Whitesnake 2 poster.
"White Snake 2: Green Snake Robbery" (hereinafter referred to as "White Snake 2") produced by Chasing Light Animation was released in China on July 23, as the sequel to the high-profile national comic "White Snake: Origins" released in 2019, "White Snake 2" has attracted much attention since the establishment of the project, and the pre-sale box office of the film has exceeded 10 million yuan so far. From "White Snake: Origins", which came out as a dark horse, to "White Snake 2", which is highly anticipated in the summer file today, what is the starting point for the construction of this new worldview? What is the future direction of the third story? The Beijing News reporter exclusively interviewed Yu Zhou, co-founder of Chasing Light Animation, and producer Cui Di, and invited them to tell the story behind "White Snake 2".
【Story】
Don't talk about "The Legend of the White Snake", I want to talk about Xiaoqing's new counterattack
In January 2019, the first "White Snake: Origins" of the "White Snake" animation film work and the "White Snake" IP was released, and the film quickly broke the circle with a good reputation, and also achieved excellent results of 470 million yuan at the box office, becoming the highest-grossing domestic film in the same period. Such a hot market feedback is what the light-chasing animation production team did not expect, "In fact, "White Snake: Origins" was not highly scheduled at the beginning of the release, and we were particularly nervous, this movie is very important for the light-chasing animation and for the national comic. But with the slow fermentation of word of mouth, the audience passed on the word of mouth, can counterattack as a dark horse, more people have seen this movie, we think it is very lucky. Producer Cui Di told the Beijing News reporter that in fact, as early as before the release of "White Snake: Origins", everyone has begun to have ideas about the creation of sequels, that is, the quality of the release feedback plays a role in promoting the sequel project, this time, they selected Xiaoqing.
Stills from Whitesnake 2. The little green and small white sisters were born and died in front of the Leifeng Pagoda.
"White Snake: Origins" is actually a new story on the legend archetype to fill the gap in the past life, and "White Snake 2" is to make Xiaoqing become the "big heroine", break through the shackles of the legend story, and create a new protagonist to extend the story space, which is also the first time that Guoman has made Xiaoqing in the folklore "The Legend of the White Snake" the protagonist, and is about to seek greater innovation space while continuing the legend. In the fall of 2018, at the end of the production of Whitesnake: Origins, the light-chasing animation team began to think about what should be done later. Cui Di said that the idea of a sequel mainly comes from everyone's liking for the IP of "The Legend of the White Snake", this story is worth telling, and they found that Xiaoqing is undoubtedly the best person to do the sequel. "For Xiaoqing, everyone has a lot of different views. In the classical "Legend of the White Snake", there are fewer stories that really tell Xiaoqing, which gives us the space to create. We don't want to do the story of the canon, because this has been a classic that has been passed down for many years, we don't want to change anything, plus the past life of White Snake and Xu Xian, the love story has been told in "White Snake: Origins", if the focus is on Xiao Qing, what should she do when Xiao Bai is suppressed under the Leifeng Tower? What will you experience when you escape? How should she fight back in the face of this heavy blow and blow? And her own emotional understanding of her sister, etc. ..." Cui Di said that there are not many film and television works that mainly tell the character of the green snake, and they want to build a new worldview for her story.
【Style】
It has both a modern style and a traditional ink animation texture
Stills from Whitesnake 2. The Illusion of Shura City.
The construction of a new worldview must have outstanding innovation. "White Snake 2" was born out of the traditional Chinese folklore "The Legend of the White Snake", the light-chasing animation team has innovatively integrated traditional culture with modern film language, and also decided to create an exclusive story of "big heroine" Xiao Qing, hoping that this movie is different in style from "White Snake: Origins": "The texture of "White Snake: Origins" is aesthetic and ancient, and we can do a lot of innovation on this. In the film, the ancient and modern buildings in Shuluo City coexist, while retaining the traditional oriental visual style, it also integrates modern elements into it, presenting a new fantasy world. Because the emotional core of our film is obsession, so the shape of Shuluo City is designed as a snake shape with a snake's head and tail, which is equivalent to people's strong obsession, and it is impossible to get around in this environment. Cui Di introduced that in the new world view of "White Snake 2", many settings are references from myths and legends, such as in the illusion of Shuluo City, there are four disasters such as fire and qi, which originated from the records of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas"; and the shape of the Luosha clan also comes from the image described in the myth and legend, they have wings, bird beaks, and fierce faces. The images of traditional stories such as white snake, Fahai, fox demon, etc. have also been adapted, realizing the modern deconstruction of traditional culture and recreating a refreshing inspirational growth story on the basis of profound cultural heritage. As for the protagonist Xiaoqing, although her styling image has made some changes, she will wear a one-shoulder suspender and wear a towering ponytail, but there has been no major change in character and personality, but it has maintained the traditional Xiaoqing in everyone's cognition.
Stills from Whitesnake 2. Xiaoqing's modern and capable style.
