Animation Veteran Yang Jen-hsien, who has worked for Disney classics like Aladdin, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid, has directed Taiwan’s first home-grown 3-D animated feature The Frogville. The film has a native cast and crew, and premiered at Taipie Zoo on 13 September.
The film is a story about a group of rice frogs fighting to keep their utopian habitat pristine. “The production took six years to complete, but the story took shape even earlier. I remember I always had interest in frogs when I was in primary school, when collecting tadpoles got me into trouble. This passion was rekindled when I met a Taiwan rice frog researcher, who encouraged me to pursue my childhood dreams through animation,” said Yang in a statement.
The film’s actual story was inspired by the survival of Heymons’ narrow-mouthed toads, a protected species also known as Taiwan rice frogs, which inhabit in Nantou County’s Taomi Village.
The film was produced using crowd-funding. Yang launched the 20-minute pilot Heymon in early 2012, which was seen by about 600,000 people after it toured Taiwan’s science museums and educational centres. A total of NT$128,665 (US$4,281) was raised on the FlyingV website and was used to fund public screenings of the film.
The director expects the animated feature to help raise awareness of ecological conservation in local audiences. It is scheduled for general release on 3 October.