Text | Ling Hu Boguang
The Spring Festival file in 2023 is still very interesting, because the current sales are indeed very good, "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Deep Sea" are huge investments, the director has sharpened a sword for several years, and a commercial blockbuster with a comprehensive breakthrough in the theme, aesthetics and film and television industry, and Zhang Yimou's "Manjiang Hong", Cheng Er's "Nameless" is a genre film stylized to the extreme.
There is a film that has a very low sense of existence, but everyone can't ignore it when it comes to the Spring Festival file, that is, "Bear Haunted".
That's right, the latest "Bear Haunted" movie "Bear Haunted, Bear Haunted, Accompany Me "Bear Core" in 2023 is here again. You know, in 2013, "Bear Haunted" first launched the animated feature film "Bear Haunted New Year", and now the 2023 Spring Festival file has gone through exactly ten years.
Among them, 8 movies are scheduled for the Spring Festival, and the box office results are very stable, the output is very stable, and the quality is also quite stable, which can be described as the flowing Spring Festival file, the iron "Bear Haunted". At this time, the question comes, why is the "Bear Haunted" movie so stable after ten years?
The same are "reported"? Compare "Pleasant Goat" with "Bear Haunted", and the difference comes out
In fact, many Chinese audiences are from the era of "Bear Haunted", in fact, at the beginning, the fate of "Bear Haunted" and "Pleasant Goat" was quite similar, that is, the quality of the first two TV serial animation periods was good, word of mouth can also be, suitable for all ages, and it is a national-level animation work.
In the early days of "Pleasant Goat", when it was hot, there were still things to do to be lazy sheep, to marry people to marry gray wolves, and pop songs were sung, which shows how popular it is. "Bear Haunted" hot period, bear big bear II and other popular trends.
But "Pleasant Goat" or "Bear Haunted" has ushered in the darkest moment. Although this has the problem of the quality of the animation itself deteriorating in the later stages and the decline in audience liking. But Chinese animation is mainly experiencing the problem of parental reporting, and then pressing down and rectifying above.
Like "Pleasant Goat" was in 2013, when the box office of the "Pleasant Goat" movie declined, in fact, it has been proved that the animation itself faces problems, but this is only the problem of the work itself, but then there was a "roast sheep incident" where children learned Pleasant Goat, and then it was reported by parents.
The animation company not only faced a lawsuit, but also was strongly criticized by CCTV and above, so the blow to an animation work can be imagined.
"Bear Haunted" did not escape the hands of Chinese parents, at that time it was also because of the "Pleasant Goat" incident caused by the domestic animation overhaul, "Bear Haunted" such a national level work did not escape, it was criticized without specific incidents (of course, there were many), but the overwhelming criticism at that time was still vulgar and violent words, teaching bad children or something.
Finally, "Bear Haunted" was also removed from the shelves for comprehensive rectification, and the audience with an impression should remember that the bald head used to scold the smelly dog bear, and then it became a scolding bear bear, and all kinds of deletions and rectifications for violence, jumping up and down are everywhere.
After all, after 2018, domestic online animation has been further developed, and teenagers' eyes have been pulled to online animation, and the role of TV animation is much weaker, and it has become a real cartoon for preschool children.
However, the problem comes, the same young animation "Pleasant Goat" is not without new works, big movies have also been released like "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf Basket Out of the Future", the reputation is not bad, but the box office has not broken 200 million, and the box office of the "Bear Haunted" movie of nearly 1 billion in the same year is completely incomparable.
2015's "Snow Ridge Bear Wind" 296 million; 2016 "Return of the Bear's Heart" 288 million; In 2017, "Fantasy Space" doubled to 522 million; in 2018, "Metamorphosis" broke through to 606 million; in 2019, "Original Age" 718 million; "Wild Continent" 597 million in 2021; Return to Earth in 2022 979 million.
The same are national-level young animations, the same are big movies, why is "Pleasant Goat" less and less popular, and "Bear Haunted" has not only become a frequent visitor to the Spring Festival file, but also more and more stable, and even rising?
From "low" to "must-see", floor to ceiling? "Bear Haunted" big movie these 10 years
To say that the biggest difference between these two Chinese national level young animations, I think is that the upper limit is given at the beginning of the drawing style and positioning, "Pleasant Goat" is a simple two-dimensional painting style, and it is done like fish animation, the painting style is very simple, and the positioning is very young. "Bear Haunted" is a three-dimensional animation, although the positioning is also very young, but the upper limit of making movies is higher than "Pleasant Goat".
Because of the animation industry around the world today, animated films in the United States basically abandon two-dimensional animation, or Disney's three-dimensional animation. Japan is the base camp of two-dimensional animation, but either Makoto Shinkai's three-shaded two, or two-dimensional animated movies do not have this low-grade painting style.
In fact, "Pleasant Goat" is not mainstream in the world for young films, because the mainstream audience of animated films is family. It is the kind that parents can watch in addition to children, and the top is Disney, Miyazaki and Makoto Shinkai, and most of the protagonists are teenagers and girls.
If the child can watch it, the parents can watch it, not the child watching the parents sleep.
