Writer-director Mu Zhengyang’s All Wishes Come True! Is China’s #1 box hit of 2026, earning more than 1.5 billion yuan (US $222 million) at the mainland Chinese box office since opening on July 18. It opened in the US in August. 

The film is based loosely on a story that assumed its most familiar form during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1944), although the roots of the tale reach far back into Chinese history. The Eight Taoist Immortals are powerful individuals, each of whom controls some magical implement. Over the centuries, these characters have been depicted in paintings, sculptures, murals, novels, films and even martial arts exercises. Zhengyang’s film adds a modern twist: The Immortals are humans crooks, as if the cast of DreamWorks’ Bad Guys had begun studying the nature of the Tao.

Director Zhengyang and executive producer Catherine Yin, the CEO of Pearl Studio, which also produced Kung Fu Pada 3 and Abominable, discussed their work during a recent trip to Century City. The director spoke through an interpreter; Ms. Yin spoke English.

Animation Scoop: Why do you think the story of the Taoist Immortals has lasted so long in Chinese culture?

 Mu Zhengyang: As we were doing the research, we found a lot of different versions of the story of the Eight Immortals. We wondered why the story has so many different versions and why it’s constantly evolving over the years. We think the reason is that storytellers have always been trying to make the story include more ordinary people. The story has become more and more rich and inclusive from the efforts to add distinct, ordinary people.

AM: At more than 140 minutes, All Wishes Come True! Is much longer than most American animated films. Are Chinese audiences and producers more receptive to the idea of a longer animated film?

MZ: In the Chinese film market right now, the animation has been more and more leaning towards the live-action. Audiences and producers do not really have criteria for animation. For example, having an animated film fit a specific time. As live-action and animation have become more and more similar, there is a very strong competition between the two.

Catherine Yin:  As Director Mu has just said, in China, audiences and the market has been treating animated movies more like live-action movies. It’s not like a live-action movie should have two hours long, and animated movies should be an hour and a half.

CY: People are so used to watching their cell phones, short videos, etc., I think they expect more story content in a theatrical movie. If the film is only an hour and a half, they will feel unsatisfied. If you give them two hours, or two and a half hours of a good story, they will feel more satisfied: It was worth the price of their ticket.

CY: I was the person in charge of green lighting this project. My first priority was it had to be a good story. There’s no real limitation of how long the film has to be.  We should be open and open-minded to see what is the best format and time to support the story.

AS: Did director Mu begin with a script or a storyboard? Did he storyboard the film himself?

CY: Director Mu wrote the original story and script. When we met together for the first time, I was attracted to the treatment  he’d written. I knew from his writing we turn the story into a very beautiful animated film.

MZ: I didn’t really personally develop the storyboard, but I led the team to develop the storyboard. Some Japanese animators, because their work is two-dimensional, would rather finish it by themselves. But for our work, which is very mature, industrialized three-dimensional animation, I needed to focus my priorities elsewhere, for example, the rhythm between the storyboard and the editing.

AS: Of the two main characters, Zhongli Quan begins as a thief and a bit of a rogue; was it a challenge to keep him sympathetic. Conversely, Lu Dong-yin has very noble intentions—it’s so easy for a noble character to seem dull in animation.

MZ: These two characters make each other more complete. Zhongli Quane seems like a thief or a thug from the beginning. But he also carries the comedic elements for the first part of the movie. Conversely, Lu Dong-yin can seem a little cold and a even little dull. But between the two of them, there’s a balance. The relationship between them two also references the literature: Zhongli Quan was the person who inspired Lu Dong-bin to become an Immortal.

AS: There’s a lot of exciting action sequences in the film with complex camera movements and elaborate special effects…

ZM: The fighting motions are so elegant because we took inspiration from traditional kung fu motions, which are really beautiful. When when we were developing the camera movements as well as the character motions, we wanted them to have the sense of the characters as ordinary people. They’re not people with superpowers fighting each other. But they keep doing this for their mission, which reflects their courage and their goodwill.

AS: Would you ever be interested in doing a two dimensional film?

ZM: I’d look forward to it. But in China, there are not a lot of people who are still working on 2D films.

CY: So much is done in CG, fewer and fewer people in China are doing 2D animation. I know as a studio executive, it’s really, really hard to find the people who can actually do it. Sometimes you have to go to Japan to find people who can draw it.

CY: The beginning of our movie is two dimensional. The director insisted on making this part 2D. It’s only about one minute long, but it was really, really hard to do.