Tadpoles Looking for Mom is the first ink cartoon produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio in China, in which the animal model is based on the image of fish and shrimp created by painter Qi Baishi. The prototype of the protagonist tadpole comes from Qi Baishi's famous ink painting "Frogs Ten Miles Away from Mountain Springs".
The film tells the story that mother frog left after giving birth to tadpoles' eggs, and a group of tadpoles went to find their mother according to the mother characteristics described by father shrimp. Along the way, they mistook goldfish, crabs, turtles and catfish for mothers. Finally, the tadpoles finally found their mother.
The film "Little Tadpole Looking for Mom" is only 15 minutes long, but it combines the traditional ink painting skills of China with animation. Its greatest innovation and breakthrough is to make China's unique "ink painting" move, showing the charm of China's landscape painting. Different forms of aquatic creatures are vividly portrayed, and the joy of childlike innocence is vividly turned into light and shadow art, and the expression of Chinese style forms the aesthetic expression of animation.
"Little Tadpole Looking for Mom" has won the admiration of international animation circles for its meticulous ink painting and delicate action design. He won the Silver Sail Award for Short Film in the 4th Locarno International Film Festival and the Special Award for Short Film in the 4th Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France. This is not only the accumulation and precipitation of China's traditional artistic spirit for decades by the older generation of animators on the thick soil of traditional ink and wash art in China, but also the crystallization inspired by China's traditional aesthetic concept.