Where is Mama

Where is Mama also known as Where's Mama (Chinese: 小蝌蚪找妈妈; lit. 'Little Tadpoles Looking for Mama'), is a short Chinese animated film produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio in 1960 under the artistic guidance of Te Wei. The narrated film describes the adventures and misadventures of a group of tadpoles in search of their mother.^[1] It is one of Te Wei's first attempts to break away from Western style animation and aim for a painterly style influenced by Qi Baishi and more in keeping with native Chinese aesthetic sensibilities. Because of its simple story line and repetitive script it is ideal for children who are beginning their study of the Chinese language.

The film tells the story of a frog mother who leaves after laying tadpole eggs. The eggs slowly grow tails and turn into a group of tadpoles. After their shrimp father-in-law describes the characteristics of their mother, they decide to look for her. Along the way, they mistake goldfish, crabs, turtles, and catfish for their mother. Finally, the tadpoles find their mother.

In October 2021, Xigua Video and Volcano Engine announced that they would spend one year repairing 100 classic animations and use technology to restore these classic works to the greatest extent possible. "Tadpole Looking for Mom" was among these animations.^[2]

Since the beginning of the last century, traditional cultural elements such as Chinese painting, paper-cutting, and shadow puppets have been widely used in animation production. Popular domestic animations such as "Tadpole Looking for Mom" have attracted a large number of fans around the world.^[3]

Characters

Tadpole

After the tadpoles were born, they started to play around. They first met the chicks and saw the chicks and the chicken mother together. After being stimulated, they started to look for their mothers. They met first, the shrimp father-in-law asked about the appearance of the frog mother, and then met crabs, turtles, goldfish, catfish, and finally meet the frog mother who rescues the tadpoles from the catfish.

Chicken family

The chick and the tadpole became good friends, and then the mother chicken came to look for the chick. The tadpole thought of its mother and started looking for her.

Mr. Shrimp

The tadpoles met Father Shrimp first and asked him about their mother's appearance. Father Shrimp told them that their mother had two big eyes.

Goldfish

Because they have two big eyes, the tadpoles happily call the goldfish "Mom" when they see it, but the goldfish says that the tadpole's mother has a white belly.

Crab

Because they have white bellies, when the tadpoles see a crab with a white belly, they all call the crab "Mom", but the crabs say that their mother only has four legs.

Turtle family

Because it has four legs, the tadpoles saw that the turtle had exactly four legs and thought that the turtle was their mother. However, the little turtle said that this was its mother because it looked the same as the mother.

Creators

English Production	Crew	Original Version	Romanized
Art Direction	艺术指导	特伟	Te Wei
Technical Guidance	技术指导	钱家骏	Qian Jiajun
Animation Design	动画设计	唐澄 邬强 严定宪 徐景达 戴铁郎 矫野松 林文肖 段浚 蒲家祥 吕晋 杨素英 葛桂云	Tang Cheng Qiang Qiang Yan Dingxian Xu Jingda Dai Tielang Jiao Yesong Lin Wenxiao Duan Yi Pu Jiaxiang Lu Jin Yang Suying Ge Guiyun
Background Design	背景设计	郑少如 方澎年	Zheng Shaoru Fang Yurian
Photography	摄影	段孝萱 游涌 王世荣	Duan Xiaoyu You Yong Wang Shirong
Composer	作曲	吴应炬	Wu Yingju