"Chinese Wonders" ascended the "altar".
This domestic animation, strung together by 8 short films rooted in Chinese legends, is also known as the Chinese version of "Love, Death and Robots". Douban scored 9.6, and now the number of ratings has exceeded 100,000. Compared with the animated version of "The Three-Body Problem", which continues to decline in ratings, the art style and short and concise story of "China Strange Tan" seem to give the audience more confidence, and even shout the slogan of "the rise of national comics".
And the producer behind "China Strange Tan", Shanghai Art Film Studio, has not ushered in such a glorious moment for a long time.
The Shanghai Art Film Studio (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai Meiying") in the public's childhood memories once represented the highest level of domestic animation. It took 60 years for Shanghai Meiying to go from prosperity to decline and then to find opportunities to rise again. These 60 years are also the history of the development of Chinese animation in the ups and downs.
In the "China Ice and Snow Expansion" produced by Shanghai Meiying, Qi Tian Dasheng called out all the immortals to appear in the ice and snow world "cross-border", which kicked off the publicity of last year's Winter Olympics. And in this year's "China Strange Tan", Sun Wukong left three hairs, giving 2023 a hopeful opening.
These "three hairs" may not only be left to the little pig demon, but also to the Chinese animation that has been floating and sinking for several years.
Former glory
China's first animated feature film with sound was "The Iron Fan Princess" by the Wan brothers.
This animated feature film, which was drawn by more than 100 people, was released at the end of 1941. At that time, there were only three sound animated feature films produced by Disney in the United States, namely "Snow White", "Fantasia" and "Pinocchio". "Iron Fan Princess" caused a sensation as soon as it was screened, and even exported overseas, being released in Southeast Asia and Japan.
Amazingly, during the release of "Iron Fan Princess" in Japan, it deeply attracted Osamu Tezuka, who was still in junior high school. He wrote in the afterword to the "My Monkey King" monobook: "My Monkey King is strongly influenced by "The Iron Fan Princess". Especially when writing the end of 'The Flame Mountain and the Bull Demon King', this cartoon image jumped in my thoughts and lingered. So much so that in 1980, Osamu Tezuka came to China, and when visiting Kameigen, he even went to visit the Manji brothers, their childhood idols.
In the same 40s of the last century, the Northeast Film Studio, formerly known as the Northeast Film Company, was established in Heilongjiang. In the same year that New China was founded in 1949, the art group of Northeast Film Studio moved south to Shanghai, merged into Shanghai Film Studio, and established a new art group, which was the predecessor of Shanghai Meiying.
In the mid-50s, the eldest and second eldest of the 10,000 families who went to work in Hong Kong returned to Shanghai and joined the Shanghai Art Film Studio, where the fate of the foundation of Chinese animation also converged.
After years of war, the animation people who have fallen behind the world have to learn from the Soviet Union. In 1955, Shanghai Mei Film completed the first color animation film "Why is the Crow Black" in New China, which won an award at the Venice International Children's Film Festival, but because the art style was quite Soviet, it was once mistaken for Soviet animation.
Director Tewei found the problem and proposed to "explore the road of national style", and the production style of Shanghai Meiying also returned, drawing nourishment from traditional Chinese culture and giving birth to the future "Chinese School". Puppet films include "Divine Pen" and "Dragon Carving", paper-cut films include "Zhu Bajie Eating Watermelon" and "Fisher Boy", and in 1960, Shanghai Meiying developed an ink animation process, using Qi Baishi painting as a prototype to produce the "Little Tadpole Looking for Mother" that won the special short film award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
In the 60s and 70s of the last century, Shanghai Meiying and the "Chinese School" ushered in their own golden age.
"Trouble in the Heavenly Palace" was released in 44 countries and regions, and the American media commented: "It is more fantasy than Disney's work, and it is impossible for the United States to make such a cartoon." In 1979, Shanghai Meiying took out "Nezha Troubles the Sea" as a gift for the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. "Nezha Hai" became the first Chinese-language animated film to be exhibited in Cannes. Miyazaki once mentioned in an interview that he was "very moved" by watching the film: "After the protagonist compromised with the Dragon King and was forced to commit suicide, he appeared again for the sake of Ichiyuki's grief and indignation, and Nezha's majestic and majestic figure was vividly displayed at that time." ”
At that time, the Chinese school and Shanghai Meiying's brilliance was inseparable from their "craftsmanship" in animation art. "Nine-Colored Deer" was inspired by Dunhuang murals, and the main creative team of Shanghai Meiying spent nearly a month in the Mogao Grottoes to copy the murals for a 24-minute animation; The main creative team of "Trouble in the Heavenly Palace" will go to the Forbidden City to observe the white jade railing of Han for the "auspicious clouds" in the film, and as the director, Wan Yiming asked the monkey opera Peking Opera actors for advice, and the painters all learned to turn clouds and dance flower sticks; In "Nezha Troubles the Sea", Li Jingfuqin's fingering even has to observe the guqin player, striving to cooperate seamlessly with the music...
