Write a short summary of what happens in the film.

This is a sweet friendship story of Penguin and Whale. When Penguin is losing his habitat amid melting icebergs, Whale decides to help him find a bigger, better home. He travels afar to look for icebergs, trying his best to move them around for Penguin, only to see them all melt halfway. But Whale is not a quitter. He aims for an even larger iceberg. His fellow whales come to help, too, and seagulls use wings to block the sun. Despite joint efforts, they still fail to save the last iceberg from melting. Just when they lose all the hope, a humongous “iceberg” comes into sight. Happily, they all head for that direction…

Cultural / Context information for the jury

After Covid-19, the whole China was bearing the full brunt of the pandemic’s wrath which triggers the majority of Chinese an intendancy to proving that Chinese are still part of the global citizens and be able to benefit the world. This campaign gives an outlet for this desire at this critical point. Nonetheless, the animation approach stands in an accessible manner, especially for the young generation. Instead of giving harsh accuse of the damage by the human behaviors, generating the empathy of the public can comparatively achieve much bigger results among Chinese. You can save our planet and you know where to go.

Tell the jury about the production design / art direction.

It was a challenge to tell a story of how time passes by without losing the build of emotions. The art was the key for this. We tested out a variable of colors and tried to stick to a synthetic style. The color palette was created to reflect the different time changes and critical moments of the whale’s epic journey. Furthermore, we meticulously design the moments of a day, weather and the landscape details to echo the deep emotions of the characters. Character-design wise, we did several experiments in the body shape and the facial features to avoid over-cartoonish feel but acquire more innocent touch of the adult world. By implementing all the mentioned, we’re able to hook the viewers tightly to dive into the emotions, to resonate the friendship of the two characters and finally to act good for the world.