TV anchor He Jiong, who gave the voice-over for a terrier, Max, in the Mandarin version of The Secret Life of Pets, at a promotional event for the film in Beijing.[Photo by Jiang Dong/ China Daily]

Chen, who is the voice of the rabbit Snowball, agrees.

The Mandarin versions are keeping up with the times, says Chen, who spoke to reporters on July 31, adding that Chinese stars now have more freedom when doing the Mandarin versions.

Recalling his experience with Disney's Mulan (1998), he says that when he was doing the voice-over for the small dragon Mushu, he was told to closely follow the translation. He says he had to struggle to convince the American filmmakers to let him make a few revisions.

"I wanted to add some sounds like 'dong'. But they refused. They said: 'If Eddie Murphy didn't do it in the English version, why should you add it'," Chen told Mtime.com, a leading Chinese movie website.

But in The Secret Life of Pets, the actor had more freedom.

Though the American producers initially wanted him to be the voice of Duke, he insisted on Snowball, a more challenging and complex character.

China's burgeoning film market has seen a growing number of celebrities being used as "voices" in animation films.

Also, in the past three years, five, or one-fourth of the 19 overseas animation hits that have crossed the box-office threshold of 100 million yuan ($15 million), have used Chinese stars to do voice-overs in the films.

The Sino-French animation film, The Little Prince, had up to 11 Chinese stars doing voice-overs and the Sino-US production Kung Fu Panda 3 had 10 Chinese stars in its Mandarin version.

Contact the writer at xufan@chinadaily.com.cn