The production company, Dalian Jingyuan Culture Film and Television Media, along with distributor Tianjin Yamazaki Film, brought forth a project that took the mother-and-son duo five years to build from scratch. The story follows a cowardly calf named Niu Lai, who fears snakes and refuses to cross rivers. After befriending a leopard named Baola, the two are separated by herd prejudice. Tragedy strikes during a migration when wolves attack, resulting in the mother's sacrifice to save her calf—a grueling trial that finally teaches the young protagonist how to protect its companions.

Rather than flawless visuals, it was the disaster-level 3D modeling that sparked an intense reverse-popularity phenomenon. In a time when generative AI dominates digital art, audiences found something remarkably genuine in this rough, purely handmade effort. People flocked to theaters purely out of curiosity. The frenzy reached such heights that cinema staff began hand-drawing posters at theater entrances with warnings like "If you like weird things, come over" and "No refunds."

Adding to the bizarre charm, Xin Yumeng and Sun Lifang handled all the voice acting themselves, clumsily shifting pitches to differentiate characters. This stiff but hilarious delivery won the audience over. The viral effect exploded further when a specific pun caught fire online. In one scene, the calf trips over a rock and hands it to his mother, who yells a phrase that sounds exactly like "semiconductor"—declaring that even dogs wouldn't touch it. Netizens mistook this for brilliant dark humor, accelerating ticket sales. The cultural impact even bled into finance, with the Niu Lai meme coin hitting a $46 million market capitalization by August 17, 2026.

Despite some daily box office returns dropping as low as 200 yuan early on, the film's total earnings eventually soared to an astonishing 51.63 million yuan. It even recorded an opening day box office of 342 Yen in Japan, and THY LAB hosted an IMAX 80mm screening at a Hong Kong performance art theater. However, the theatrical run was cut abruptly short. Worried that the crude animation might damage the city's image, local theaters in Dalian pulled the movie, prompting Xin Yumeng to officially announce the end of its cinema phase on August 16.