Family in focus in third installment of goat and wolf saga

Moon Castle - The Space Adventure, the third installment of the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf animation film premiered on Friday in the Chinese mainland.

The third installment of the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf animation film is expected to rake in more than 150 million yuan ($23 million) at the box office.

Entitled Moon Castle - The Space Adventure, the film premiered on Friday in the Chinese mainland.

It will premiere in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan later in 2011, says Yu Tak-wai, creative director of the film and deputy general manager of Guangzhou-based Creative Power Entertaining Co (CPE), one of the producers.

In the latest installment, the goats, and by accident, the family of Willie the wolf, land on the moon in a candy-shaped spaceship to help the rabbit-shaped Queen of the Moon drive away Bitter Gourd King and his gourd troopers, who are destroying the World of Sweetness with bitter juice.

While children can drool over the pudding, jelly, ice cream, candy waterfall and lollipops in the World of Sweetness, parents will find it opportune to convey to them that life is a mix of bitterness and sweetness.

Willie the Wolf's love for his wife and son, captured by Bitter Gourd King, as well as the tears of the hero Weslie the Goat at his first virtual sight of his heroic parents, are bound to move both kids and their parents.

Fathers may empathize with Willie the Wolf who has to contend with his castle overrun by fighting wolves, his wife expecting a baby and his repeated failure to catch the goats.

The 85-minute film also draws on a Chinese fairy tale about a rabbit and the moon maiden Chang'e, as the Year of Rabbit draws closer.

"Unlike the mostly fun plots in the previous two sequels, we play up the love theme this time," Yu says, in keeping with the focus on family during the Spring Festival.

The film tries to link to the real world through the use of the hit words of the Internet in 2010, such as geili (giving power), fuyun (floating cloud) and beiju (tragedy). Besides, the film also has a 3D touch.

Meanwhile, a number of Hong Kong entertainment stars lend their voices to the leading characters in the Cantonese-language version of the film, including Kate Tsui Tsz-shan, Michael Tse Tin-wah and Makbau Mak Cheung-ching.

The previous two installments of the film drew 100 million yuan and 128 million yuan respectively.