"Heart Protection" is a good fairy tale drama, but it has special effects for young children.
Hou Minghao's Linglong Tianyao was cramped and peeled by his lover Suying when he became a couple, and when he turned back into his original form and fell, the elves who were sheltered by him flocked to help him pick up scales and stick them back, but they were eaten back until they disappeared.
At first it sounds reasonable to hear this plot, but when the audience sees the elves one by one holding sunflowers, colorful fruits that seem to fly, coupled with their milky voices shouting the dragon lord, such as the cartoon of "Cute Chicken Squad", there is an illusion of watching the Golden Eagle cartoon.
There is also the richest man to send red envelopes to the whole city to set off fireworks, there is a scene of the jade rabbit watching fireworks on the moon, and for the first time in the fairy tale drama, you can see the thumbnail of the earth, which is a very explosive existence in all costume dramas.
What is even more outrageous is not for nothing, after Tianyao became a demon servant of Yanhui, a certain time Yan returned to the Seven Peerless Hall to inquire about news, and Tianyao was not allowed to enter and was put into the "demon servant" storage place, a group of demon servants with demon faces spoke human words to comfort him, the more serious they said, the more funny and weird this picture appeared.
and countless gold-swallowing beasts that have become smaller once in a mouthful of gold, little monsters that have returned to their original pets, and even the prototype of Tianyao's spirit dragon has wandered between cartoons and fairies, which together constitute the special effects spectacle of this show.
In general, there is a kind of "clear stupidity, sincere rot", so this drama is also known as a fairy tale drama "suitable for the physique of Chinese babies", which is also refreshing.
But in the same way, such cartoon special effects combined with the content that is already light and joyful, the protagonist experiences the pain of the darkest moment of life at the beginning, and the audience's feelings are downplayed, but let the audience who want to relieve their anxiety simply after tea and dinner look relaxed, and will not be deterred by the protagonist's too tragic fate.
"Chinese baby" ugly debuted
Counting the special effects of fantasy and fairy tales to film and television works over the years, it is mainly divided into two directions, one is that the technical level is getting higher and higher, such as "Long Moon Ember Ming", the overall special effects market is more than a thousand minutes, using a large number of CGI technology, three-dimensional special effects are dazzling, smooth and gorgeous, so that the audience seems to be in a fairyland in the process of watching.
The other is the special effects of "Heart Protection" this time, focusing on "surprise attack", as if to tell the audience that since you can't do the most advanced technical level, you should do the most funny, cute, and interesting. In fantasy, fairy tale film and television works, "Chinese baby" monsters or elves suitable for the Chinese physique appear.
Most of these "Chinese babies" are "ugly" in appearance, such as Huba in "Monster Hunting" and Sugar Treasure in "Flower Thousand Bones", when they see them for the first time, they will wonder why they are such a form, but when they appear repeatedly in the plot, the audience is used to their appearance.
But "moe" is more than superficial, although these monsters and elves often can't speak, or milky voices, may not understand how much human language twists and turns, but most of them are pure in heart, and even because of their sincerity, they add a touch of tragedy to their fate.
Although Huba is mischievous, he makes Song Tianyin feel the emotion of being loved and needed; The twitter elves in "Heart Protection" use their strength to shake trees, small but moving, even the monsters who attack the protagonist in the play, in addition to losing the control of people with ulterior motives, show a primitive state like small animals begging for hugs, staring directly at the people and things they are interested in, which is also unpolluted cute.
The audience looks at these monsters and elves, can experience their purity, can find a kind of "lost childlike heart", and these plots do not need how interlocking plots, how hysterical big love and small love, only need the creator to mobilize the most life, universal emotions, which is why these "Chinese babies" can look relaxed and happy.
"Chinese babies" will naturally have Chinese characteristics, compared with the magical monsters in Western stories, the monsters and elves in Chinese stories often present unique Chinese elements. "Radish into essence" like Huba, and the elves who seem to be "flying fruits" in "Heart Protection", I am afraid that only our film and television works will be happy to use such a down-to-earth and cute form.
In addition to form, these monsters and elves are often transformed from Chinese imagery. The most commonly mentioned are the various monsters in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and their moves also have a charter that belongs to Chinese only understand, which is an image that only appears in the context of traditional Chinese culture and cannot be replaced.
"Chinese baby" should also be IP?
At present, the number of fairy tale dramas in the costume drama market is far ahead, and how to innovate and differentiate to attract more audiences is a problem that creators need to face. Creating a "Chinese baby" may be an innovative solution to dimensionality reduction when the cost is limited.
But the results were not unsurprisingly, and the feedback was polarized. Some viewers are attracted by the "Chinese babies" out of the circle, but there are also many people who feel that the special effects represent the texture of the series, and such a production is not particularly polished, so they choose not to watch it.
As for why such special effects were made, the staff of the "Heart Protection" special effects company replied to netizens, saying that the drama party took the initiative to request it. The producer of the show also said in an interview that the cost of special effects is actually very high, and the reason why the animation style is used is because of the desire to have a strong sense of network and strong innovation.
They did predict the audience's thoughts, "Heart Protection" is precisely because of the alternative special effects of "Chinese baby" and out of the circle, and even has the second creation spontaneously created by platform users such as "Bala La Little Devil Fairy", compared to conventional derivatives, a considerable number of viewers ask for the launch of elves and monsters, and the reason they give is that "ugly cute and cute" looks more innovative.
The hit of film and television works can drive the hot sale of derivatives, not only at present, but also the popularity of "Monster Hunt" and the hit of "Flower Thousand Bones" at that time, but also drove the dolls of Huba and Sugar Treasure to sell out of stock. The derivatives market has always attracted much attention, and IP-based has long been extended to offline.
In the current pursuit of opening up the industrial chain, derivatives of fantasy and fairy tale dramas have increasingly become an important part of IP monetization, the bracelet of "Starfall into Sugar" has become a popular peripheral, and the sky-cutting sword and heavy feather pendant of the props restored in the play in "Long Moon Ember Ming" are also sold to audiences who pay close attention to the plot.
"Koi Nafun", which has cooperated with "Long Moon Ember Ming", "Country Love" and "The Legend of Zhen Huan" to develop derivatives, may be no stranger to audiences who often pay attention to current TV series, and similar to it, combined with film and television works to focus on the development of content IP peripherals, not only to meet the audience's needs for peripheral items, but also to play the long-tail effect of content IP.
However, the attention of derivatives is constrained by the popularity of film and television works, and only works that receive high attention can derivatives be popular with the audience. Once the popularity of the content of the film and television work itself is not high, it is difficult for derivatives to obtain maximum value. Therefore, for the future development of derivatives, how to attract more audiences through the creativity of the surrounding itself on the basis of the derivative theme of film and television works, reverse blessing film and television works, and extend the long tail effect through interaction may be the direction that designers need to think about.
epilogue
From out-of-the-loop special effects to derivatives that have attracted much attention from the audience, it can be seen that today's film and television market increasingly needs creators to play a sense of the network and innovate and make breakthroughs, and the audience is far more accepting of "creativity" than creators imagined. At the same time, we also need more "Chinese babies" with Chinese cultural heritage to appear, not only to develop the IP of film and television works themselves, but also to unique Chinese cultural elements, through creative forms, so that more human bodies can taste their own meaning.