Caption / Star Wars: Mirage
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May the force be with you。
The long-awaited "Star Wars: Mirage" (hereinafter referred to as "Mirage") was launched on Disney+ on the evening of September 22, US time. On IMDB, the short animation set received an average of 7.6 points from more than 4,000 foreign netizens, and chinese audiences gave it a Douban rating of 7.8. The performance of these two scores can be said to be decent, and many viewers have expressed their disappointment with some of the content of the short film while scoring high scores.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > first-class visuals and lack of creative plot performance</h1>
In terms of visual expression, "Mirage" is a very creative work. Each episode has a unique art style and tone of Japanese animation - a very recognizable style, different characters and a unique story background, which is not unrelated to the strong production capabilities of the seven Japanese animation companies. However, from the perspective of the story, the audience said that only a few works can impress themselves, while other short films are like animated trailers - the plot is too simple, the plot is slightly hasty.
The most unanimously rated work in the short film collection was Kamikaze Animated Duel. "Duel" organically combines the Elements of Star Wars with Akira Kurosawa's film style, the Star Wars characters are substituted into the image of the Japanese samurai, and the high-contrast retro black and white film style strengthens the red glow of the lightsaber, and the traditional Japanese sword blades intersect and reverberate, and the characteristics of the swinging intestines are vividly reflected, which is an eye-catching short film.
The next 8 short films as a whole maintained the production highlights of various animation companies, but because of the focus on paying tribute to the "Star Wars" movie, it was very different from "Duel" in terms of plot performance and detail innovation.
"The Bride of the Mountain Village" tells a story based on the similarity between the origin of the Force and the Japanese worship of nature, although the plot is relatively simple, but the soundtrack of traditional Japanese instruments is used to add points to the short film.
Production I.G's Ninth Jedi snow chase scene and samurai-style sword fight scenes are spectacular, showing the usual stable production standards of the established animation company.
"Twins" produced by Trigger Club focuses on high-saturation colors and intense fights, but in addition to the cool fights, the animated audience that comes to the word "Trigger Club" only sees the mediocrity of the short film plot. Another short film produced by the animation company, "The Old Man", is a presentation of the growth of teenagers and the relationship between master and apprentice in Star Wars.
The Retro Retro Retro Style of Science Monkey "T0-B1", and the production of "Rhapsody of Tatooine" with Studio Colorido, have made it difficult for some viewers to understand in terms of character setting and plot advancement.
Geno Studio's "A-Lo and A-Die" is based on a Japanese gangster movie, which recreates the family relationship in Star Wars through the impact of culture, the confrontation between industry and nature, and finally parted ways with sisters at the end to reflect the beauty of Japanese culture.
The basic production requirement proposed by Lucasfilm is to retain the story core and values of Star Wars without having to follow the setting and plot of Star Wars itself. The "Mirage" short film set of Jedi, Sith, lightsabers, Imperial soldiers, family, friendship and other "Star Wars" iconic elements into the Japanese story, a large number of lines and pictures also pay tribute to a number of classic scenes in the "Star Wars" movie, although the Japanese animation creators did not digress, but these short films stuffed with too many Star Wars elements have never jumped out of the Japanese anime routine plot setting.
Audiences who are more satisfied with the Star Wars movie memes that are incorporated into the animated short films, or who prefer Japanese animated action scenes, will be more satisfied with most of the short films. Audiences who want to see Japanese animation companies create and express themselves more freely based on Star Wars are disappointed. Before it started, Mirage was hailed by expectant audiences as "Disney+'s 'love death machine'", but now it seems that its overall performance is obviously not as good as "Love, Death, Robot".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="26" > "U.S.-Japan Cooperation" animated short film that expands the content of Hollywood IP</h1>
The visual effects of "Mirage" are of course extremely attractive, but this is not the first cooperation between Japanese animation companies serving American IP, and many works with excellent graphics and plots are in front, compared with the overall performance of "Mirage", there are naturally no highlights.
2003 "The Matrix Animated Edition" can be called "King Bomb". This series of 9 animated short stories brings together the top animators and their studios in Japan, Korea, and the United States, and the Wachowski sisters (brothers) construct some of the short story frameworks, and communicate in depth with various animation teams including Watanabe Shinichiro, Kawajiri Zenaki, Ken Koike, Maeda Masahiro and other well-known animators, taking 3 years to complete, and the production cost of a single film is more than one million US dollars.