Of course, strictly speaking, "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf's Basket Out of the Future" is quite suitable for teenagers to watch, but originally the basketball sports theme is not too family-friendly, and at the same time, the previous painting style positioning is too young, and in the end, parents did not choose this way.
On the contrary, the three-dimensional art style of "Bear Haunted" has too much technical ceiling. After all, as netizens said, if you watch the current "Bear Haunted" movie, you can believe that this began as a story of a Northeast lumberjack working with two bears and a group of animals.
The technical level of this animation is indeed a lot of room for operation, from the discussion of the entire human race and forest in the beginning of "Snow Ridge Bear Wind" and "Primitive Era", to the otherworldly continent of "Wild Continent" and "Return to Earth", as well as the sci-fi alien war, the applicability of this technical upgrade is really much higher.
This movie blockbuster, the audience still has to be entertained, too young painting style is definitely not suitable for parents.
At the same time, "Bear Haunted" in the theme and content expression, although there are a large number of imitations of well-known foreign animations, this is too many to list here, but the problem is that it does not exceed this boundary, just the borrowing of some elements, the most important thing is that it is handled quite well, at least adult audiences can watch it.
Like "Primitive Times", "Wild Continent" and so on explore the proposition of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, old-fashioned is old-fashioned but not inferior. "Return to Earth" made a big scene of sci-fi special effects, and the box office surpassed "The Return of the Great Saint" in one fell swoop.
There are quite a few places where there are such comprehensive breakthroughs in technology, theme and content. These are not only what the current "Pleasant Goat" can't do, in fact, to be honest, many adults can't do it with domestic animation, these plus the national-level popularity and IP effect of "Bear Haunted".
To be honest, the ceiling of "Bear Haunted" may be so high, if Walt can create a similar IP, and the big movie can be so successful, I think it can become China's Disney, after all, Huaqiang Fantawild has its own animated theme park.
In 2019, Fangte Park ranked fifth with more than 50 million visitors, only a small gap from Universal Studios.
If you continue to play like this, it may not be able to become a world-class animation company and upstream and downstream industry, it is really not that many are still repeatedly filming Journey to the West, and other domestic animated films with mythological themes can be compared, and the tracks that everyone plays are different.
The flowing Spring Festival file, the iron-clad "Bear Haunted"? Chinese films need "bears"
Finally, "Bear Haunted" is also a legend in the Chinese animation film industry, in fact, for many young audiences, that is, you see that the film of the Spring Festival file is still not the first choice, it seems that you can watch it, there is no loss if you don't watch it, and it is a good choice for family audiences with children.
Children are happy to watch, parents can watch it, which is the main reason for its high box office.
But looking back at the IP of "Bear Haunted", as well as nearly 10 works since the release of big movies, if you have seen these big movies, looking back now it is quite moving, the overall level is quite excellent, industrial technology passes, the theme style changes almost every year, after all, it is not easy to adjust the mouth, around the theme of family and friendship, to achieve the family fun that is difficult for peers to do, completely suitable for adults, not childish and even sometimes very moved.
The plot of the first five and "Return to Earth" cannot be picked, I personally like the plot of "Snow Ridge Bear Wind" the most, how many people yearn for the relationship between Xiong Er and Danzi, it is definitely the most successful one, and it is also the one with the best reputation. But I don't know if other movies are too good, "Primordial Times" and "Wild Continent" are slightly inferior.
"Return to Earth" made the plot so successful again, and it made me full of confidence in the movie.
Regarding the future "Bear Haunted" animation, this is what I am most worried about, I am looking forward to the future direction of "Bear Haunted", I am worried about whether it will reach a higher peak of animation after changing directors, and the bear haunt must always keep doing it. After the picture from Tan1 became beautiful, the update interval seemed to be infinitely extended, if it were not for the feelings, the children of that year did not know whether they would still watch it when they grew up, and would the new audience recognize the bear haunt?
The official live broadcast the year before last revealed a lot of news, the characters of the movie such as Dudu, Naya, Feifei will return one by one, the story of the bald and strong parents, the story of the 9th mother bear, and the story of the return of the 10th movie character, these all point to a message, that is, the 10th part will be made into a big league, I am very worried about the official grasp of the plot, afraid that it will mess up this time.
I don't really want to see them together, they didn't appear together, the origin of Dudu, what is the relationship between Naya and Salter? Naya's grandfather, danzi, bass, Alan, Xiaoke, Niu couple, their stories seem to be incomplete, instead of doing some fragmentary stories interspersed in the movie, it is better to let us see the unit drama about them in the TV version, isn't it good to do this?
Finally, "Bear Haunted" was released in 2012, and now just 10 years ago, this big movie has released 9 films. 10 years, accompanied by the growth of a whole generation, the audience also has deep feelings, this animation has not yet achieved the end, but it feels that it has reached the peak of the peak, the "Bear Haunted" movie is still worth watching, may watch one less.
I personally still hope that Huaqiang Fantawild can open up a new track, after all, although "Bear Haunted" is not very good, it may almost be like that. There is only one domestic animation for such family fun, and Chinese animation needs "Bear Haunted", and more "Bear Haunted" is needed.