Chinese talent behind Disney heroine

Working as the "environment-look supervisor" of the film, Huang recalls that he joined the project around three years ago when there were just a few people engaged in the research and development work.

Huang says the film is entirely inspired from Southeast Asian culture, with one of the top highlights being the creative design of the fantasy world Kumandra, for which Huang's team is responsible for animating its surfaces and textures.

Featuring a geographical shape wearing the resemblance of a dragon, Kumandra is fictionalized to be a utopian kingdom where human beings and dragons live together in harmony. But an evil force-depicted as amorphous spirits born out of human conflict-brings an unprecedented threat, turning people into stones with a single touch.

Dragons sacrifice themselves to rescue the world, with the last dragon falling into a centuries-long sleep deep in a river. Around 500 years later, Raya-a tribe princess of one of the five lands in the divided Kumandra-embarks on an adventure to seek the last dragon, named Sisu, to reunite the lands and revive her father who is also a victim turned into a stone by the evil force.

Huang reveals that the last dragon's look was revised many times, with the creature's archetype inspired from the mythical Asian figure Naga, semi-divine beings that can manifest as serpent or human.

"So, the dragon is quite different from such creatures depicted in Chinese mythology, but you will find it is very cute and has a great sense of humor," explains Huang.