Author: Green Stream
After two months of not going to the cinema, it was so easy to make up my mind to see an animated film, and I was really attracted by the poster at the beginning, that simple and artistic style, like the fairy tale picture book I saw when I was a child.
At the same time, the British comic book adaptation of the cartoon of the same name "Peter Rabbit" was also released, but the film version abandoned the watercolor style in the book and used live-action + CGI technology to integrate live-action and animation. In this way, the slightest hair on the rabbit's body appears real and vivid, but this overly realistic sense of reality damages the warmth of the watercolor brushstrokes in the original painting.
In 2015, the French fairy tale "The Little Prince" also made a movie, using the style of tearing paper, the painting style looks artistic enough, but unfortunately the story is adapted beyond recognition, and the French romantic tragedy has become a heart-warming growth film with an American family theme.
Has the ancient Continent of Europe weakened to the point of losing itself in the face of the young and powerful Americas?
Hollywood's cartoons are often suitable for all ages and box office explosions, and each of them, such as Frozen, Zootopia, and Dream Quest, can cause a sensation around the world, and is undoubtedly the main force in the Oscar for best animation.
Hollywood cartoons are constantly innovating in terms of painting style, animation image, cultural background, computer special effects, etc., and constantly integrate the values of modern society into fairy tales, such as feminist ideas in "Cinderella" and "Ocean Adventure"; and "Frozen" carries the anti-discrimination private goods of comrades. Ideology aside, the storyline of these cartoons is also very good, not only good-looking, but also integrated into reality, "Zootopia" and "Dream Quest" are more or less reflective of the current American society.
But while we marvel at the creativity and humanistic care of Hollywood animation, we still can't help but produce aesthetic fatigue. Why are the protagonist's eyes always big and bright; why are they around the themes of family and love; why are they deliberately pandering to political correctness; why they can't control themselves from going to Black Trump...
I don't know if you have found that Disney, DreamWorks, Pixar, these big animation labels have now found a routine that is full of sincerity and can please the world: that is, to put the same story core into different cultural backgrounds, and use the novel style of foreign/alien cultures to create freshness, but this freshness is only visual. The Pacific Island Aborigines of Ocean Adventure, the Mexican folklore of Dream Quest, the Chinese elements of Kung Fu Panda, the Ice Age landscape of Ice Age... These are all very good and good, but each one has to pursue edutainment, which is very boring, animation must have positive energy, do they have to revolve around love, friendship, family, growth, and understanding? How hard is it to tell a real fairy tale so easily?
Most fairy tales are for children, and there is nothing wrong with containing positive energy, but overemphasization is preachy. In recent years, the struggle of Hollywood ideology has also been expressed in movies, and the vulnerable groups have become more and more present in movies, and their images have become more and more positive, which is also a good thing, but it is deliberately done, and the film art itself is ignored.
"The Story of the Big Bad Fox" has been good for a long time because it is a simple cartoon, with a watercolor style and no trace of computer special effects; a light story, without preaching and metaphor. Although it is a little naïve, that kind of "childishness" has a charm that makes people laugh from the bottom of their hearts.
Probably my personal prejudice that French films are better than Hollywood blockbusters, even cartoons. The Prince and Princess of France,
French-Italian co-production of "MiYa MiGuRen",
The French-Irish co-production of The Secret of the Book of Kells...
Each one has its own unique painting style, and the core of the story is not similar, it does not blindly please the audience, but expresses its own artistic pursuit. These cartoons with personalities, even if they are not released in the cinema, can be found to see, not just to change the taste.