''The Cowboy's Flute'' (Chinese: 牧笛, Mu Di) is a Chinese animated

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

produced by

Shanghai Animation Film Studio Shanghai Animation Film Studio () also known as SAFS () is a Chinese animation studio based in Shanghai, China, as part of the Shanghai Film Group Corporation. Shanghai Animation Film Studio was officially established in April, 1957, led by pion ...

under the master animator

Te Wei Te Wei (; in Shanghai in Shanghai) was a Chinese manhua artist and animator. He is probably best known for the 1956 short animated film ''The Proud General''. From about 1960, he worked in an ink-wash animation style that was influenced by the pai ...

. It is also referred to as ''The Cowherd's Flute'' and ''The Buffalo Boy and his Flute''.

Background

The film does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be watched by any culture. The animation is essentially

Chinese painting Chinese painting () is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as ''guó huà'' (), meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western style ...

in motion,Toon Zone.
Toon Zone
." "The Cowboys Flute." Retrieved on 2007-01-11. with a heavy emphasis on the flute melody.

Story

The story is about a young cow herding boy with an extraordinary flute playing ability, who is accompanied by his faithful

water buffalo The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called the domestic water buffalo or Asian water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also found in Europe, Australia, North America, So ...

. The boy falls asleep in a tree, and is soon dreaming that he has lost his buffalo. The dream sequence is delightfully whimsical, beginning with falling leaves that turn into butterflies and gradually lead the cow herder to a beautiful mist-filled valley. Here the buffalo refuses to budge from his hiding spot, leaving the cow herder to find an alternate musical solution to his problem.

DVD

The DVD has been re-released as part of the ''Chinese Classic Animation Te Wei Collection'' set.

Awards

More than a decade after its completion, the film would win an award at the

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 20 ...

International Film Festival in 1979.

References

External links

*
The film at China's Movie Database
1963 films 1960s animated short films Chinese animated short films Animated films without speech Films directed by Te Wei 1963 animated films {{short-animation-film-stub