China and Asia, once possessors of a vibrant film industry, were one of the last to produce a feature animated movie. The first full-length cartoon emerging out of the region was China's November 1941's "Princess Iron Fan," inspired by Walt Disney's 1937 "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." The production is all the more remarkable since the Wan brothers, Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan, the creators of this historic film, was produced while the Japanese had decimated a good portion of China's major cities.
The Wan brothers had been in the animation business since 1926, creating film advertisements while producing their first cartoon, 'Uproar in the Studio" (a lost film). They made China's first short cartoon accompanied by sound in 1935's 'The Camel's Dance.' The Wans managed the Xinhua United Film Company's animated department in Shanghai, once a hub of China's thriving film industry on par with the United States' Hollywood. The city had been overtaken by the Japanese in 1937, scattering its many movie studios. Xinhua was about the only film studio remaining in Shanghai. To make "Princess Iron Fan," the Wans employed 250 artists drawing over 20,000 prints in three years for their adaptation of the 16th-century novel 'Journey to the West.' The feature animated film centers around the Monkey King and his associates who journey to find a magical fan to save their village from fire. They encounter a number of unusual and dangerous creatures to get the treasured iron fan from the vengeful 'Princess Snow White.' Xinhua was able to secure a rotoscope which traces the movement of humans to create realistic animation. A contemporary Chinese film magazine described the process of producing the feature: "Every day for nearly three years, 200-300 technicians worked tirelessly. If you add up all the paper and pencils used in the animation, the quantity would be truly impressive."
Chinese audiences filled the theaters showing "Princess Iron Fan." Subtly hidden inside its plot is the cartoon's locust army the Monkey King's friends resisted. The Chinese understood it to be a metaphor for the Japanese military. Whatever independence Xinhua Film Company enjoyed in Shanghai was shattered when the Japanese clamped down on the studio soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Its association with Japan, however, allowed "Princess Iron Fan" to be shown in Japan, where the feature enjoyed an appreciative audience. Future animator Osamu Tezuka saw the film as a teenager, and later said it was this viewing that inspired him to dive into animated films. The so-called Disney of Japan, Tezuka emerged as the most popular animator in that country. "Princess Iron Fan" played a significant role influencing Japan's form of 'anime,' which became popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
Film historian Tian Jiajia wrote the Wans were frustrated by the political situation in China, both during World War Two and post-war, and their work after the release of the milestone feature film was hampered through their remaining years. "The Wan brothers considered their inability to achieve new artistic breakthroughs in animated feature films one of their biggest regrets," Jiania noted. "In the end, 'Princess Iron Fan' became the pinnacle of Chinese modern animated films that subsequent works could not surpass."
