Parenting - Violent Clouds with Baby Storks

Text/Qili

On the first day of school, I was always filled with a lot of expectations.

What classes are held? What kind of teacher did you meet? What is the learning progress? How effective is the lecture? In short, imagining my first lesson in high school, I can't help but get a little excited, as if I had once again walked into the high school classroom at the same time as Winter. In fact, in addition to these, there is a more important thing, I don't know if I can communicate with him at night.

So, the first thing I did when I got home was to connect the mobile hard disk that stored the animated short film "Violent Clouds and the Stork" to the HD player. While watching the final of the Women's Volleyball World Championship, paying attention to the situation of the Chinese women's team, while waiting for the return from school in winter. The parents upstairs were educating their sons who had just entered elementary school, and the children's grievances drifted in intermittently from the open windows, reminding me of when I was a child in winter, and the plane trees in the backyard were as lush as in the middle of summer, covering the sky, but a little cooler.

Because Dong likes to watch English cartoons, so, all along, the player and tv set have become an important tool for me and my children to communicate, in front of the big TV screen, we have spent countless good times together, we have been sad together, we have been happy together, we have sighed together for the beauty of the animation, we have worried about the fate of the characters together, we have applauded the brave actions together, we can laugh unscrupulously, and we can also cry and weep without hesitation. For most of the time we watch movies, we're like a person.

It was a happy time.

I remember in the third year of junior high school, in order not to delay winter study, I deliberately reduced the time we spent watching movies together, and at a dinner table, Winter coldly came up with a sentence: "It seems that I haven't watched a movie for a long time." "He just felt it, and it seemed to be to relieve the slightly strained relationship between me and him: during those times, I wanted to let him continue to do something outside the course like the first and second graders, but he always showed a very reluctant look."

I have told myself more than once in my heart that learning things must not be mixed, but parents have the responsibility to inspire their children's thinking, to tell their children the standard of judging right and wrong, to convey the warmth and love of the world to their children, and to guide their children in other aspects besides learning. Just like Long Yingtai is to Andrei, Fu Lei is to Fu Cong, Fu Min, and Yan Is pushed to the descendants of the Yan clan.

Violent Clouds and the Stork is an excellent animated short film created by Pixar in 2009, with a Douban score of 9.1. In the creation of the script, the depth of thought of foreign creators is difficult for domestic creators to reach, the level of animation needless to say, as for the imagination is not in a grade. Driven by the fast pace of the economy, we usually focus on the short-term effects of the pursuit of activity and ignore its later and overall effects. Therefore, whether in the creation of literary works, the research and development of commercial products, and the construction of social infrastructure, we always highlight the pursuit of fashion, novelty and partial form, the pursuit of rapid results and shallow taste, and ignore the foundation and core. From the first time I watched "Shrek", I have been waiting for a breakthrough in Chinese 3D animation, "The Return of the Great Sage" is the first domestic 3D animation work that has entered my eyes, and this film has taken a full 8 years from planning to final release. Is 8 years long? Not long! China's 2D animation industry has been brilliant, "Little Tadpole Finds Mother", "Carp Jumping Dragon Gate", "Tianshu Qitan"... Which one was not a classic of the world at that time? From 2D to 3D, we've been walking for nearly 50 years. In contrast, how many years will it take for our urban "Eighth Route Army" to disappear? How many years will it take for our publishing to weed off the vices of patchwork? Our product design completely abandons the form, how many years does it take to really enter the core of the product?

Therefore, I watch disney (Pixar) and dreamworks animation mostly, not sublime, but just hope to let children get in touch with the best works from an early age, after all, children are malleable, they represent the malleable, the future of our Development in China.

In 2009, Pixar released the famous animated film "Flying House", in which "Violent Clouds and the Stork" was used as a short film to be screened, which told a warm and unforgettable story in just 5 minutes. The story is based on a beautiful Western legend. Legend has it that there is a bird called the stork, which is specialized in transporting children. So, where do children come from? Oh, high in the sky, dwelling countless clouds, each living cloud can pinch out one little baby after another like Nuwa, and each stork is the messenger of the clouds, responsible for bringing new life to the world. Among the many clouds is a sad cloud called Gus, who, unlike the others, always pinches violent babies, and a touching story happens between him and his partner Peck...

At the recommendation of a friend, I quickly watched the short film, but did not grasp the meaning. Subsequently, I watched it several times, and the more I watched it, the more I liked it, and I thought that Winter would definitely like it. What I like is not limited to this 5-minute wonderful storyline, the beautiful picture, the super cute image, the grotesque expression, but also the associations and deep thoughts it leaves me.

