动画片(dòng huà piàn) - cartoon, animated film in Mandarin

动画片 (dòng huà piàn) means a cartoon or animated film. 动画 (dòng huà) means "animation", built from 动 (dòng, "to move") and 画 (huà, "picture, to draw"), and 片 (piàn) here is the noun suffix used for films, literally "a piece, a reel".

动画片 (dòng huà piàn) covers both short cartoons and full-length animated films, unlike English, which often separates "cartoon" from "animated film". Context, or an added word such as 电影 (diàn yǐng, "film"), narrows it when needed: 动画电影 (dòng huà diàn yǐng) for a feature-length animated film.

It is strongly associated with children's viewing habits, so it appears often in family and daily-life contexts alongside words like 小孩子 (xiǎo hái zi, "small child").