The trailer of the upcoming movie "Peppa Pig Celebrates Chinese New Year" was released on Friday and it shows the importance of family values. The five-minute clip won the hearts of many internet users in the country with its bittersweet story about family bonds.
The trailer starts with an old Chinese man, Li Yubao, living in a remote mountain village. While talking over the phone, he asked his grandson living in the city what he wanted for the Lunar New Year, and answered him that he wanted a gift called "Peppa."
Due to the poor mobile signal, the old man only heard the word "Peppa" and began his journey to find out what it is. Based on the description of one of the villagers who worked as a nanny in Beijing, Li has created a metal model of Peppa using his imagination.
Eager to see his son and grandson, Li was told they will not coming home for the festival. But, it turns out his son actually arranged a reunion at his home instead. Li ends up spending a happy holiday with the family in the city and he eventually discovered Peppa is a cartoon character.
The trailer went viral on WeChat, the most popular social media platform in China. And as of Friday afternoon, the topic about the clip attracted about 380 million views and 377,000 comments in the microblogging site Weibo.
Zhang Dapeng, the director of the movie, said that the trailer and the movie aimed to promote family values. The director wanted the trailer to highlight the same values highlighted in the movie - love, harmony, reunion, and family. The director also added that many older people in China don't know who Peppa is, so there's a generation gap which is interesting to tackle.
Peppa Pig Celebrates Chinese New Year is set to hit the big screen on February 5, which is the first day of the Chinese zodiac's Year of the Pig, the South China Morning Post reported. The movie also incorporates a number of Chinese elements like making dumpling and dragon dancing. The film is co-produced Alibaba Pictures and British media company Entertainment One.
Peppa Pig is a British preschool animated television series first aired in 2004 and it becomes hit globally since then. But, the cartoon character has been gaining attention in China since last year because it reportedly became a subversive symbol of a Chinese online subculture.
