ABSTRACT With the rapid development of global information technology, data resources play an increasingly prominent role in society. Countries have issued ‘smart city’ strategic plans one after another, taking the sustainable construction of smart cities as an important means to enhance national competitiveness and seize the commanding heights of the new round of the information technology revolution. This paper selects southern Fujian for experiments to develop modern communication methods in some areas of China that have not undergone smart city upgrades. First, the animation immersion method under smart city technology is taken as the starting point. The folk culture of southern Fujian is integrated to analyze the importance of developing the smart city community under big data. Second, a combined system dynamics model and structural equation modeling are established. It is applied to intelligent, sustainable urban construction to explore the possibility of new development paths. The cities that apply the model proposed here for intelligent, sustainable construction have increased their output value in all aspects within five years. The maximum annual growth rate has reached 17.11%. Planners and designers base the smart city community environment on animation immersion technology. From the perspective of animation immersion planning, integrating the animation immersion technology of southern Fujian folk culture into the sustainable construction and development of the smart city community environment will help enhance the comprehensive competitiveness of the region.