"We will not change the original core of the character, Xiaoqing gives people the feeling that she dares to love and dare to hate, more independent, jealous as a vendetta, she will draw her sword against each other without a word, she will impulsively fight to the death, she still hates unfairness and hates Xu Xuan, because she has experienced a lot of stories with Xiao Bai before, so this time Xiaoqing will be more mature, and Shuluo City is her experienced ring." In Yuzhou's view, in terms of production, today's light-chasing animation has a very mature technology and special effects. Picture production, artistic creativity, animation production is not a great difficulty for them, but this time in the story innovation, a larger world view and special effects visual upgrade production, does make "White Snake 2" have a higher investment, "this time Xiaoqing's expression is more abundant, more delicate, everyone can more deeply understand her joys and sorrows from her hands and feet, including her fight scenes will have more flexible and exaggerated actions, which need to be developed and tested by our continuous characters. It took almost a year to complete, and the internal team grew from about 170 in Whitesnake: Origins to more than 250 people, in addition to many external co-working teams. ”
Stills from Whitesnake 2. The "Batu Caves" lens has a traditional Chinese feng shui ink animation texture.
There are many stories recorded in the movie, how to use animation technology to show a refreshing? For this, the team has done a lot of non-physical special effects to show temptation, such as the two-dimensional "Batu Cave" (equivalent to the "Qingfeng Cave" cultivated by Xiao Qing in the original work) lens with the traditional Chinese feng shui ink animation texture, in order to achieve the sense of ink overflow with color, the team took half a year to achieve stylistic and technical presentation. The reporter learned that for the light-chasing animation behind "White Snake 2", this work also plays an indispensable role in its content ecology. As the next work trend revealed by the Easter egg at the end of the film, the curtain has been opened on the new legend series, and after Xiao Bai's love story and Xiao Qing's growth story, the story of the little fox demon Bao Qingfang is also about to be staged. At the same time, the second part of the new Fengshen series led by "New God List: Nezha Rebirth" "New God List: Yang Jian" has also entered the production, and it can be seen that behind the two major series, the content ecological territory created by the light-chasing animation has taken shape, which is also a unique contribution to the development of the entire national comic, and its attempts in IP research and development and ecological construction have also brought successful experience to domestic animation companies.
【Interview】
The two universes of the new gods and new legends will not intersect
Beijing News: There are many modern settings in Shuluo City, is Xiaoqing coming here a kind of "crossing"?
Yu Zhou: This is not a crossing, the illusion of Shuluo City is a story background, there is no time to cross, all those who fall into this illusion are people with attachments. In the creation, we have a lot of breakthrough ideas, designed a lot of Chinese style buildings or objects, I hope that everyone can feel the improvement of production, there is a refreshing feeling.
Stills from Whitesnake 2. There are many Chinese-style buildings in the illusion of Shuluo City.
Beijing News: The story of "White Snake 2" is more complicated, there are more characters, and it is more challenging than the previous one in terms of production details, right?
Cui Di: This is a new environment, we need to build, develop, basically from small to large plots have to think very carefully. The general direction, such as how the sun and moonlight behave, whether there is soil in Shura City, what kind of plants will grow on the soil; the small ones are what they trade, what foods these monsters eat, these need a logical and systematic setting, and it is indeed a big challenge to believable.
Stills from Whitesnake 2. The RivalRyoks and minotaurs in the Shura Realm.
Beijing News: We saw the Easter egg of "White Snake 2" in the "New God List: Nezha Rebirth", will these mythical images built by chasing light be linked in the future?
Yu Zhou: It needs to be clarified here, in fact, "White Snake" and "Nezha" are completely subordinate to the two series, they will not have any interaction in the drama movie, and the previous Easter eggs are actually just an action we have on the film promotion. For us to chase the light, it is currently divided into two large universes, one is called the New Fengshen Universe, there will be Nezha, Yang Jian, etc.; one is the new legend universe, there will be Xiao Bai, Xiao Qing and other characters, "White Snake: Origins" is the first part of this series.
Beijing News: The market is an unavoidable question, will the box office of this movie affect the development of the entire universe?
Cui Di: We still have high expectations for this part, when "White Snake: Origins" was also a surprise, did not think that it would counterattack, when doing a sequel also thought that the pressure is very high, many viewers said, you must do a sequel, this thing is particularly important, I want to present you with a reasonable, unexpected work.
Stills from Whitesnake 2. Xiao Bai and Xiao Qing were cultivating.
Yu Zhou: I think the concept of blockbusters was almost unexpected before the release of the movie, and it is also unattainable, it needs to be favorable at all times and places, we are working hard, although we can't do it perfectly, but we will do our best to do a good job, if there is a market to confirm this success, we will also be very happy.
Beijing News: Many viewers are concerned about the next one, can you reveal something?
Cui Di: All the secrets are in the Easter egg, but it can be explained that the third part is definitely not the story of Xu Xuan (Xu Xian at the end of "White Snake: Origins"), and we are now planning the next step, and we will continue to explore in this legendary universe, in fact, there are many characters worth expressing in this story.
Stills from Whitesnake 2. The modern elements of Bao Qingfang are still beautiful.
Yu Zhou: We will not only revolve around the main characters of the White Snake Legend, nor do we mean that the new legend is the first, second and third parts of "White Snake", which will become the "New White Snake" series, and there are many characters that can be built, and the audience will also want to see, such as Bao Qingfang.
Beijing News reporter Zhou Huixiaowan
Edited by Huang Jialing Proofreader Wu Xingfa