China is widely considered to be the cradle of various kinds of arts-such as painting, sculpting, architecture, and costume and folk arts, which include drama, ballads, paper-cutting, shadow plays and New Year's paintings. Such artistic treasures have become rich sources
from which the animated films stemmed. For example, The Deer's Bell and Young Man and the Violin were born out of the freehand brushwork of flower-and-bird and landscape sketches of Chinese paintings. Traditional animated films-such as Havoc in Heaven and Nezha Conquers the Dragon King-absorbed the essence of ancient China's temple murals. Paper-cut films such as The Fishing Boy borrowed from the external forms of Chinese shadow plays and the folk art of paper-cutting. Mr Nanguo and The Fire Boy assimilated the classical elegance of the artistic style that is unique to the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD).
In Three Monks, the characters' behavior and the clear and melodious musical design adopted the pith of Chinese drama. In the film The Proud General the facial masks used in Pekinn Opera were given human roles.
