Shanghai Animation Film Studio Anime

A collection of 8 short movies about Chinese folklore "monsters".

The story is based on the traditional Chinese folklore about a boy named Chenxiang. His mother is a goddess and his father is a mortal. His uncle Erlang Shen, punishes them by killing the father. The mother escapes and gives birth, but the little boy grows up without knowledge of his ancestry. His mother possesses a magical Lotus Lantern whose light can scare away evil. When his uncle, a strict and powerful god, kidnaps Chenxiang, his mother fights to save her son.

Unfortunately, his uncle is victorious and Chenxiang is forced to live in his palace on the sacred mountains. Erlang Shen then imprisons his sister beneath a mountain for her crimes. Although he is quite young, Chenxiang manages to escape from the palace, taking the magical lotus lantern that his mother lost during the battle.

After surviving adventures with many beloved characters of Chinese mythology, Chenxiang finally matures into a courageous boy who must battle his uncle to win his mother's freedom and fall in love at the same time.

(Source: Wikipedia)

A cicada is resting high on a tree. It is chirping for all it’s worth and drinking in the dew, oblivious of a mantis behind. The mantis, bending over and arching up its front leg, is going to catch the cicada but does not know that there is an oriole beside it. The bird has stretched out its neck, ready to peck at the mantis. Again the oriole is unaware that a weasel is sneaking up to it. The three creatures all covet gains ahead without being aware of an imminent danger behind.

This short film was produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio using Chinese ink wash painting technique. It is based on the ancient Chinese fable "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind".

(Source: AniList.co)

Uproar in Heaven, also known as Havoc in Heaven, is a Chinese animated feature film directed by Wan Laiming and produced by all four of the Wan brothers. The film was created at the height of the Chinese animation industry in the 1960s, and received numerous awards. It earned the brothers domestic and international recognition.

The story is based on the earliest chapters of the classic story Journey to the West. The main character is Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King, who rebels against the Jade Emperor of heaven.

It became one of the most influential films in all of Asia, animation or not. Countless cartoon adaptations that followed have reused the same classic story Journey to the West, yet many consider this 1964 iteration to be the most original, fitting and memorable.

(Source: Wikipedia)

A puppet stop motion animation adapted from a Chinese folk tale about a witty goat who hides in a cave from a tiger. The goat lies to the tiger that it is the king of the mountain and eats tigers, scaring the tiger off. The tiger meets a fox at the bottom of the mountain and tells the fox what happened. The fox laughs and says that the tiger had been tricked by a goat.

Two little rabbits one with long ear and the other with a short tail are good friends. One day, they found a big mushroom in the woods and started a fight for this mushroom. The two good friends quarreled. It suddenly rained heavily in a thunderstorm, and short tail was washed down a waterfall to the bottom of a ravine. Long ear tried to find short tail and finally rescued him from the moat. In the end both are good friends again.

(Source: douban.com)

The story is about a proud frog who likes to boast. The frog competes with other animals and boasts about being the best at different things—even flying.

Ducklings become good friends with a group of chicken, and they experience adventures together that show them the value of friendship.

(Source: douban.com)

During the Winter season, mother rabbit has to go out, but she is afraid of leaving her son home alone. Her rabbit son decides to make a friend out of the snow to keep him company.

Prince Nezha's Triumph Against Dragon King is a 1979 Chinese animated film. It was screened out of competition at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The second part of the trilogy about adventures of the Monkey King.

The story is about a chicken brother and a chicken sister-in-law who live in a village, and a small cat who is the village watchman. Brother Chicken goes off early in the morning to hoe the fields, while his pregnant sister-in-law spins yarn at home.

A group of lost tadpoles search for their mother.

An old man goes to the market to sell some pork. However, on the way there, he is attacked by wolves on the mountain.

Based on the story of the same title from the collection of classical Chinese stories, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (聊斋志异 - Laozhai Zhiyi). It features stop motion animation using origami.

(Source: AniList.co)

A stop motion puppet animation adapting a popular Chinese fairy tale about an old man and a wolf.

An old fisherman catches a fish bowl from the sea, the fishing child painted on the bowl comes out to reality to catch a lot of pearls for him. A missionary wants to occupy the bowl and is punished by the fishing child.