Did everyone see the animated promo produced by the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics?
Can't help but look. With the words "Old Sun Laiye", the familiar Great Sage traveled through time and space and took us into the ice and snow world. Those friends we are familiar with: the gourd brothers, the snow children, the egg students, the Nezha... They all appeared one by one.
But this time, they were not in a hurry to go to the Heavenly Palace or go to the sea, but formed an ice hockey team and played skiing.
Watching these "childhood idols" return to the field of vision with people's expectations for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, as if the past and the future accidentally collided together, becoming a afterglow of tracing happy times.
Our generation may say: the official finally used these "IP" in the right place, after all, they are such a rich and cute cultural treasure!
The appearance of these "childhood idols" is exciting, not only because they remind people of their childhood when they secretly watched TV, but also because they represent the glorious history of Chinese animation.
Today, these "childhood idols" have been given a new meaning: the image of Sun Wukong has been recreated several times, not only animated movies one after another, but we will also be exposed to domestic games with him as the main character in the future; Nezha has become the embodiment of rebellion against patriarchy, known as "punk" Nezha, which has become a rock icon in the eyes of young people; the Hulu brothers have become low-definition memes, which are widely circulated on social media.
Strange "Hulu Brothers" emoji
However, it is a pity that excellent Chinese animations like "Hulu Brothers" are only made into low-definition network memes, right?
Behind these familiar "childhood idols" is a common boss - Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio. Founded in 1957, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio is one of the oldest animation studios in China, and after the "father of Chinese animation" Wan Brothers, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio not only produced countless exquisite Chinese animations, but also represented the artistic benchmark of Chinese animation.
The "Father of Chinese Animation" Wan Brothers
"The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace", "Nezha Noisy Sea", "The Black Cat Sheriff", "The Gourd Brothers"... All are representative works of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio. These classic screen images they created have shaped the values of a generation of children. There are the brave and decisive gourd brothers who are united, the Nezha who prefer to be crushed by jade and not for the whole; the egg birth of heaven and earth who is selfless and has its own wisdom, although a long time has passed, those scenes are still vivid and unforgettable.
A classic scene in the history of Chinese animation: the little tadpoles finally found their mother
Mudi (1963)
It may be because the ink and danqing that leaves a lot of white space, the flowing and beautiful Dunhuang flying sky, and the dexterous paper-cutting art are very different from any form of animation that we are familiar with today, which is inseparable from the efforts of the older generation of animators.
According to Yan Dingxian, the original creator of "The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace", this work, which took nearly two years to paint alone, has more than 100,000 original manuscripts. Released in 1979, "Nezha Noisy Sea" is the painstaking work of the producers to refer to dunhuang murals and ancient Chinese landscape maps.
The Haunting of heaven (1961)
Nezha Noisy Sea (1979)
These elders took China's traditional art and historical treasures as the guide, not only planted the seeds of art for a generation of Chinese children, but also brought Chinese animation and oriental temperament to the world stage for the first time. Of all the fine art films in Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, 48 art films have won 69 awards in China and 45 art films have won 73 awards internationally.
The Little Tadpole Finds Mother (1960)
Among them, "Little Tadpole Finds Mother" produced in 1960 won the Annecy International Animated Short Film Special Award and the Cannes Film Festival Honorary Award for its outstanding ink style, and "Nezha Noisy Sea" released in 1979 was also screened at the Cannes International Film Festival and received good reviews.
Although the most glorious era of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio has passed, the "re-emergence" of this 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics promotional film makes us find that they have never disappeared.
Even if the first audience of these classic animations has long been grown up after the 80s, it does not mean that these animated images are no longer popular.
If we look at everyone's evaluation of these animations, we will realize that high scores are not only the "emotional points" given by people's nostalgia for childhood, but also the real realization that those classic films of the past have the tenacity and persistence that the current works do not have.
In fact, an important reason for "renovating" the past animation image is that the former Chinese animation still has very great advantages and values.
Hulu Brothers should not only exist in low-definition network memes, but an audio-visual feast worth each of us to sink down and seriously enjoy.
The opening chapter of "Hulu Brothers" is a terrifying gourd mountain, which breaks through the layers of clouds and the shadow of pine cypresses and turns to an old man who is collecting medicine in the valley.
In the Chinese folk paper-cutting art, mountain and stone scenery is generally based on generalization and freehand, and is set off by small trees and houses to achieve a vivid and harmonious effect. "Hulu Brothers" firmly grasps this point, so that the scenery of the whole film is full of paper-cutting and ink-cutting fun.
Grandpa's home in "Hulu Brothers"
In addition to the scene full of classical charm, the running and jumping gourd brothers can make the body understand the subtleties of paper-cut animation. Folk paper-cut figures are not limited by the proportions of the human body, in order to agree with the "gourd" (Fluke) homophony, the seven gourd brothers we are familiar with have the characteristics of large heads, broken necks, small hands and feet, thick limbs, etc., living like Fuwa on the New Year painting.
And what is used to distinguish their identity and ability is the bright seven colors. Different from the relatively somber background, in "Hulu Brothers", red, orange, yellow and green represent strong justice, gentleness and tolerance, while the three gourd babies with blue, blue and purple have a calm personality and act introverted. This method of creation gives the characters a distinctive character and a unique style.
The seven gourd brothers united
Of course, "Hulu Brothers" is not only pleasing to the eye on the screen, but even the soundtrack is very advanced. Although the dramatic recitation now sounds a little nostalgic, the electronic-style soundtrack reveals a hint of psychedelicism? Maybe this is a "new" discovery from the internet.
