On July 5, the reporter learned from the Studio that the animation artist, the general director of the animation film "The Story of Avanti" and the art design Qu Jianfang died in Shanghai in March this year at the age of 86.
It is reported that Qu Jianfang's family complied with his last wishes and the funeral was simple, so Mr. Qu died a few months after his death before releasing news to the industry.
Qu Jianfang was born in 1935 and graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Northeast American College (Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts) in 1957. From 1957 to 1988, Qu Jianfang worked as a first-class art designer and director at the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, and his representative works include "Genius Acrobat", "This is a Song", "The Story of Avanti" and so on.
The most widely known and memorable of generations of people is undoubtedly the classic puppet series "The Story of Avanti", which was a puppet animation released by the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio from 1979 to 1980, with Qu Jianfang as the director and art designer, who was also the designer of the "Avanti" cartoon image.
Vivid images of Avanti riding a donkey and humorous tongue, miserly and greedy old man Bayi, and so on are the common memories of generations of Chinese people.
"The Story of Avanti" is divided into more than a dozen small stories, each story is about twenty or thirty minutes, short and delicate, and many fragments are even more impressive, and it is still interesting and thought-provoking to think about.
For example, in the first episode of "Selling Shade", the rich man Bayi wants to cheat the poor of money, so he claims that the shade belongs to him, and if he wants to cool off, he must take money to buy it, and Avanti said that he would spend money to buy shade, and finally treat his body in the way of a person, which is very relieved.
In order to create "The Story of Avanti", all the main creators went deep into life and drew inspiration. At that time, Qu Jianfang went to Kashgar, Xinjiang, to collect customs, visit various buildings, learn local dialects, etiquette and customs, and also go to the homes of fellow villagers to interview.
What he saw at that time was full of earth yellow, "The small mud houses are earth yellow, the slopes and canyons are also earth yellow, and as soon as the camel caravan goes, the horses leave, and it is all dust." ”
Although the sky is blue, a piece of yellow has left a deep impression on Qu Jianfang, so he designed the sky in "The Story of Avanti" to be yellow, which not only unifies the tone, but also highlights the character image.
In the design of the characters, Qu Jianfang is also very careful.
He listened to many stories of Avanti told by the locals, read all kinds of materials about Avanti, and asked the locals what Avanti in Xinjiang looked like.
The locals replied that they thought that Avanti was a young adult in his thirties and forties, plus later Qu Jianfang observed on the side of the road, saw a thirty-year-old boy with a goatee holding a camel, and felt that Avanti was him, so he went to his hometown to paint an oil portrait for him, which became the basis for Avanti's character design.
The inspiration for Bayi and Bayi po is that Qu Jianfang and his colleagues are guests in the local large households, the host looks fat, and the hostess also invites them to eat pilaf. Qu Jianfang found that the couple's action of eating pilaf is very distinctive, and after grabbing the rice and putting it in his mouth, he also has to rub his mouth.
Finally, Qu Jianfang and his colleagues drew the couple and various pots and pans for reference, and also used the details of the action of eating pilaf during filming.
It is precisely because of the sincerity and intentions of the creators and the inspiration from life that the interview with "The Story of Avanti" has become a classic in the hearts of generations.
Among them, "Avanti - Planting Gold" won the 1980 Ministry of Culture Excellent Film Award, the Popular Film Hundred Flowers Award, and also won the certificate issued by the 1980 American Oscar Organizing Committee, especially encouraging this excellent work.
Qu Jianfang not only has fruitful achievements in the field of creation, has a high reputation and status in the industry, has served as a jury member of many domestic and international film festivals, he is also a visiting professor of universities and colleges such as "Zhejiang Chuan", "Lu Mei", "Beiying" and other colleges and universities, as a graduate tutor of the Animation School of "Communication University of China", since teaching, "peach and plum all over the world", for the country to cultivate a lot of outstanding talents in animation art.
Now this old gentleman is gone
Netizens have expressed their reluctance.
Thanks to Mr. Qu
Brings us the Story of Avanti
Let's make our childhood better
Mr. Qu went all the way
Source | Morning News Comprehensive Weekly Shanghai reporter Lu Yier
Source: Morning News