After two years of construction, at the beginning of 2022, Mango TV brought the first self-made animation "The Story of Animal Kingdom" to a high-profile self-made animation track on the platform.
Not only in China to open up the Taiwan network, in Mango TV, Hunan Satellite TV, Golden Eagle Cartoon, Hong Kong Cable TV simulcast;
It is also opened up in foreign countries, both the mango TV international APP and YouTube on the network end, the North American World Satellite TV and the Thai TrueVisions TV station, which are broadcast simultaneously through multilingual subtitles worldwide.
Therefore, this work, which is mainly aimed at children aged 3-6, is not only the first gift to Chinese children and teenagers in the "Happy Chinese Year", but also a gift from Chinese animation creators to the "Chinese Happiness" of children around the world.
Character Setting and "Outlook on Life"
The reason why it is said that this is a gift to all children, because this work shows "empathy" for children everywhere-
Use animal stories to tell the growth of children.
This work is based on the fairy tale of the same name by Teacher An An, which tells the story of three small animal friends with very different personalities in the animal kingdom, after a series of experiences, from mutual incomprehension to mutual understanding, from lack of security to self-protection, in the common growth, become mutual trust, unity, and friendship of good friends.
In the works, almost all the elements are silently nourishing the children's outlook on life, family, right and wrong, and world view.
The character setting is based on the "outlook on life" as the value orientation.
Although the work is aimed at children aged 3-6, the main creator does not have stick figures and flat characters, on the contrary, it allows children to see two sides of the nature of the three little protagonists .
Little Pig Zhuzhu is innocent and kind, but at the same time lacks self-protection awareness;
Beluk the Bear is straightforward and upright, but at the same time he does not know how to be flexible and sometimes reckless;
Little Rabbit Tang Jie is smart and quick-witted, but at the same time a little clever and selfish.
On the one hand, it lets the children know that there is no absolutely good nature, there is no absolutely bad nature, and everything in the initial state has its yang side, and there will also be a yin side, which is exactly the "yin and yang view" in Chinese wisdom. And what we have to do in our growth is to maintain the good side of the temperament and the bad side of the temperament.
Number 1 believes that this is the way to guide children to establish accurate self-knowledge. Every child has its own nature, and do not praise one nature absolutely, nor deny another nature absolutely.
On the other hand, kindness, integrity, and intelligence are precisely the three elements of good qualities in a person, a kind heart, a righteous guts, and a smart brain, Andi no. 1 speculates that perhaps When Mr. An An and the animation team are creating, they are hoping that the good character that a future person should have, dismantled into three animation protagonists, and combined into one is an ideal, the protagonist of China's future society.
Therefore, such a work, through the creation of human design, is to let children have the ability to think independently from an early age, to understand themselves, what kind of person they want to be, to judge for themselves, what is right, what is wrong, how to take, how to give.
This enlightenment of the outlook on life, this training of thinking, is a gift to children in "The Story of the Animal Kingdom" about "being human".
Family Setting and "Family View"
The family is the smallest unit of children's education and the initial starting point of children's education.
The original family has a vital influence on a person's life.
Therefore, "The Story of the Animal Kingdom", which attaches great importance to the educational significance, attaches great importance to the portrayal of the original families of the three small protagonists, showing three completely different original family relationships -
Piggy Zhuzhu has a loose family education and supports her to do what she likes to do, so she has a relaxed, optimistic and cheerful temperament, which also makes her the "most popular love ambassador in the animal kingdom";
Bear Beluk has a strict family education and has various requirements for his interests, clothing, and behavior, but he gradually understands in his growth that being himself is the best;
Little rabbit Tang Jie family education is cautious, the mother hopes that the smart he also knows how to appreciate the advantages of others, bold he can also do things without going out of line, follow the rules.
Among the three types of family education, No. 1's favorite is the education method of the little pig Zhuzhu family. This "family view" is considered by No. 1 to be in line with the concept of the French philosopher Rousseau's famous pedagogical work "Emile".
The ideal place of children's education outlined by Rousseau is also in the countryside far away from the hustle and bustle of the world, which has some similarities with the "carefree town" depicted in "The Story of the Animal Kingdom", which loves life, loves laughter, and loves each other;
Rousseau's ideal method of children's education is to follow nature and go with nature, and this truth is precisely to vividly explain and explain it vividly and clearly with the contrast between the relative success of the pearl family education and the relative lack of Beiruk family education.
