A young girl grieving her lost mother seeks help from the moon goddess Chang’e in Over the Moon , a modern-day interpretation of tales familiar to children in Chinese societies. When Netflix released the animated musical feature on Friday, it offered versions in over 30 languages, each with different voice casts. A co-production of China’s Pearl Studio and Netflix, the movie is notable for being that rare feature-length English-language animation with an all-Asian cast. The English voice actors includes stars such as Sandra Oh, Ken Jeong, and John Cho, with leads Cathy Ang as young Fei Fei and Tony Award-winning Phillipa Soo as the moon goddess Chang’e. “ Over the Moon was actually born at Pearl Studio,” says Peilin Chou, now a producer at Netflix, and at the time CCO of Pearl. “At our annual Brain Trust summit, executive producer Janet Yang pitched the idea of a modern-day retelling of the Chang’e myth, told through the eyes of a little girl named Fei Fei.” Finding Asian-themed projects for the global stage is part of the Chinese studio’s mission. For Chou, Fei Fei’s quest was an entry point to bring viewers into a world they may not know much about. Of course, Chinese audiences are already familiar with the stories surrounding Chang’e. “They obviously know the myths,” Chou agrees. “I think we have interpreted her in a way that is respectful in terms of authenticity, but also quite fresh and modern. “The original stories focus on how Chang’e gets to the moon with her Jade Rabbit. But very little is said about what happens after she gets there. That’s the area where we took the most creative liberty, where we had the most fun.” Since the movie takes place in China, Pearl Studio wanted to make sure the Chinese-language version would meet the expectations of its viewers. The Pearl creative team began working on translating the script over a year before the movie was finished, a sharp departure from the way most productions are dubbed. “What usually happens is you get the movie a couple of months before it opens, you do a dub, and you release it,” says Hank Abbott, an associate director for Over the Moon . “Very early on we had a Chinese script writer and consulting director. They rewrote the entire script so it feels that the characters are speaking accurately, not just English put into Chinese.” According to director Glen Keane, the Chinese version of Over the Moon is “99.999% exactly the same. There were a few little details here and there we adjusted for the Chinese version. But visually they’re all the same,” he says. During test screenings, the filmmakers discovered that some jokes weren’t working in Mandarin. Over several passes, they tried out different lines to refine the humour. In English, a young boy named Chin introduces himself as a ping-pong champion. In Mandarin, he says he’s a “little Zhang Jike”. “We’re not changing the image,” Abbott points out. “We’re changing what’s being said.” In the English version, a dinner during the Mid-Autumn Festival feast features back-and-forth between aunties and Fei Fei’s family, with a grandfather adding his own caustic comments. “The first pass we did in Mandarin we made a little less biting,” Abbott says. “It wasn’t getting enough laughs. So we went in and said, ‘OK, let’s make it really feel like a family. They know each other really well, they know how to push each other’s buttons.’ We ended up getting a lot more laughs there.” While animating the film, Keane had to learn from the artists at Pearl how to adjust the gestures and movements of his characters. We found it was really important to drive home the emotions. In English we could be a little more nuanced about some points, but when we tested them in Mandarin we learned at times we needed to be a little bit more explicit. Hank Abbott, an associate director for Over the Moon “Fei Fei gets a gift from Mrs. Zhong, somebody she does not like at all,” Keane says. “I knew the way a 12-year-old in America would communicate that, a kind of ‘thanks but no thanks’ attitude. But the Pearl artists said children in China would never do that. I tried a respectful bow, but they told me that’s for older people. Fei Fei would have a very subtle little head bow. “The generational respect is something I didn’t understand at first. How characters show affection was something I also had to learn.” Abbott explains: “We found it was really important to drive home the emotions. In English we could be a little more nuanced about some points, but when we tested them in Mandarin we learned at times we needed to be a little bit more explicit. “We added a voice-over for Fei Fei to push some points, based on the feedback we were getting from test screenings.” China’s own Kung Fu Mulan takes on Disney and becomes another 2020 flop Lyrics for the nine songs in Over the Moon proved especially challenging, requiring at least 10 iterations to find the right story points and rhymes. For recording sessions, Pearl worked with the Shanghai Film Dubbing Studio, which handles major Hollywood productions from studios like Disney and Universal. “We used temporary voice tracks until we had a locked script,” Abbott says. “Then we brought in the professional cast for a three-day marathon recording session.” Pearl cast the Chinese comedian Li Dan in the role of Gobi, a phosphorescent moon creature. He brought his characteristic flair to a role played by Ken Jeong in the English version. Abbott also singled out Chang Dichen, the singing voice of Chang’e, for her ability to interpret her song lyrics. A constant problem with dubbing is lip-synching, matching a character’s voice to lip movements. “We always worry about that,” Abbott admits. “It’s never going to be perfect. When we had to choose, we went with making the story clear over matching movements. In terms of timing, we always make sure it’s a 100 per cent fit. It’s not like Godzilla back in the day.” Ultimately, emotions drive Over the Moon . As Keane says, “My mentors taught me, ‘Glen, don’t animate what the character is doing. Animate what the character is feeling.’ My goal here was to crawl into the mind and heart and soul of Fei Fei, Chang’e, each of the characters, and animate them from the inside out.” Highlighting those feelings ended up taking many months for the Chinese voice team. Want more articles like this? 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