AnimationWorld Magazine — June 16, 2018
Pearl Studio Enters the World Stage with Full Slate of Features at Annecy Studio Focus Session
One of the big highlights of this week’s Annecy Festival was the Studio Focus Session for the newly-launched Pearl Studio, which has burst onto the scene with two new animated features currently in production and more than a dozen projects in development.
The packed session had people lining up hours in advance with the hopes of catching a glimpse of Oscar-winning director Glen Keane, who, as previously announced, is helming the studio’s forthcoming Over the Moon, which will be distributed by Netflix in 2020. Also in production with partner DreamWorks Animation is Abominable (formerly known as Everest), directed by Jill Culton and arriving in theaters next year. Meanwhile, Kung Fu Hustle director Stephen Chow has been tapped to develop the forthcoming The Monkey King.
Studio head Peilin Chou kicked off the session, outlining the mission and plans of the Shanghai-based studio, which was previously operated as a joint venture known as Oriental DreamWorks, and which co-produced the first American-Chinese animated co-production Kung Fu Panda 3 in 2016. “DWA will always be a part of our DNA as we co-produced Kung Fu Panda 3, which at the time of its release was the highest grossing animated film of all time in China,” she noted.
Chou explained that the studio’s goal is to produce one animated feature film a year, operating as a creative hub with production outsourced to studios around the globe, and described the studio’s core mission to be “a premier family entertainment brand, creating original world-class films that enchant, inspire and awaken audiences around the globe.”