White Snake is a 2019 Chinese fantasy animated film about a thousand year old white snake spirit who loses her memory and falls in love with a boy from a snake-catcher village.
From Fantasia Festival 2019: White Snake is the first Chinese animated film produced by Warner Bros., in collaboration with the Beijing animation studio Light Chaser. It retells the story of the Legend of the White Snake, a popular story that has been adapted into many forms of art and entertainment from TV series to movies to opera and more. White Snake is an origin story of the White Snake spirit and how legendary romance came to be.
It begins with the White Snake spirit, called Blanca (voiced by Zhang Zhe), sent from her snake clan to defeat the evil General who wants to absorb the vitality and souls of snake spirits so that he can have black magic and use it to achieve immortality, but fails in the process. Being saved by Xuan (voiced by Tianxiang Yang) and brought to the snake-catcher village, her amnesia makes her believe that she is human, discovering her powers and finding her memories back gradually. Caught between her sister Verta, who has promised to bring her back, the snake clan who believes that she has betrayed them, and the General hunting her down for her thousand-year soul, Blanca’s feelings for Xuan grows stronger though at the same time, she is faced with having to fulfill her duties for her species. White Snake ends where most retellings would start.
The White Snake story is familiar territory for those who know Chinese folklore. However, the animated world of China isn’t. This is where White Snake truly shines: in its visually-stunning imagery paired up with its use of traditional Chinese music. The details and movement in the expressions of nature especially are impressive, while several action sequences make White Snake a real work of art. The use of authentic Chinese painting styles in the opening scenes along with backdrops that resemble many famous landscapes give this a stylistic and beautiful edge.
The story doesn’t take the easy path either, despite its frequent retelling. Those familiar with the tale will definitely know where the romance is going and the torturous love between them, however while the film spends a lot of time between Blanca and Xuan, it’s more of an exploration of their knowledge of each other (for the most part) and a quest to find her memory. The romance isn’t forced and we can connect with it easily. While the couple are the heart of the story, it’s hard to not feel that the standout characters are comedic relief, Xuan’s dog, who can talk and a sly fox spirit, who runs the Precious Jade, literally two-faced in her design and clearly reflective of cunning nature in fox spirits in Chinese folklore. Plus, there are a lot of creative iterations of creatures to give it an extra boost in uniqueness.
White Snake is a spectacular animated film, beautiful to look at and a creative retelling that still does justice to the origin story of how Blanca meets Xuan, making for a smart prequel of sorts to the more traditional telling of The Legend of the White Snake. This is not a children’s film, despite its marketing, the story sensual and even sexual, keeping this one for the parents instead. Either way, it’s not to be missed, not only an animated film but a creative and inviting way to share Chinese folklore.