AMERICAN BORN CHINESE/ Promotion

Disney+

Take a journey between worlds in the new Disney+ series, “American Born Chinese.” Based on the beloved graphic novel by the same name, “American Born Chinese” is known for being one of the best modern depictions of the intersection between Chinese and American cultures. We worked with Disney on the development of the in-production promotion GFX. This story is a blast. With elements of the real mixed with the fantastical, it is set through the life of a teenager whose life is turned upside down when he is placed into battle with mythical Chinese Gods. Channeling a show this action packed into a treatment has its creative challenges, mainly for the reason that there were so many pieces of inspiration to choose from.

The concept we landed on was based in a stylized version of a traditional Chinese chop, a stamp used to replace a signature. Within the chops, we feature some of the iconic characters and elements from the story. Mixing the physical nature of the chop and the textures of the paper gave a strong connection to the real world, and allowed for characters like ‘The Monkey King’ - Daniel Wu and ‘Guanyin’ - Michelle Yeoh to really pop.

CONCEPT EXPLORATION

The creative challenge of having so many themes and elements to play with was that there was a wide range to explore. As the story has graphic novel roots, some concepts played a little closer to accenting that, while others went a little more on brand Disney. Each idea was crafted to work well with the featurette and promo footage, and be iconic in its own right.