Here Comes the Bull!

In August 2026, the Chinese animated film 'Niu Lai' (牛來) rapidly gained popularity, becoming a viral meme phenomenon across the internet with its 'extremely bad' visual effects. This work was self-taught and produced over 5 years by director Xin Yumeng, who had no professional animation background, and his mother, Sun Lifang. From 3D modeling, texturing, motion capture, to voice acting and music, it exhibits extremely stiff and awkward handmade traces. However, in an era where AI-generated technology is exquisite yet homogenized, this crudeness, which 'even AI couldn't draw,' is instead seen by netizens as an absurd aesthetic with a strong 'human touch.' Although the film's initial box office performance was dismal, it achieved a surprising turnaround due to fan-made edited screenshots and a 'reverse-curiosity' trend online. The stills of the little yellow calf were widely adopted by stock and crypto traders as prayer emojis symbolizing 'the bull market is coming.' The scene where the protagonist trips over a rock was sarcastically nicknamed 'Ban Dao Ti' (絆導體), a pun on 'semiconductor.' From hand-drawn posters by cinema employees across China to various community memes, 'Niu Lai' has evolved from a low-budget animation into an internet-wide meme carnival.