And in the details, there are also similarities. For example, if the pearl falls, the father is nervous, and the grandmother immediately grabs the father and says, "Rest assured, what child does not fall?" If you don't fall, you will grow?"
And Rousseau, in "Emile", wrote this-
"The pain has happened, and he has to endure it. The way I was in a hurry made him more frightened and more painful. In fact, when we are hurt, what makes us feel pain is not the hurt, but the feeling of fear. It was at this age that he should have begun to learn the spirit of bravery, and in the process of enduring minor pain without fear, he gradually learned how to endure greater pain."
In a sense, Zhu Zhu is actually the "Story of the Animal Kingdom" version of Emile.
This is an animation watched by children aged 3-6, but often parents aged 3-6 will also watch it. Only when parents have the correct, advanced and intelligent parenting concept is the greatest gift to their children's lifelong growth.
Main Line Setting and "Right and Wrong View"
The main line setting is also based on education.
This season's work, in the first 1-5 episodes, is to establish the relationship between the three protagonists and several other friends through the big banyan tree party and carnival performance. After that, two main lines began to be laid -
One with the wolf is about "guarding against people" and about vigilance.
A black wolf appeared in the animal kingdom, and several times the small animals were trapped in danger, especially the innocent and kind, lack of safety awareness of the beads, and the brunt of it.
A relationship with people is about "loving others" and about trust.
The little animals strayed into the human world and were saved by the fraternity of human children, but at first Fraternity did not believe in the critters, thinking that they were "monsters", and later the critters saved Fraternity, and they became friends.
These two lines eventually intersected, and the small animals formed a "forest squad" to train and progress together, not only with the ability to protect themselves, but also successfully saved human children from the hands of black wolves.
In fact, "wolves" and "people" also represent "bad people" and "good people" in the real world. The parallel of the two lines is actually to tell the children through the main story line that we can neither have the awareness of danger, nor can we lose the courage to trust others, we need to have the ability to protect ourselves, and we also need to have the judgment to distinguish between right and wrong.
We must learn to grasp the "degree" of it, such as Zhuzhu's initial trust in the gray wolf, which is "excessive trust"; fraternity's initial defense of Zhuzhu is "excessive defense".
And this is also the degree that many parents may lose in actual education.
It seems difficult, it seems to be wandering, but in fact, if we grasp the essence - as long as the children establish a correct view of right and wrong, can distinguish between right and wrong, and distinguish between friends and enemies, this "degree" problem will be solved.
World Setting and "World View"
"The Story of the Animal Kingdom" makes such a fairy tale worldview setting -
In this world, there is a magical land: the animal kingdom.
In the animal kingdom, animals live and learn like humans.
Originally, in the conventional worldview thinking, the author thought that the story took place purely in the animal kingdom, but by episode 12, the friends of the animal kingdom entered the human world and broke the wall of the two worlds once.
And behind this broken wall, it is precisely the core of this worldview -
The work not only wants to use the "animal kingdom" to outline an idealistic, romantic world, where there is no trouble, no sorrow, and to create a pure, innocent worldview in the minds of children.
But this world is not isolated, closed and beautiful in the "peach blossom garden", but can interact and communicate with the real world represented by the human world, and the animal kingdom seems to exist in some corner of the real world.
This is using the romantic imagination of art to help children establish a correct world view of man and nature.
Animism is animistic, and we must respect animal friends as we respect human friends.
The fraternity in the work is the embodiment of an ideal human child, who does not treat animals as pets, and refuses to buy and sell many times, because the sale is the materialization of animal friends, because the sale has a relationship of belonging that I can control you.
Media No. 1
As the first self-made animation, No. 1 believes that Mango TV has delivered a high-scoring answer sheet.
We know that Mango TV has always had a very deep accumulation in the youth culture label. Children are the next generation of the country, the last stop of young people, whether their minds are sound, whether their concepts are correct, whether their personalities are independent, and their influence is far-reaching. Mango TV's social responsibility is not only limited to the construction of youth culture, but also continues to deepen the influence of children's culture.
Animation works, as the content form with the greatest, deepest and broadest impact on the minds of children and young people, have naturally become the cultural position that the mainstream media must defend.
As a mainstream media, Mango TV has a long way to go -
It needs to optimize the proportion of such animation works that focus on children's value education in the Internet position in a higher proportion;
It needs to be louder to improve the influence of animation works that affect the healthy growth of children in the field of social opinion.
In this way, a battle for the defense of children's minds and a battle for the positions of children's culture will be completed.