Due to the clear theme and diverse styles, based on The Matrix's vast and complex worldview, this series has produced many short films that have both stunning aesthetic styles and thought-provoking stories, enriching and perfecting the worldview of The Matrix from all angles.
In 2008, DC produced the animated film Batman: Gotham Knight for Batman, a series of six animated short films with different styles produced by American, Japanese and Korean animators, and the story takes place between the live-action films Batman: The Mystery of the Shadow and The Dark Knight.
These 6 interrelated and independent animated short films present a real Batman to the audience from various angles. Riding on the popularity of Batman: The Mystery of the Shadow in the North American market, the ANIMATED film on DVD made more than $9 million.
The Matrix Animated Edition and Batman: Knight of Gotham are both animated short film compilations launched before the release of the new hit movie, and their plots are inextricably linked to the live-action movie, which is a powerful complement to the worldview of live-action movies and the background of important characters. However, the animated short film compilation of Warner's film masterpieces, the producers of "The Matrix Animation Edition" and "Batman: Gotham Knight" have studio 4°C, Madhouse and other well-known Japanese animation companies, but perhaps the producer's intention is different, and the story expression and visual effects of "Batman: Gotham Knight" are flat.
In 2017, two or three weeks before the release of Blade Runner 2049 in North America, the filmmakers successively released three animated short films directed by Luke Scott and Shinichiro Watanabe. These short films complement some of the key events that took place on Earth during Blade Runner's 30 years, from 2019 to 2049. Among them, the 15-minute short film "Blade Runner: 2022 Dark Havoc" supervised by Shinichiro Watanabe impressed a large number of audiences with its ultimate picture, gorgeous soundtrack, reproduction of the core of the story of "Blade Runner", and Watanabe's strong personal creative purpose, which is a rather brilliant warm-up short film.
In fact, completing the worldview and expanding the content for well-known film IP is a relatively common behavior in the film and television industry. Animation has a variety of strange styles, rich expression and emotional appeal, is difficult for live-action film and television short films to achieve in a few minutes, high-quality animation short films after the release of the attention and topicality, but also proves that animated short films are not lost before the release of high-quality advertising, but also to enhance the audience stickiness of film and television IP.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="40" > the evolution of the "U.S.-Japan cooperation" animation model under the IP framework in the era of streaming media</h1>
These "U.S.-Japan cooperation" animated short films born on the worldview of Hollywood's well-known IP are due to the in-depth cooperation between the producer and japanese animators from the story style to the framework, and both sides have a cautious attitude towards the works in order to produce animated short films that meet the needs of the audience. However, this refined production model is not entirely applicable to all works in the streaming era.
Especially after entering the streaming media war in the past two years, the platform takes the enhancement of membership stickiness as the starting point, and the desire for content scale and quantity is even greater than ever. Under this premise, animation works that try to cooperate deeply between the United States and Japan are prone to expose more problems. The derivative animation "Copy: Prosthetic Replacement" of Netflix's original IP "Copy", and the derivative animation "Pacific Rim: Black Forbidden Zone" of "Pacific Rim", are all Japanese shells, American stories, and the exploration of the core of the story is shallow, only completing the task of stimulating the audience's visual senses, which makes many viewers who have chased after live-action film and television dramas feel disappointed.
The best way to use streaming media as a carrier and rely on the "U.S.-Japan cooperation" animation of well-known film and television IP is better to give a large framework for Japanese animation companies that are good at production to let them play freely, and "Star Wars Mirage" is the product of this framework. However, compared with the derivative animation short films of other well-known film and television IPs in Hollywood before, the lack of story creativity of "Mirage" is more prominent.
After all, for many Japanese animation companies that produce "Mirage", they are facing one of the most well-known IP in the world with a huge world view, rich iconic elements, and its spin-off novels and manga have been countless, and it is not simple to innovate and make ideas.
Since the launch of Disney+ at the end of 2019, around the national IP of "Star Wars", Lucasfilm has not only launched the "Mandalorian" people, but also restarted the "Star Wars: Clone Wars" animation and produced its derivative animation "Star Wars: Defective Products", so it is not impossible to seize the current trend of U.S.-Japan cooperation to produce "Mirage" and broaden the water test production of the streaming media platform audience through different styles. An animated short story collection of 9 animated visual styles, a great combination of various Star Wars elements, and the audience will always choose their favorite content. In the future, whether these short stories will be individually expanded into deeper production, and whether Lucasfilm will continue to produce the second season of "Mirage", depends on the overall decision-making orientation of Disney+ in the streaming media war.