The Feature Film
Baby Silkworm and the Alien Invasion is a charming tale about the importance of elders passing on their values, stories and culture to the younger generation. Although it highlights the beauty of ancient Chinese culture, it will also help grandparents, parents and elders of all nations to understand the importance of teaching traditions to the young. If they do this well, their identity will be preserved and not disappear in this time of endless entertainment and technology bombarding our children and undermining traditional values.
Along with being delightfully entertaining, the film also teaches:
The Story
Our story begins in a beautiful futuristic Chinese city of glass and steel in the year 2144. Every night Qing Shan enjoys sitting at her Grandpa Han’s silk loom and asking him to weave and sing a story. Tonight, Qing Shan begs for a story about dragons! Grandpa Han is reluctant, but finally agrees. He begins to weave and sing a tale about his own childhood in the year 2000. Han was a shy child bullied by neighbor boys. As a boy, they called him “Baby Silkworm” and were cruel to him. Since he had no friends, he often would talk to imaginary friends. One night an imaginary friend talks back!
Our story begins in a beautiful futuristic Chinese city of glass and steel in the year 2144. Every night Qing Shan enjoys sitting at her Grandpa Han’s silk loom and asking him to weave and sing a story. Tonight, Qing Shan begs for a story about dragons! Grandpa Han is reluctant, but finally agrees. He begins to weave and sing a tale about his own childhood in the year 2000. Han was a shy child bullied by neighbor boys. As a boy, they called him “Baby Silkworm” and were cruel to him. Since he had no friends, he often would talk to imaginary friends. One night an imaginary friend talks back!
Evil Admiral Ka and his brother Ra are in a contest to see who can conquer 12 planets first and ascend to the throne as ruler of the galaxies. Admiral Ka has already conquered 11 worlds, imprisoning their sages and collecting all of their ancient stories, songs, art and monuments. He shrinks these prizes into jewels and wears them as trophies around his neck.
Admiral Ka only needs one more conquest – the pale blue watery planet Earth – to beat his brother to the throne. Ka has saved Earth for last, because the judges who will crown him king are an ancient race of shape-shifting water owls called the Wowels. Admiral Ka believes that by presenting Earth to them, they will unanimously give him the throne. As Master Han spins his story, a giant black hole that looks like a watery eye opens in space. The Wowels, frozen in blocks of black shimmering ice, beam aboard Ka’s dragon ship to observe the “harvest” of the planet and prepare for Ka’s coronation.
Young Ka-An has been sent to earth as a spy to bring his father information on the richest of the ancient cultures for his harvest. Ka-An visited all of the civilizations on earth over the last three years and has decided that Chinese culture is the oldest and the culture must be harvested first and erased from all memories, then the Earth can be conquered!
Baby Silkworm was an orphan on the streets when he was adopted as an apprentice to another silk-weaving story teller, Master Han. During his spy mission, Ka-An has fallen in love with Master Han’s songs, stories, weaving and… cooking. He often sits window of Master Han’s traditional home, enjoying evenings of ancient stories, wisdom and songs. He also often steals left-over food. He especially loves Chinese tofu and thinks it is the best in the universe!
Ka-An’s mother died years ago, and his Admiral father is too busy conquering worlds to spend much time with him. He has no time for stories, songs and play with his son.
When Baby Silkworm befriends Ka-An and finds out about the plot to conquer Earth, he tries to convince the alien boy to stop the invasion. While Ka-An is away on earth, Admiral Ka’s brother, Ra, uses trickery to steal Ka’s 11 planets. He speeds up his plans to harvest Earth, capturing all of the ancient songs, stories and art, beaming them up to his Dragon Ship to be shrunk into his 12th jewel on his necklace. He plans to replace all of the ancient stories, treasures and songs on earth with monuments and songs to himself. The only stories the enslaved children of Earth will know will be stories of Ra’s conquests and songs of his power. He will erase all of Earth’s cultural riches and memories, because “if they lose their stories, they will not lose their past. They will lose their future!”
Believing hope is lost, Master Han trains 12 disciples, imbedding the ancient Chinese stories and songs into their minds. He sends them out into the countryside to be hidden away until the danger has passed. Maybe one day they will return and restore the ancient stories of China to the people? Through Ra’s deceit and trickery, Master Han and all of his disciples are captured and taken to the Dragon Ship to have their memories and songs erased, one by one, with a mind-erasing machine.
The Music
Here’s a rough of “Wood Feeds Fire” to give you a hint of the flavor prior to adding the Chinese Instrumentation and a national symphony orchestra.
The music for “Baby Silkworm and the Alien Invasion” is both beautiful and humorous. Written by Dr. Rich Melheim, the music will be composed, orchestrated, and directed by award-winning maestros Zhiming Han of www.chinesemusic.us and Tom Brooks www.tombrooksmusic.com or the silver screen.
Songs include:
New Silk Road Studios
Baby Silkworm will capture hearts and imaginations of children across the globe and introduce them to the timeless tales of Chinese culture. It begins with the 3D feature film “Baby Silkworm and the Alien Invasion” and will spin off into a children’s television series and educational online connections to music, learning games, language lessons and more.
For the television show, you can teach your children the richness of Chinese culture with bright and beautiful stories told in top quality animation, songs and games. Each week Grandpa Silkworm sits down at his loom to weave a timeless tale to Cán Bao Bao (Baby Silkworm) in music and rhyme.
Every episode will be created with award-winning Hollywood and Chinese musicians, advisors and animation studios.