Click to listen to the soundtrack
But we also realize that it is difficult to find the same type of film and television works today. Not only the gradual decline of paper-cutting, shadow puppet and puppet animation, but also the narrative of Chinese animation is also moving closer to Hollywood, and every plot design is racing against the clock to attract people into the climax; the picture is even more gorgeous, the fight scene is wonderful, but the beautiful and handsome those flying sky, the smart and cute of the paper-cut characters, but it really symbolizes the Chinese heritage.
Today's animation production and audiences may also go back in time and "re-repair the old good" with these classic animations and childhood idols.
With the current upgrade of home mobile devices, the audience's pursuit of pictures is getting higher and higher. High-speed and developed home fiber optics make watching 4K video content at your fingertips, people's eyes are accustomed to handling tiny details on the screen, and even the brain is ready to process a lot of information when watching video content.
Classic animation content such as "Hulu Brothers" and "Little Tadpole Finds Mother" is still filmed because of the early production time, resulting in low screen clarity and chaotic information, so that it is difficult to adapt to the multi-screen era. Many screen classics such as Hulu Brothers have survived to the present era, leaving only internet memes or memes in chat windows.
In order to bring them back to the public eye, adapt to the current home 4K player, adapt to the audience's eyes, "repair the classic" is imminent.
In fact, this problem is not only exclusive to China's animated films, the whole world is doing film repair. In order to make those films that belong to the past shine again and shine again, film workers have made great efforts. Back in 2015, proponents of digital restoration believed that the high quality and clarity of 4K would make it the new standard for viewing movies.
Restored from the Standard Collection CC, "Juvenile Murder on Muling Street"
Lee Kline, technical director at The Criterion Collection, said: "With the growing popularity of the 4K standard, we can finally 'really' fix the film.
While it's easy to say, fixing a movie, especially a 4K fix, isn't an easy task. Films shot on film should start from the physical repair of film, first repair the stains, scratches and other traces on the original film, and then transcribe the film into tape before continuing digital repair. In the process of digital restoration, filmmakers also spent a lot of time restoring everything from texture to sound design, and then adding additional contrast and color correction as needed.
The 4K restoration of 2001: A Space Odyssey sold out at the 2019 Beijing International Film Festival
Usually, this fix is an obvious huge upgrade. But sometimes, it does not satisfy everyone's wishes, but goes against the grain.
For example, loyal viewers of some Disney animated films have expressed dissatisfaction with the Blu-ray restoration version of Cinderella. In this version, the details of the picture are generally erased by "laziness", the dust that originally floated on Cinderella disappears, and the mysterious temperament of the original work is gone.
What about the details? What about my details?
An excellent film restoration work should represent more details and more accurate memories.
While there are good and bad, the restoration of these hidden treasures of cinema is indeed imminent. 4K restoration, so that this generation can also see the "beauty of the past".
Little Tadpole Finds Mom 4K Restored Poster
Fortunately, there are still people who are willing to stand their ground and help people relive their childhood memories.
In this era of short videos, we can't ignore the "medium video" that pays attention to content and needs to be watched with a little sense of ceremony. These videos are 1-30 minutes long and require viewers to watch them on a landscape display.
The 15-minute -long "Little Tadpole Finds Mom"
Is the concept of "medium video" just emerging? No, most of the classic animations we come into contact with are presented in the form of "medium video". In just 30 minutes, "The Little Tadpole Finds Mother" is a fable about finding mothers, "Mudi" is a long and vast, "Three Monks" is a strange spirit... Such a generation of memories should not be annihilated in the tide of time.
This is why Watermelon Video will fix 100 classic Medium Videos (animations, documentaries) in 4K in the next year, and open the restoration portal to users for free.
The high-quality content of "China Video" is inseparable from these classic animations, and in the "Classic Medium Video 4K Restoration Plan" released by Watermelon Video, the first partners are CCTV Animation, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio and other institutions that we are familiar with. In the half-hour "Medium Video" range, anyone can watch an episode of Chinese animation anytime, anywhere, with a deep heart.
4K restored Black Cat Sheriff
In fact, fixing our classic animation is a much more difficult task than the restoration of ordinary film films. In terms of form, classic animation has a variety of artistic expressions such as puppets, ink painting, and paper cutting, and different types of animation have different difficulties in repair.
The watermelon video mentioned: "'Hulu Brothers' is a combination of ink and paper cutting, in terms of restoration, on the one hand, we must improve the clarity of the foreground and make the characters sharper." On the other hand, we must also take into account the artistic effect of ink painting and keep the landscape soft. This places very high technical demands on the machine to be able to identify good foregrounds and future scenarios. ”
Even though Hulu Brothers had been digitally restored in 2008, it still faced physical damage to the film, with dead pixels and noise. This is a huge challenge for digital restoration technicians, but when recalling the tens of thousands of original manuscripts drawn by the older generation of animators, such works are indeed worth remembering.
Now, the six classic animation 4K versions of "The Legend of Nezha", "Little Tadpole Finds Mother", "Big Head Son and Little Head Daddy", "Black Cat Sheriff", "Little Carp Adventure" and "Hulu Brothers" restored in cooperation with CCTV Animation and Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio have been launched on the watermelon video, and the audience can watch it for free.
These excellent content from the last era will not be outdated today, in the classic animation those brave, kind, tenacious and valuable qualities can also impress everyone, snow children were once the tears of the 80s, who can say that he did not make the current children feel painful? The last episode of "The Legend of Nezha", which I couldn't finish watching because I was late from school, can finally see it today.
In addition to these classic animations in our memories, the watermelon video has not forgotten our "private memories". Every ordinary user can perform high-definition repair of private images in the background of the creation of Watermelon Video, so that those memories with special significance are no longer blurred.
Those old days are not "clear" because of the sharpness, but because it is not only the old video that is restored, but also a memory that we cherish together. ☁️