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The Secret of the Magic Gourd“For many years it has been my desire to make a film that could use special effects to createsomething wonderful for children in mainland China.”The words of John Chu, chief executive ofCentro Digital Pictures in Hong Kong, who was so committed to telling the gentle tale of theMagic Gourd using digital technology that he made his directorial debut on the film. It blendsbeautifully shot live action with CGI elements – and it all came together thanks to Centro’sQuantel iQ system.MoralityCentro Digital Pictures has been Hong Kong’sleading post production facility for more thantwo decades. From the start, John Chu hassought to drive forward the local industry,launching the effects-based movie productionbusiness in Hong Kong by acting as coproducerto get a new sort of film ontoChinese screens.The Secret of the Magic Gourd is anothermajor step forward, and again comes from thevision of John Chu himself, who wanted tocreate a new style of movie for Chinesechildren. “I travelled regularly into China tofind the right story,” he explained, “until I foundthis book, written in the 1950s by ZhangTianyi. The author is regarded as China’sHans Christian Andersen, and the story ismuch loved.”It is very much a morality tale concerning ayoung boy who is very lazy – “he gets aheadache whenever he looks at maths,” isChu’s summary – and who comes across amagic gourd which can give him whatever hewishes. As ever, you must be careful what youwish for, and the conclusion of the story isthat it is much better to work hard forsomething yourself.Having found the perfect story, Chu and hiscolleagues spent four years developing theartistic treatment. “A lot of people in Chinahad read the story in their childhood, so wehad to be faithful to the original,” he said,adding “but we needed to make it modern andcontemporary for today’s audience.”Armed with a screenplay and a treatment,John Chu set out to find a co-productionpartner, and went straight to the top inanimated family entertainment: Walt DisneyPictures. “They had been looking for projectsin China, so this was a good meeting,” Churecalled. “We are proud to have created thefirst Disney-branded co-production outsideof Hollywood.“They brought in a lot of valuable commentsduring the scripting stage and along the wayinto post, but provided we did not change thestory they trusted us to get on with it,” headded. “The entire production, animation andpost production of the film was handled inhouseby Centro.”Front cover: Still from The Magic GourdRight: John Chu, Centro Chief Executive andco-director of the filmFar right: The Magic Gourd