Wen | nagging beans
When it comes to animated films, viewers will think of the works produced by DreamWorks, which is one of DreamWorks' classic animated series of films, "Shrek". With its innovative animation style, this film also broke the viewer's traditional perception of fairy tale films, subverted the love mode in traditional fairy tales, and successfully ushered in a new era of postmodernist animated films, becoming the first animated film ever to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
As the finale of the Shrek series of cartoon films, "Shrek 4" continues the subversive creative style of the first three films, showing the ordinary but beautiful family life of Shrek from a unique perspective. With the help of the anti-traditional narrative structure, the viewer can intuitively see the process of Shrek's emotions from rebellion to cherishing. With a self-deprecating attitude, break the viewer's stereotype of fairy tale animation. In addition, the director team has also made continuous breakthroughs in innovative technology, making the film continuously watched and highlighting the ingenuity of the director team.
The film continues the storyline of "Shrek 3", mainly telling the story of Shrek after saving the princess, he has his own harmonious family, and the family lives happily together. But over time, Shrek gradually tired of this peaceful life, and after arguing with his wife, he signed a magical agreement with the dwarf in one breath, but it was this impulsive decision that made Shrek regret it, and in the world of no relatives, Shrek gradually understood the true meaning of family...
I think this is the excellence of this film, in "Shrek 4", the director still subverts the traditional fairy tale narrative style, and the whole film is like a stream, moisturizing the audience's emotional buds like a silent substance. This DreamWorks is a specially customized book of life apocalypse for the viewer, so that the viewer can perceive the true meaning of life and family between laughter and laughter.
It is such a series of films that subverts the traditional fairy tale narrative structure but has become an important product of the operation mode of Hollywood commercial films. In contrast, although China's animation film industry has ushered in the spring of creation, it lacks an independent film operation model, which makes the film box office present the phenomenon of "only locals paying", and it is difficult to achieve global cultural continuous output. Therefore, I will integrate the creative characteristics and operation mode of the Shrek series of films, from the subversion of the traditional fairy tale model, allegorical narrative strategy, innovative dramamaking techniques, and new products of Hollywood commercial animation, I will go deep into the film, and summarize the humanistic care behind the film while summarizing the reference value for Chinese commercial animation in the development stage.
Halfway through the film's story, viewers see Shrek trying to approach Princess Fiona in order to get a kiss of true love, and Shrek confidently says that he is very powerful when he tries to communicate with Princess Fiona in training, and when he asks to compete with the princess, he recognizes the toilet brush as a powerful weapon.
In my opinion, this is exactly the director's innovative character development, and the characters in "Shrek" are no longer as out of reach as the characters in traditional fairy tales. In the film, whether it is Shrek, Princess Fiona or other cute little animals, it seems to be like you, me, and him in real life with a strong sense of intimacy.
The protagonist of the story is not a prince, but a full-fledged monster, who has many shortcomings of our ordinary people, and is also a grandfather who has no experience in taking care of babies in the family. This innovative characterization refreshes the viewer during the viewing process and gives the viewer an unprecedented sense of rebellion that breaks through the traditional rules. Make the character jump out of the protagonist's aura and have more affinity.
In addition, the film also subverts the love mode of traditional fairy tales, and the strong emotions are integrated with the story content, and the deep emotions flow out delicately. The innovation of "Shrek" is also reflected in the audience, subverting the "children's color" necessary for traditional fairy tales, and turning the object to adults. Efforts were made to broaden the theme, blending the adult theme with the fantasy color of the fairy tale itself, and successfully created a postmodernist animation precedent.
In the film, Shrek signs a contract with the dwarf in a huff, and when he is immersed in the fear of monsters, he finds that his wife has forgotten himself, and the love and affection between the two of them are destroyed by a contract. A remorseful Shrek began to seek ways to change all that.
In "Shrek", the director subverts the traditional fairy tale love model, and Princess Fiona, who has lost her memory, falls in love with Shrek at first sight, but they eventually develop a strong affection between them. This emotion is accumulated by them overnight, and this design moment makes the film gain a unique sense of life and easier to get the public recognition.
