Favorite Children's Cartoons from China: Issue #1

Three Monks - 三个和尚 (Sān gè héshàng)

Plot

Three Monks is a Chinese animated short, released in 1980 and directed by A Da. It is one of the most famous and beloved of Shanghai Animation Film Studio's productions, and has won awards at film festivals throughout the world.

One monk shoulders two buckets of water. Two monks lift one bucket of water. Three monks have no water! This is a story told generation after generation. It has some similarity with the western saying "too many cooks spoil the broth".