Born in China, a Sino-US production directed by Lu Chuan, will be released on the Chinese mainland on Friday.[Photo provided to China Daily]

A Disney-backed film on pandas, monkeys and snow leopards in China will hit theaters soon, Wang Kaihao reports. It is like Zootopia－but real.

Born in China, a production of Disneynature, an independent film unit of Walt Disney, and Shanghai-based SMG Pictures, is ready for release on the Chinese mainland on Friday.

The Chinese-language Sino-US production is directed by Lu Chuan.

"I am an animal lover, and I'm always ready to try something different," Lu, 45, said at a promotional event for the film in Beijing last week.

The film follows the daily lives of a panda and her daughter in Sichuan province's Wolong National Nature Reserve; a snow leopard family in Yushu county, Qinghai province; a group of golden snub-nosed monkeys in Hubei province's Shennongjia National Nature Reserve near the Yangtze River; and members of several other species.

Though the film is being called a documentary, perhaps it is better to describe it as a real-life adventure film based on its vivid narration and the use of voice-over.

Lu began directing in 2002 with the thriller The Missing Gun and went on to direct City of Life and Death, a 2009 film on the Nanjing Massacre. Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (2004), his film on the conflict between rangers and poachers in Qinghai's Kekexili, is still considered among the best Chinese films on environmental protection.