In addition, the director pays great attention to the inner contradictions of the characters when portraying the inner world of the characters, and the film uses a large page to tell how the princess after the amnesia gets along with Shrek, and how the emotions of the two gradually heat up.
Especially as the climax of the film is no longer the confrontation between good and evil in the traditional fairy tale animation, but the protagonist truly understands the true meaning of love as the climax of the film, such a subversive love model successfully expresses the complex adult emotional world, but also makes the viewer invisibly perceive the true meaning of love, the importance of family, and become a life apocalypse presented by DreamWorks to the viewer.
(1) Non-focused narrative perspective provides more comprehensive story information
As the basic narrative perspective of the play, it plays a vital role in plot development and character shaping, which is often referred to as the "Eye of God", so that the viewer can more fully understand the overall story content in the process of watching the film, go deep into the inner world of the characters as a bystander, and have a global grasp of the overall storyline.
At the beginning of the film, accompanied by a cheerful background music, we see the daily life of Shrek's home dad: taking care of children, friends gathering, tourist visits, signing autographs for fans, but the day-to-day repetition makes him tired of his current life, and he can't sleep late at night, looking at his monster wanted list.
In my opinion, it is the non-focused narrative perspective that allows the viewer to freely switch the observation point of view, freely enter and exit the inner world of the characters, and then have a global control over the story. As in this theatrical unit, the non-focused narrative perspective refines Shrek's life, giving the viewer a comprehensive understanding of Shrek's Nissan life and the root causes of his anger at the birthday party from the perspective of God.
In this way, the viewer can freely enter and exit the inner world of the characters, perceive the joys and sorrows of the protagonist, and let the viewers grasp enough information to understand the development of the story in an all-round way.
(2) The narrative structure is very "allegorical" to convey the profound theme of the film
In the film, the narrative structure combines the characters and the plot while also better revealing the deep moral of the film. As the French structuralist narratologist Gremmas said: The desires, communications, and obstacles in the narrative structure jointly promote the development of the story and elevate the theme of the film.
In the film, Shrek longs for a free life and signs a contract with the dwarf, and in the act of terminating the contract, Shrek regrets his decision and hopes to return to his former family life. There are two dramatic structures in the film, one at the beginning of the film, when Shrek's desire is to return to his former life, and the helper is a dwarf. Another dramatic structure appears in the third of the film, at which point Shrek begins to regret his decision, and the composition of the dramatic structure changes.
In this dramatic structure, Shrek's desire becomes to return to his original family, and the dwarf becomes an opponent. The different purposes of action also change the relationship between the characters, and the transformation of the purpose from "freedom" to "return" also gives the film a profound meaning of growth.
In "Shrek", the use of the "crossing" method also has a crucial effect on the narrative time of the film, and the use of the crossing technique makes the film form a very strong contrast, that is, the state of life before and after the crossing. In my opinion, such a method can make the audience strongly perceive the "polarized" life mode with Shrek's experience, which makes the good and bad very obvious. This allows the viewer to consider for himself what is more important in life.
(2) A loop-like time chain that takes care of the end and end to maintain the integrity of the story
The use of the circular time chain in the film also makes the film have the artistic effect of echoing from beginning to end and maintains the integrity of the film. At the beginning of the film, the experience of the king's attempted signing is told through the mouth of a dwarf, and this clip also appears in the film in the form of flashbacks, and finally tells what Shrek saw and heard when he crossed in a sequential manner, and returns to the beginning of the story at the end.
"Shrek" as a series of films is a unique product of the operation mode of Hollywood commercial films. Although the main characters run through the entire series, the storyline of each film is a unit of its own, and it does not affect each other, because the film is mostly adapted from fairy tales, novels, and comics, which also makes the film and television works created have a unique commerciality.
In short, it is precisely this personalized creation method and operation means that make Hollywood commercial animation films in the United States shine in the world, which is also one of the important means that China's animation industry must learn. Only innovative animation styles, adult theme connotations and systematic means of operation can make Chinese animation films enter a new era.