Magic Brush

Magic Brush
Directed by	Jin Xi (靳夕)
Release date	1954, 1955
Running time	20 mins
Country	China
Language	Mandarin

The Magic Brush is a Chinese animated stop-motion film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. There were two versions of the film.^[1] In 1954 the first film was called "Ma Liang and his Magic Brush" (Chinese: 神筆馬良). In 1955 the second film was called "Magic Brush" (Chinese: 神筆). They are also interchangeably referred to as the "Magic Pen" or "Magical Pen".

Story

A young and kind peasant boy named Ma Liang helped a rich man to tend cattle. He liked drawing and drew pictures everywhere and had the greatest dream to be an artist. He works very hard to achieve this dream even though he doesn't own a paintbrush.

As Ma Liang gets ready for bed one night, he looks at all his drawings. Just as he was about to doze of, an elderly wizard-magician appears to him and says that he has earned a brush. He tells Ma Liang to use this brush wisely because it has great power. Before Ma Liang can thank him, the magician vanished. To test the power, Ma Liang uses the brush to paint a rooster. When he paint the last feather, the rooster comes to life and flies off. Ma Liang realizes the power of the brush and remembers the words of the wizard. He promises to use the brush wisely and help other people.

From that day on, Ma Liang used the paintbrush to help others with their needs or troubles. When he saw that people had no water to use in the fields, he drew a river which instantly becomes real where they can draw water from to take to the field and save a lot of time and energy. Ma Liang drew cows and water buffalos which came to life, and farmers used these animals to till lands easily.

Many people knew about the magic paintbrush, one of which was a powerful mandarin, a government official, who pays a visit to Ma Liang and invites him to his home. The mandarin was a selfish and arrogant bad man who had an idea to steal the paint brush from the boy. He knew that he could make a lot of money by turning things to life and keeping them. The mandarin commands Ma Liang to paint a pile of silver and gold coins for him but the latter refuses due to his promise to the magician to use he brush wisely. The mandarin orders him imprisoned in a dungeon.

In the dungeon, Ma Liang discovers the innocence of his fellow prisoners and their reason of being unjustly imprisoned; the mandarin wanted to seize their lands. That night, after the prison guards and their captain were asleep, Ma Liang uses his magic brush to paint a door which later opens, allowing him and the other innocent people to escape silently. The guards awaken only to fail as Ma Liang painted a horse to escape quickly.

Ma Liang continues to use his magic brush to help people. He paints toys for children, paints a river and water wheel to irrigate farms, and more useful tools to ease people's work. However, the mandarin finds Ma Liang and takes away his brush. After ordering that Ma Liang be imprisoned once more, he invites a lot of his friends to come to his home and shows them the magic paintbrush. He drew a lot of pictures, of which none became real. The mandarin then orders the court painter to paint a tree with leaves of gold on a wall, but when he tries to shake the tree, the mandarin only bumped his head since the tree was nothing but a painting.

Realizing in anger that the pictures would become real when Ma Liang paints, the mandarin orders his men to send for Ma Lian. He offers Ma Liang his freedom if he paints a mountain of gold. Discovering the mandarin's deception, Ma Liang devises a plan to trick the greedy mandarin and agrees by telling the mandarin to have patience and obey his words. He paints a sea much to the mandarin's dismay but Ma Liang assures him that he is trying to make his work impressive. After the boy paints a golden mountain in the distance, the mandarin happily appreciates his work and asks him to paint a ship for him and his men to gather the gold.

The mandarin and his men hurry aboard the ship. When they are at the middle of the sea, the mandarin tells Ma Liang to give him wind to increase the ship's speed. Ma Liang paints a wind cloud and then continues to paint storm clouds. A horrified mandarin calls out to Ma Liang to ease the weather saying that he and his men and friends would die. But Ma Liang defies orders and continued to paint more storm clouds. Giants waves crash the ship and the vessel breaks then sinks, drowning the mandarin and his friends.

Ma Lien goes back to his simple life and lived happily with his family. He always becomes ready to help everyone in need. Although he continues to do more artworks, he occasionally uses his magic paintbrush. Not a single person dared Ma Liang to use his magic brush for evil purposes and greedy wishes. So the magic paintbrush was known by everyone.

Adaptations

The story has been readapted a number of times by Chinese authors, common versions include the story of the same name from author Han Xing as well as Hong Xuntao. There are also American versions in "Tye May and the Magic Brush" by Molly Bang.

• The Magic Paintbrush, written by Liz Miles, illustrated by Meilo So (Oxford University Press, 2011).
• The Magic Paintbrush, written by Jillian Powell (Wayland, 2011).
• The Magic Paintbrush, written by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Joel Stewart (Igloo, Macmillan, 2004).
• The Magic Paintbrush, written by Laurence Yep, illustrated by Suling Wang (Harper Collins, 2000).
• The Magic Paintbrush, written by Robin Muller (Viking Kestrel, 1990).
• Tye May and the Magic Brush, by Molly Bang (HarperCollins, 1980).
• The Magic Paintbrush, adapted by Fran Hunia from the traditional tale, illustrated by Martin Aitchison (Ladybird Books, 1970s)

Awards

• Won the outstanding film award in the 1957 Poland Warsaw International Film Festival children's competition.
• Won the children's entertainment films award at the Venice, Italy 8th International Children's Film Festival
• Won the silver award at the Damascus, Syrian 1st International Film Festival Expo
• Won the outstanding children's film award at the Belgrade Yugoslavia 1st International Children's Film Festival
• Recognized at the Canada 2nd Stratford International Film Festival awards
• In 1955 awarded for outstanding film by China's Ministry of Culture.

Creators

See also

• List of stop-motion films

References

External links

• The 1954 film at China's Movie Database
• The 1955 film at China's Movie Database