Wen 丨 Robinson's diary
Edit 丨Robinson's diary
From an aesthetic point of view, "a genre is a collection of stylistic features that are identified. "From the perspective of narrative classification," genre can also be said to be a narrative classification, which covers one type of story, a variety of character relationships and character development of different style types. ”
This kind of typed narrative can not only enable the filmmaker to reduce the risk of distribution, but also allow the audience to find a suitable film type based on the existing viewing experience, so as to meet the viewing expectations.
As far as a series of cartoons in Disney that describe the heroic saga are concerned, the filmmakers also use the method of genre narrative and successfully launch one classic cartoon after another that has swept the world. After investigation, it was found that the pattern of Disney's cartoons telling heroic stories includes two aspects, namely the growth model and the supporting role model.
The growth model details the heroic images in Disney cartoons, both heroes who have changed from ordinary characters, and characters who have extraordinary origins at the beginning, experienced a series of tribulations in the process of growing up, and finally became heroes, which is the so-called "heroes do not ask the source".
Although the stories and images of each hero are very different, they have a strikingly similar pattern of growth, starting with the story, their origins are poor or they have endured twists and turns, they have endured many tests in the process of growth, and finally created great achievements, become admired heroes or return to their rightful place.
Some scholars have simply summarized this hero growth model as "hero birth - hero verification - hero meritorious service - hero worship".
Taking "King Test" as an example, the film begins with a picture of the forest kingdom celebrating the birth of Simba, a lion cub. The sun rises from sea level, rhinos on land, bell sheep and long-billed cranes in the water all look out, flocks of geese fly over the endless savannah, giraffes, elephants, zebras and many other animals cheer and rush to the center of the forest to witness the future king.
When the wizard Larich lifted Simba, who was still lying in his mother's arms, aloft, the forest suddenly burst into jubilation, and even the originally dim sky strangely emitted a bright light, which shone throughout the forest, and all the animals in the forest bowed down to show their respect.
The performance not only uses images such as the rising "sun" and the dazzling "light" under the dim sky to show the noble status of little Nazi Simba after birth, but also equips the picture with music with African characteristics, which perfectly dyes the grandeur of the hero's birth.
Regarding the section "The Birth of a Hero", the cartoon director spent a full minute vividly portraying it. After a short carefree life, the hero Simba ran away from home because he lost his father, thus entering the "hero verification" link. After running away from home, Simba fainted due to hunger and exhaustion, and was rescued by passing wild boars Pengpeng and Rat Ding Man.
Simba lives a wandering life with his two partners, and his life seems to be leisurely and leisurely, but Simba is experiencing torment inside. Because he was burdened with the guilt of causing his father's death, he did not dare to return to his hometown to see his missing relatives and friends.
But the hero finally defeated his character and psychological vulnerability, fought a decisive battle with the bad guys represented by his uncle's knife disease, and regained his own empty seat as the king of the forest.
After the hero establishes the merit, it is logical to enter the "hero worship" mode. At the end of the film, Simba climbs step by step in the heavy rain to the rock where he was born to receive the pilgrimage of all the animals in the forest, and the music of the film is played again, and the depths of the forest once again jubilation, fully showing the worship of their heroes.
In "Stranger in the Wind", although the hero's birth was not deliberately dyed, the protagonist was placed in the predicament of life at the beginning of the film, and directly entered the "hero verification" link. Coincidentally, the heroic protagonists in these two cartoons are in the same dilemma, that is, their parents are arranging marriage events for them.
Compared with Simba in "The Lion King", male and female heroes face different life dilemmas in the "hero verification" link, male heroes have to solve how to face life setbacks, and female heroes face the most direct dilemma is the family society's pre-arrangement of their life path.
For their future lives, the two female protagonists have their own ideas, but they are helpless to be bound by tradition and family. Fortunately, the two protagonists seized the opportunity to turn the sudden change into an opportunity to show themselves, and after some hardships, they made achievements and created their own legends.
The growth of female heroes was successfully included in the "Birth of Heroes" - "Hero Verification" and "Hero Achievement" - "Hero Worship" model. We say that heroes are called heroes because they create legends or myths, but the hero's ultimate achievements and being praised and remembered by the world are more due to the perception and influence brought by his tortuous life experience.
People are more willing to call those who have gone through hardships and achieved great deeds as "true heroes" than heroes who have achieved great things through hardships.
Therefore, whether on the big or small scene, the audience is more interested in watching the twists and turns of the legendary characters, and the director is more willing to interpret such storylines. From the perspective of narration, the twists and turns of the storyline of legendary characters can effectively adjust the narrative rhythm, and the balance of narrative content is broken and rebalanced through a series of plot changes.
In the film, the hero is in a comfortable or ordinary life at the beginning, and then breaks the balance of the hero's life with tribulations and dangers in a timely manner, allowing the characters to experience multiple changes in personality, emotions and life in a series of plots, and finally solves the contradictory state and achieves a higher level of balance.
David Podwell argues that "we can think of a narrative as a series of events that take place at a certain time, in a place, and have a causal relationship." Usually, a narrative begins with a situation and then causes a series of changes according to the pattern of causality; Finally, a new situation arises that gives the narrative an ending."
Another scholar, Todolov, also summed up a universal formula that can express this "balance mode", that is: a state of balance and completeness, a state of balance to break the imbalance, a state of seeking a new balance (positive and negative forces are evenly matched), a state of imbalance, a new balance, Simba's rich life at the beginning of his birth is a state of balance and completeness.
When his father dies, he runs away from home, his balance is upset, and while wandering, Simba encounters Pengpeng, the wild boar, and Dingman, the melt rat, and the three form a happy trio and live freely in the forest. When Simba hears from his childhood friend Nana that the kingdom of Shizi is in critical condition under the brutal rule of his uncle's knife disease, a new imbalance arises.
Simba eventually defeats his uncle Knife Syndrome to regain the throne and becomes the hero of the Lion Kingdom and the entire Forest Kingdom, and the film's story ending is rebalanced again.
The continuous breaking and reshaping of the plot balance can not only deepen the story layer by layer, but also adjust the rhythm of the film and mobilize the audience's viewing interest. The female growth patterns in the other two films have also undergone a switch between balance and imbalance.
The story of "Stranger in the Wind" has two clues, one clue is the psychological change and growth of the heroine Jia Conti, and the other clue is the experience of the male protagonist Zhuang Maisi after entering the Indian tribe, the two clues finally converged, staging a moving love story, the original hair-trigger alien war was finally solved by the heroine of the heroine, and the storyline also changed from tension to calm, and once again reached a state of balance.
From Disney's cartoons, it can be seen that hero growth has a certain pattern, from the birth of the hero to the test to become a hero, from the balance to the balance is broken to a new level of balance, although this patterned growth process is similar, but because of the change of narrative rhythm and suspense brought about by the progress of the plot.