For most Chinese filmmakers, 2016 was a disappointing year.

The country's once rapidly expanding movie market encountered an unprecedented slowdown. But animated features - the genre that was for a long time seen as children's fare - provided a glimmer of hope in the chilly winter.

Latest figures show China's 2016 box-office total was up just 3.73 percent from 2015, lower than the average year-on-year growth rate of over 30 percent between 2010 and 2015. Besides, seven months in 2016 saw negative growth compared with the same period a year earlier.