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| A scene from The Dreams of Jinsha. |
By John Esther
The Dreams of Jinsha illustrates the rather childish tale of a young boy named Xiao Long (voice by Xu Gang) who travels back in time 3000 years to a mystical China filled with domesticated beasts, talking animals, ethereal spirits and a beautiful princess whose father's kingdom is threatened by an outside force and it will be up to the young, traveling boy from the future to save the day.
The most expensive animated film ever produced in China, the hand-drawn fantasy film has its moments of animated inspiration, but the story is an all-too similar one unlikely to bring any English-speaking children in America who will not appreciate the fine craftwork so much as be annoyed by having to read the English subtitles underneath. As far as adults go, animators may find it interesting for a technical/cultural comparison -- although it pales in comparison in many areas to domestic, Euro and Nippon animation -- but there is not much else here to summon most adults into theater seats.
In fact there are plenty of lulls in the story where the The Dreams of Jinsha runs scenes which do nothing to propel the story anywhere. Perhaps the animators felt a scene was just too expensive to produce to have it discarded to the edit room floor.
There is also a reactionary subtext throughout the film implying that once you learn a little history you will respect your elders. Whether that is a valid point elsewhere may be debatable -- there certainly is no real history here. But what do you expect from a country whose film industry requires approval from a gerontocracy?
Released this Friday in a futile attempt to garner Oscar recognition, The Dreams of Jinsha should soon be history here as well.
