Puppetry is one subject that I have yet to see in 3D. All that changes as Taiwan releases the first 3D movie with Pinocchio’s brethren.
A 3D movie featuring characters created by Pili Glove Puppetry will be go on public release in Taiwan in early 2015. It will be the world’s first 3D movie made with puppet characters.
The popular puppet TV shows presented by Pili tell stories of warriors set in ancient China. The shows have inspired a previous movie which was not considered successful.
The Fa Lan Ke arts center, which worked with director Ang Lee on Life of Pi, will also take part in the latest movie’s production.
Huang Chiang-hua, president of Pili International Multimedia, said he intended to release the movie in the summer of 2014, but as the animation’s post-production has taken longer than he expected, he has rescheduled it for release during the Lunar New Year holidays of 2015.
The 3D movie will be divided in two parts and set in the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). While Pili’s TV productions are in the Minnan language widely spoken in Taiwan, commonly referred to as Taiwanese, the film will be in Mandarin Chinese.
Huang said he decided to let the movie’s characters speak Mandarin because he intends to release it in China in order to bring Taiwan’s puppetry to the international stage.