Permanent Collection

Watch Chen Wu’s Beautiful Short Film “Leave The Island”

Posted on Monday, June 22, 2026

London-based illustrator and animation director Chen Wu just sent his new short film “Leave The Island”, a quietly beautiful tale about “departure, transformation, and the quiet traces that memory leaves behind.”

Widely acclaimed on the festival circuit as well as in the Communication Arts Illustration Annual 66, the film is a personal work that extends the finely drafted surrealism found in his commercial for work clients including Nike, Adobe, Forbes, Indeed, Wacom, and Harvard Business Review.

“Inspired by personal experiences of relocation and cultural transition, the film explores themes of belonging, loss, and change.”

Chen Wu: “‘Leave The Island’ combines graphic design, illustration, and symbolic storytelling into a tale of a boy who lives on an island drifting through the sky — a flying whale that is also his home.

“Inspired by personal experiences of relocation and cultural transition, the film explores themes of belonging, loss, and change without dialogue. Instead, the narrative unfolds through visual metaphors, environmental transformations, and carefully choreographed motion, allowing the story to resonate across languages and cultures.

“One key creative challenge was developing a visual language that balanced graphic simplicity with emotional depth. The production integrated illustration, motion design, 2D and 3D animation, compositing, editing, and sound design into a cohesive world.”

Images

A grid of 64 colorful, surreal illustrations inspired by "Leave The Island" Short Film by Chen, blending blue, white, and green tones with abstract hands, nature, animals, outer space, water, eyes, and dreamlike gradients. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

A blue whale swims among floating, cloud-like shapes and drifting light orbs in a surreal, blue sky, evoking the dreamy, fantastical world of Chen Wu’s short film “Leave The Island.”. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

An illustrated person lies in a meadow with green grass and yellow flowers, looking peaceful under a blue sky. Inspired by Chen Wu’s short film "Leave The Island," butterflies and light streaks float around as a white butterfly gently rests on their nose. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

A surreal landscape inspired by Chen Wu's "Leave The Island": two buildings on red hills fly flags, while a whale floats above under a pink sky with a glowing sun and scattered birds, as if from a dreamlike short film. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

A bright, grassy hill covered with yellow flowers under a blue sky. Inspired by Chen Wu's short film "Leave The Island," a small white house with a red roof sits atop the hill while white birds fly and a person stands near the house. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

A small house sits on a bright green patch in the ocean, surrounded by clouds and the large shadow of a whale swimming beneath the water—an evocative scene from Chen Wu's short film Leave The Island. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

Credits

Director: Chen Wu
Producer: Marcy Lai
Writer: Chen Wu, Marcy Lai
Art Director/Editor: Chen Wu
Animation Supervisor: Tifu Huang
3D Animator: Tifu Huang, Johnny Yang
2D Animator: Tifu Huang, Johnny Yang, Bleeki Shih
Cel Artist/Animator: Jen Lu
Compositing/Colorist: Tifu Huang, Johnny Yang

Music/Sound Design: Wenna Tsao
Recording Engineer: Wenna Tsao
Music & Sound Mix: Wenna Tsao at In’z Studio
Vocals: Noching
Whale Calling Sound: Wenna Tsao

Support: Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development, Taiwan

Special thanks: Shu Mei Chen, Sharon Yeh, Mia Lai, Jimmy Lai ,Meiji Wu, Sam Wu, Roge Zhao, Yurina Kuo, Chi Wu

Stephen Price

Stephen is the co-founder/CD of Stash Media Inc. and the executive editor of Stash Magazine and the Stash Permanent Collection.
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Category: Animation, Character Animation, Featured, Short Films · Tags: Chen Wu