This is the production of art films in the era of the planned economy system. At that time, the Ministry of Culture would issue the production task of art films every year, and Shanghai Meiying undertook 350 minutes, allocating funds in accordance with the standards, and did not pursue market benefits in the production method, creating the "ivory tower" of Shanghai Meiying, an animator person.
The well-known Japanese animation magazine "ANIMAGE" once held a special interview about Chinese animation. At the end of that interview, Miyazaki expressed his expectations for Shanghai Meiyi: "I hope they will collect a small amount of money like 5 yen for the sake of children who are not poisoned by TV, or simply make some interesting movies for free." After letting those children go home, it will still be exciting to think about it a year later. I really think that's a great task they can achieve. ”
The Fallen "Chinese School"
In 1988, Shanghai Meiying produced the ink animation "Landscape Love". In the 2006 Annecy International Animation Film Festival selected "The Century of Animation, 100 Works", "Landscape and Water Love" was the only Chinese animation work selected - but it became the final work of Chinese ink animation, and was evaluated by Phoenix.com as "the last art boutique before the complete commercialization of Chinese animation".
Miyazaki's "expectations" were shattered quickly. In 1984, Miyazaki Hayao and Takahata Hoon came to China to visit Kameigen, but returned disappointed. Takahata confided in an interview with Southern Weekend a few years later: At that time, Shanghai Meiying's focus was on the salary system of the Japanese animation industry, and asked two Japanese friends in detail about the details of business models such as piece-rate pay. Miyazaki Hayao and Takahata believe that once they start to move towards a piece-rate pay business model, they will no longer be able to make Chinese school art films.
The concerns of Japanese animation masters are true, but for the current Shanghai Meiying, it may also be a change that must be made in the new era: the whole of China is undergoing a earth-shaking turn, and Shangmeiying, who has always been obsessed with animation art, cannot influence the tide of the times.
In the 80s of last century, television entered thousands of households and gradually became the mainstream way of viewing cultural content. At the same time, with the easing of relations between China and the United States and Japan, foreign animation began to enter the domestic TV animation market.
In 1981, CCTV broadcast the Japanese cartoon "Astro Boy", and the childhood of Han Han and other post-80s writers in their novels was inseparable from "Slam Dunk" and "Saint Seiya"; In 1984, Disney and CCTV reached an agreement to introduce the animation of "Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck", which both parties attached great importance to, and by 1988, Donald Duck even appeared at the Spring Festival Gala, performing animation sketches with Monkey King, and the producer was Shangmeiying.
China's animation production system is not perfect, and institutions like Shanghai Meiying that can produce animation in its entirety are rare. The original creation mode of Shanghai Meiying is also difficult to adapt to the short cycle and high-intensity industrial production mode, which cannot meet the demand for domestic animation in the field of TV animation - the number of paintings in "Trouble in the Heavenly Palace" is more than 70,000, which takes four years, such costs cannot be reduced, and the production time is not "fast".
The "Hulu Brothers" produced by Shanghai Meiying was originally based on the folklore "Ten Brothers", but limited by cost, the original "Ten Brothers" were shrunk to seven, and the image design also painted all seven people as the same, only distinguished by color. The villains are left with only snake spirits and scorpion spirits, and various gorgeous palaces are turned into caves.
At the same time, a number of animation processing enterprises have emerged in coastal areas that have taken the lead in opening up. Talents in the animation industry are already scarce, and under the condition of high salaries, many employees of Shanghai Beauty Film have left one after another, and the productivity of the original animation group has further declined.
The year 1995 became an extremely critical time node. In January of that year, the policy of planned economic indicators for cartoons was abolished, and art films were handed over to the company to operate independently and go to the market. The working mode and artistic creation system of Shanghai Meiying over the years have been based on the planned economic system, and after the art film index was canceled, the original model was naturally difficult to maintain.
Shanghai Meiying has made changes, and the salary model has been changed from the original fixed salary and bonus to the remuneration system, so that the income is linked to the work efficiency of employees. At the same time, Shanghai Meiying began to undertake outsourcing to promote external co-productions, and while communicating with the outside world, it supplied the original art film output of Shanghai Meiying. In 1979, Uemi was responsible for part of the tracing and coloring of Toei Corporation's "Space Battleship Yamato". The "Duck Detective", which became the shadow of many post-90s children, was also completed by Shanghai Meiying and Canadian CINAR Animation.
