filmmaker. He used his connections in the finance world, to find investors willing to back-up his dreams and in 2003, quit his job and founded a Pixar-like company, Shanghai Hippo Animation which has since grown to a company of over 200 employees with a US sister company, SJS Animation Design Company. He spent $10 million dollars on Animen which is about 1/5th of what it would have cost if made in Hollywood.
Animen has already been dubbed in English and will be released in other countries including Japan, S. Korea, throughout Europe and the States in English, although there are plans for a possible release in French and German as well. Kerr plans on at least two sequels to Animen, one released per year over the next two years, and has already finished 60 minutes of the expected 120 minutes of Animen 2. He promises the next two movies to be even more visually impressive as CG technology is improving at a rapid pace. Plans for Animen 3 include a combination of live action acting with anime, along the lines of Avatar, but technology will be so improved by then, that the audience will not be able to tell the real actor apart from the CG animation. And who does he have in mind as the starring star for the third segment? The one and only Justin Baldoni. He plans on coming to Hollywood next month to work on an American-made film called, Jungle Master, a feature animated comedy film focusing on environmental protection issues – imagine Home Alone Alone meets Al Gore, set against a jungle setting. He likes to continue making films which integrate different cultures into one, making him a truly international director and a unifying figure as well.
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