I naturally experience more things than children, so I can easily summarize some of my own perceptions. For example: "When I saw the stork fly away from the cloud of violence, I was happy for him, glad that he was finally freed from the sea of suffering." However, when he returned with the protective gear, I was deeply moved. A kind of warmth flooded from the depths of my heart and completely annihilated me. ”

"If you think about it, couples in life are also like violent clouds and child-giving storks. No matter what we do to each other, no matter how much we hurt each other, even if the last face is to turn around and leave, we can't always hate him/her, because when we look back again, he/she is looking at you with such innocent eyes, so affectionately, with the eyes that have seen you all his life. In that moment, our strong emotional world collapsed in an instant, and the storm of the soul suddenly stopped. ”

In just five minutes, he told the great truth of life.

The end of the short film is particularly thought-provoking, it is a never-ending story of harm and forgiveness, the relationship between the cloud of violence and the sending crane is not a simple contract that you send me, but contains a series of contradictory rules of getting along, which express life in fact. How much can Winter see through about this?

I meant to guide him, and then to teach him to see the essence from the surface, to let him unfold his own rich imagination, but I knew that I could not expect too much from a student who had just entered the first year of high school. So our conversation begins at the dinner table:

"Do you have a lot of homework today?" Show you a short video. I said.

He shook his head, answered my first question, and then looked at me, showing neither objection nor welcome.

"Don't delay you a lot, only five minutes." I say.

The remote control is in my hand, and as soon as I press it, the video starts playing immediately. At this point, I admit that parents are indeed overbearing.

"Before watching it, give you an assignment, and after watching it, try to say what impressed you the most about this film."

There was a slight uneasiness on Dong's face, and he nodded nervously.

To my delight, after the first cursory look, he quickly found the core of the story and more accurately pointed out his feelings about the return of the stork.

I offered praise and duly threw out a second question: "So, what about the details?" What do you think the film says in several details? This question is a relatively general question, so it is relatively easy to answer.

"Westerners believe that God created man, so one detail is that when the baby was crying, the Creator of the Clouds gave him rugby and a helmet. This detail reflects the erroneous idea that human abilities and professions are predestined. Others have not been thought of for the time being. Winter thought hard and then replied.

"It's like writing an essay that needs clues, did you notice the clues in this short film?"

"Should it be Pek's feathers?" Winter asked tentatively.

"That's right. Peck's feathers are a thread throughout the layout. The first appearance was when he took the crocodile away, and a piece of Peck's feather fell to the tip of Gus's nose. Obviously, The Violent Cloud has already felt something, and the Violent Cloud loves Peck, but his instinct is to create violent babies, and he seems to be powerless to change this situation. The first feather represents emotional endurance and tolerance, and is the acceptance of hurt. ”

"The second time was when he returned from sending the hedgehog, and when the violent cloud pulled out the spikes for him, he almost smoothly pulled out the feathers on his head, which was a sublimation of the injury."

"The third time was when the violent cloud was angry and sad and wept, sending the return of the stork. This time the feathers represent emotional loyalty and trust. ”

"The appearance of the three feathers strongly highlighted the behavior of the stork, completely breaking through our fragile emotional defenses. It makes us have deep associations and reflections on past experiences and behaviors. ”

I finished explaining in one breath, and Winter listened intently.

"So, the third question is: the English title of the short film is Party Cloudy, how do you understand this?"

Dong thought about it and expressed his confusion: "The meaning of the word is obviously mainly about the dark cloud Gus. But I wonder, why are there so many white clouds in the picture, but only one dark cloud? ”

Dong's question was not difficult to explain, and I thought about it for a moment and replied, "I think it might be like this." In the short film, Baiyun's works are generally cute pets: babies, puppies, and kittens, while Dark Cloud's works are generally violent things: such as man-eating crocodiles, prickly hedgehogs, electric eels, sharks, etc. The former represents good and beautiful things, the latter represents fierce and ugly things, I think the author must hope that there are more good things in this world, so there are more white clouds. This is actually in line with human expectations for good things. ”

"Whether good or bad, it is all produced by comparison, how can there be good without bad? Therefore, the dark clouds in the short film must be there. Moreover, from another point of view, the contribution of the dark clouds and the white clouds is the same, they jointly created the world, whether it is a cute baby or a violent baby, only the existence of contradictions, the world is balanced. ”

The time is short, the communication can not be too open, but I think, no matter how much the winter harvest, he under my guidance more or less thought about it, but also will be rewarded, I threw out the last question: "Ask you one last question, if you make an analogy, parents and children likened to the violent cloud in the short film and the child stork, which do you think corresponds to which?" Why? ”

This question may have surprised Winter, he thought for a while, just began to answer: "I think, this relationship is mutual transformation ...", I immediately interrupted him: "This question does not need to be answered now, if you have time or interest, you can imitate the idea of short films to write an essay, the essay title is "Other People's Children" or "Parents and Children""

I quite hope that Dong can seriously think about it and write it according to the ideas I guided. But I really dare not report too much expectation, sometimes think about it, education itself is a long process, may also have to consider the later effect and the overall effect, can not be anxious.