Earlier this month, a curious looking, zero-budget computer generated cartoon began captivating people’s imagination. Niu Lai is a rough around the edges animated feature made by a mother and son team. At first a viral laughingstock, it seems this cow is now laughing all the way to the bank, as the infamy has rocketed the scrappy flick into millions at Chinese box offices.
Roughly translated to “Here Comes The Cow,” Niu Lai follows a timid calf separated from his family, encountering dangers and trials on his way home. Discovering the strength to be brave along the way. Also, it has the production quality of Rapsittie Kids. At first, the film was a laughing stock, and had reportedly only sold 300 tickets. But even that was an immediate return on investment. The humble Odyssey was created by mother and son duo Xin Yumeng and Sun Lifang for a budget of $200.
Running the cost of a birthday dinner, the film had no marketing budget to speak of, leaving cinemas that did run it to hand draw their own marketing material. Between its rudimentary CGI, poor sales and doodled posters, the film went viral around the world. While international audiences may have caught it on pirated handycam bootlegs, domestically this handsome cow is punching way above its weight. Just a week after the jokes and jabs, box offices are reporting a haul of four million, or 20,000 times its budget. This would make it one of the most profitable movies of all time, even toppling the recent dark horse hit Obsession.
At a budget that could cover two standard edition copies of Grand Theft Auto VI, it’s hard to imagine a better performance than this. Niu Lai is ugly, yes, but it’s hand crafted ugly. As AI monopolizes ugly things from talentless hacks with carbon copied nightmares, this is the kind of ugly that will become tragically rare. The fact that audiences are rallying around it suggests this computer calf will be appreciated as a golden one.