Jun 23, 2020

Watch the first trailer for Glenn Keane's feature directorial debut Over The Moon

In China, the moon goddess Chang'e is more famous than Santa Claus. So says Peilin Chou, the producer of Over the Moon. The legend of Chang'e has been spun and reworked through countless stories over the centuries, and Over the Moon is its latest iteration.

The cg musical adventure has been in the works for years at Shanghai's Pearl Studio. Along the way, Netflix boarded the project, as did animation titan Glen Keane, who is helming it in his feature directorial debut. The first trailer has launched ahead of the film's release in the fall. Watch it and read the official synopsis below:

Pearl started life as Oriental Dreamworks before becoming fully Chinese-owned last year. It is positioning itself as a prestige production company with a special insight into the Chinese market. Over the Moon is its second release, after last year's Abominable (which performed modestly at the box office).

It is also the third animated feature to be produced by Netflix, following Klaus and The Willoughbys. The animation is being handled by Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) in Vancouver, continuing a growing trend for animated features with lead Chinese producers to “reverse-outsource” the animation back to North American studios.

Keane made his name as a character animator at Disney in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2018, he won an Oscar for his short film Dear Basketball, which was written and narrated by Kobe Bryant. He discusses Over the Moon with his producers Chou and Gennie Rim, as well as other colleagues, in an hour-long work-in-progress presentation that was made available this morning as part of the virtual edition of the Annecy animation festival. The presentation spotlights the contributions of several key collaborators, including:

Over the Moon is executive produced by Janet Yang, Glen Keane, Ruigang Li, Frank Zhu, and Thomas Hui; and produced by Gennie Rim and Peilin Chou. The key voice cast is Cathy Ang (Fei Fei), Phillipa Soo (Chang'e), Robert G. Chiu (Chin), Ken Jeong (Gobi), John Cho (Dad), Ruthie Ann Miles (Mom), Margaret Cho (Auntie Ling), Kimiko Glenn (Auntie Mei), Artt Butler (Uncle), and Sandra Oh (Mrs. Zhong). The songs are written by Christopher Curtis (Chaplin), Marjorie Duffield, Helen Park (KPOP), with a score by Steven Price (Gravity).