The benefits of change are clear. In just three years from 1984 to 1987, Shanghai Meiying's profit rose from 550,000 yuan to 1.7 million yuan.
However, a large number of foreign animation works inevitably deplete the creative style belonging to Shanghai Meiying. By the time "Pauline Lantern" released in 1999, although it had excellent box office results and ranked among the top three in the country, Time Network and "Southern Metropolis Daily" both commented that it "imitated Japanese and American styles with heavy traces" and "it can be seen that the choreographers are working hard to learn from Disney".
This was almost the inevitable path for domestic animation at that time. Japanese and American animation works have greatly occupied the market, and the creative style of domestic animation has gradually shifted towards the West. Although the "Big Hero Di Qing" and "The Legend of Nezha" familiar to many audiences tell traditional Chinese myths and historical stories, the eyebrow design of the characters still has the shadow of the lingering Disney version of "Mulan". Animated feature films that once had strong artistic attributes and full of Chinese characteristics disappeared for a long time.
Chen Liaoyu, the general director of "China Strange Tan", once mentioned that Disney animation has accumulated and improved on the same main style over the years, and there has been no subversive change: "Disney has this pot of soup to guarantee the bottom, even in the trough period, it can still maintain a not low level." The soup of Shangmei Factory or Chinese animation was completely dumped until the mid-80s, and even the pot was thrown away. ”
Domestic animation, new stories are needed
The performance of Shanghai Meiying in recent years can not be regarded as brilliant.
Shanghai beauty films, which have a number of classic IPs, appear in the audience's sight, and more often appear in cultural and creative restoration. Shanghai Meiying launched restored versions of "Trouble in the Heavenly Palace" and "Tianshu Qitan", which were sold out immediately when they debuted at the Shanghai Film Festival.
At the same time, Shanghai Meiying is also very keen on linkage with games, "Peace Elite", "Fantasy Westward Journey", "Onmyoji" and "Ark of Tomorrow" have all had linkage activities with Shangmeiying, the linkage content includes the launch of related character skins, decorations, and the post-apocalyptic sci-fi style "Ark of Tomorrow" even directly made the nine-colored deer into a character "landing".
The nine-colored deer and year of the ark of tomorrow
As for animation, many of Shangmeiying's new works are still eating the original "old book". In 2015, Shanghai Meiying took out the movie "Black Cat Sheriff's Emerald Star", and in 2018, it was the 3D animated film "Avanti's Adventure", and the box office did not exceed 80 million. In 2020, Shanghai Meiying launched the sequel to "I Am Crazy for Song" after 19 years, but the plot development is also controversial, and even the above three works, the Douban score has not reached the passing line of 6 points.
In contrast, "Bear Haunted", which has a box office record of 900 million, and the "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" series with 8 minutes of animated series, are more marketable in word of mouth and box office.
Therefore, the appearance of "Chinese Odd Tan" is so precious. During the construction period of more than one and a half years, the old-timers of Shanghai Beauty Film participated in it as film consultants, making the audience seem to return to the familiar "production of Shanghai Beauty Film" in their childhood memories. "Impala Flying", announced on the 60th anniversary of Shanghai Meiying, is also expected to be released this year, and Shanghai Meiying once proudly said in publicity: "This will be the first ink animation feature film in China and even the world." ”
Since "The Return of the Great Saint", domestic animation seems to have been rekindled in the hearts of the audience. But the popularity of "China Strange Tan" actually reflects the current lack of such content.
Chinese animators are not "backward" in technology. Years of outsourcing experience have indeed cultivated efficient and high-quality animation talents, and many Japanese animation teams are indispensable to participate in it. At the beginning of 2020, "Re: Life in Another World from Zero" was postponed because the Wuxi outsourcing team was affected by the epidemic, and last year's "Uncle in Another World" was postponed because of the impact of the epidemic. The topic of the masterpiece "Chainsaw Man", the end of the production list includes many Chinese studios, the acclaimed fifth episode of ED animation, produced by the domestic Firebird culture.
Even domestic animation has appeared similar masterpieces. In 2020, "Five Elements of Foggy Mountain" was regarded as the biggest dark horse of the year because of its Chinese characteristic painting style and stunning fighting scenes, and in the same year "Under One 3", the second episode also contributed 8 minutes of high-level martial arts fights. It's just that for the entire field of national animation, there are still too few and too few such works with Chinese characteristics.
The appearance of "Chinese Qitan" is indeed a shot in the arm for domestic animation.
But just a "Chinese Wonder", it may still be difficult to reproduce the glory of Chinese animation. "Love, Death and Robots" is Netflix's dazzling work based on the American animation industry, and what domestic animation needs is the ability to tell a good story, the aesthetic view that combines tradition and modernity, and the spirit of searching for animation art that Shanghai Meiying originally had.
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