What made 60,000+ young audiences fall in love with an animated film about Vietnamese spiritual culture?
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Project: Có Thờ Có Thiêng
Genre: Explainer
Studio Role: IP creation, Production & Distribution
Distribution Channel: Youtube - DeeDee Animation Originals
Có Thờ Có Thiêng is an animated film produced by DeeDee, in occasion of Lunar New Year 2023. It explores the cultural and spiritual meanings behind Vietnamese ancestor worship rituals, such as incense offering and altar arrangement.
Instead of taking the usual serious approach, the film adopts a humorous and relatable perspective, creating a fresh and accessible experience, especially for younger audiences. This storytelling choice helped the film gain over 60,000 likes across platforms, along with many positive comments from viewers who found it both “familiar” and “authentically Vietnamese,” yet surprisingly witty in its execution.
This is an original IP fully developed and produced in-house by DeeDee, from concept and scriptwriting to final production. The film was released on the studio’s YouTube channel.
Challenge
Nowadays, many cultural elements are widely known but not deeply understood, especially among younger generations. Some even perceive these spiritual practices as outdated traditions and feel disconnected from them.
DeeDee set out to become a bridge helping younger audiences better understand these meaningful beliefs through animation, connecting cultural values with modern viewers.
The biggest challenge of the project was finding the fine balance between tradition and modernity.
If approached too seriously like a documentary, the film could deliver knowledge but fail to engage younger audiences. In reality, many videos of such have already exist but struggle to capture attention due to dense information and abstract concepts.
On the other hand, leaning too heavily into trends or Gen Z language might make the content feel too playful or even disrespectful towards cultural and spiritual topics.
Additionally, DeeDee has already established a distinct identity through culturally rich content. This raised a central question for the project:
“How can Vietnamese cultural beauty be communicated in a humorous, relatable way, while still maintaining balance and respect?”
Solution
The project was developed from December 2022 and completed in January 2023, involving 6 background artists and 20 animators. Within a tight year-end timeline, it became a highly collaborative effort across the team.
The production followed a full pipeline:
Concept → Script → Storyboard → Background & Character Design → Animation → Compositing & Sound
At every stage, the team continuously worked toward maintaining that crucial balance.
Script
The script was developed by director Đặng Hải Quang, based on years of research and personal experience with spiritual practices. This deep understanding ensured both accuracy and meaningful depth.
The film takes the form of an educational explainer, while maintaining a light and entertaining tone.
The film takes the form of an educational explainer, while maintaining a light and entertaining tone.
The script successfully delivers knowledge while keeping viewers engaged, thanks to its conversational storytelling style:
The main character mirrors the audience, reducing distance: explaining to the character is essentially explaining to the viewer
Addressing both the character and audience as “buddy” from the very first line creates a friendly atmosphere
Incorporating trendy concepts like the “multiverse portal,” popularized by Hollywood superhero films at the time
Within the first 60 seconds, multiple familiar and engaging keywords are introduced, effectively capturing attention early on.
The film also integrates many interesting details throughout both dialogue and visuals. A standout moment is the explanation of the Western Pure Land, presented as a livestream filled with comment-based Easter eggs referencing Buddhist stories. This becomes one of the most rewatched segments.
Storyboard - Animatic
Given the spiritual nature of the topic, many abstract concepts needed to be visualized in a way that felt both fresh and accurate.
After the script was finalized, the storyboard team worked on translating these ideas visually. The imagery not only illustrates concepts but also acts as a parallel layer of storytelling, helping viewers absorb information more intuitively.
This process involved extensive brainstorming, with the team remaining open to change in pursuit of the most effective approach.
A notable highlight is the integration of modern elements like CCTV cameras or Minecraft-inspired visuals into traditional settings. These details added humor, relatability, and boosted audience engagement in the comments.
At the same time, composition and pacing were carefully handled to ensure viewers could focus on the main action while naturally absorbing secondary information, avoiding overload from dialogue alone.
Character Design
Character design developed alongside the storyboard process.
Since the film involves spiritual and religious figures such as Buddhas and deities, typically portrayed as distant and solemn, the challenge was to make them more approachable without losing cultural respect and recognizability.
The team explored multiple approaches to find the right balance.
Instead of maintaining traditional solemn portrayals, characters were stylized in a more approachable, slightly chibi-inspired direction, with expressive emotions and occasional humor.
Background
Following the same principle, backgrounds retained core traditional elements while being visually adapted to suit modern aesthetics.
Artists used real-life references to ensure authenticity, resulting in environments rich with Vietnamese identity: featuring details like red-tiled roofs, yellow walls, and blue window frames.
Spiritual objects were also carefully researched to maintain accuracy and consistency.
Beyond setting the scene, backgrounds included hidden Easter eggs that added depth and replay value.
Animation
Although ancestor worship is familiar in daily life, its deeper meanings are not widely understood among younger audiences. This required an engaging approach—not only in content but also in pacing and animation.
To meet tight deadlines while maintaining dynamic motion, the project primarily used rig animation.
Clear guidelines and briefs were established to ensure consistency and efficiency throughout production.
Some 3D elements were also integrated in specific scenes (such as the DNA sequence) to enhance visual depth.
For FX, the team created dedicated briefs for each type of element, ensuring consistency while supporting both animators and compositors.
Overall, the animation style focused on flexibility, expressiveness, and humor—featuring exaggerated actions, bold expressions, and occasionally non-physical movements to maintain engagement.
Sound
As an original project, early voice demos were recorded in-house, allowing for flexible experimentation during development.
Sound effects played a crucial role in maintaining rhythm and viewer attention. Given the dialogue-heavy nature of an explainer video, sound was used to emphasize information and enhance the liveliness of each scene.
Results
Có Thờ Có Thiêng was released on DeeDee’s YouTube channel on January 21, 2023, during Lunar New Year, as a 9-minute video and quickly received positive audience feedback.
The film not only gained over 60,000 likes but also received numerous heartfelt comments expressing appreciation, emotional connection, and cultural pride.
“When watching the final scene, I found myself in tears from missing my hometown, the village festivals, the grave visits, and the rice fields. Now, being over 10,000 kilometers away, I long every day to return home.”
““I’m not sure if the team will ever read this, but I truly want to thank you for such a thoughtful and well-crafted work centered on Vietnamese culture. From the content, the creative use of language, to the harmony with the animation, it kept me in awe throughout, especially the final line: ‘You are your ancestors, and your ancestors are you'; or the idea that lighting incense is a way of expressing connection and humility also deeply resonated with me. I can’t fully put into words all the emotions or the details that stayed with me after watching, just wanted to send lots of love and wish the team great health. I truly hope to see more high-quality works like this in the future. With all my respect!"
These responses are the clearest proof that DeeDee succeeded in creating meaningful content that truly resonates with its audience.
The project reflects DeeDee’s long-term direction: not chasing short-term trends, but focusing on creating lasting value.
Even after more than three years, the film continues to grow steadily, reaching nearly 400,000 views. For a nearly 10-minute content piece, this is strong recognition of both its educational value and entertainment appeal.
Through Có Thờ Có Thiêng, DeeDee Animation Studio once again demonstrates its ability, not only in animation production, but also in handling complex and sensitive topics, finding the right perspective to make them accessible, engaging, and meaningful for audiences of all ages.