Animation featuring Sanxingdui culture set to hit big screen

The first animated movie to feature China's Sanxingdui culture will hit the big screen in the country on Dec. 29.

The national premiere of "Heroes of the Golden Mask" was held on Dec. 23 in Chengdu, the capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The movie features Lixian, the daughter of a guardian in the ancient Sanxingdui city. She carries the golden mask of Sanxingdui entrusted to her by her father, and travels through time to find a boy called Charlie. A team of five teenage heroes is later formed, and they embark on a series of adventures while defeating evil.

The movie blends ancient Sanxingdui cultural elements with modern creation techniques, said Yuan Shijun, deputy general manager of the Sichuan Cultural Industry Investment Group, the movie's producer.

It conveys the cultural essence of Sanxingdui and the ancient Shu Kingdom, showcasing the artistic characteristics and mysteries of the Sanxingdui civilization, Yuan said at the premiere.

Discovered in the late 1920s in Sichuan, the Sanxingdui Ruins have been called one of the world's greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. They cover an area of 12 square km and are believed to be the remnants of the Shu Kingdom, dating back some 3,000 to 4,500 years. To date, more than 50,000 bronze, jade, gold, pottery and ivory artifacts have been unearthed at the site.