Wei Te – Mu di, or The Cowherd’s Flute, is a beautiful short animated film by Te Wei (Sheng Tewei) a master Chinese animator who died this month at the age of 95.
Te Wei was a print cartoonist who was asked by the Chinese Ministry of Culture to establish an animation studio in 1949. He is best known for his 1950’s film The Conceited General.
In the 1960’s he began to create the equivalent of animated ink paintings, the design of which were most influenced by painter Qi Baishi.
During the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, he was not permitted to create animation, but returned to in in the late 1970’s, continuing in the style of animated ink paintings.
The Cowherd’s Flute, from 1963, is perhaps the best example of this style. I don’t know of a translation of The Conecited General, but The Cowherd’s Flute is wordless, just image and music, almost like a Chinese version of one of the interpretations of musical pieces in Disney’s Fantasia.
It’s absolutely beautiful.
[Via Cartoon Brew]
