Time Writer | Mountain Patrol Demon
This year's summer file is in full swing, with many animations full of the beauty of the national style, including "White Snake: Origin", "Umbrella Girl", "Falling Mortal Dust", "Erlang God's Deep Sea Dragon", etc., which are about to appear on the big screen. In the summer of 25 years ago, there was a classic animation masterpiece from the American studio, which has made many viewers unforgettable.
Today's [Old Films, New Looks], Time Jun wants to talk about this "Baolian Lantern" released in July 1999, which condenses the wisdom and rigorous creative spirit of the older generation of artists, and is the glorious peak of domestic animation. "Baolian Lantern"
In the early 1990s, under the trend of animation in the United States and Japan, Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, which was once the "light of Guoman", launched a difficult road to explore the market economy. The story of Baolian Lantern is taken from the folk myth and legend "Splitting the Mountain to Save the Mother", which is different from the previous animated feature films of the United States Film Studio, "Havoc in the Heavenly Palace" and "Nezha in the Sea", which are either monkeys jumping out of stones, or fairy settings of the reincarnation of Lingzhu. In "Baolian Lantern", the protagonist became an ordinary child who has half of the fairy blood, but actually has no divine power.
"Sincerity, gold and stone are open" is the creed that Sun Wukong taught to Agarwood, and the young audiences who were influenced by this film also learned the character of being independent and indomitable in the face of adversity. The film has an investment of more than 12 million, a total of more than 150,000 pictures, more than 2,000 shots in the whole film, nearly 50 characters, plus an all-star dubbing lineup and a soundtrack that still sounds outdated, allowing the audience to see the strength and sincerity of "Baolian Lantern". At the box office that year, "Baolian Lantern" defeated the annual box office runner-up of "Mulan" from Disney, second only to Feng Xiaogang's "See You or Leave". At that time, since 1983's "Strange Tales from the Book of Heaven", there has been no exciting domestic animated feature film on the screen for more than ten years, and the national art style that once won the supreme honor for domestic animation in the world and is full of classical meaning has been retained in "Baolian Lantern". The appearance of "Baolian Lantern" became the brightest light in domestic animation at that time, which reinvigorated the confidence of the Chinese people.
The resurgence of American studios
In the 90s, American and Japanese animation products have quietly landed in the mainland, and young audiences born in the 80s and 90s began to become more picky, and they are more inclined to more lively and funny animation styles. At this time, after the Shanghai Art Studio produced "Hulu Brothers", there was no work that could be remembered by the audience.
"Hulu Brothers" was produced in 1986, but the American film studio, which was supposed to catch up, fell into a predicament - the system reform caused the American film studio to lose the "welfare" of state appropriation and unified purchase and sales, and the self-financing American film studio lost a large number of excellent original artists under the agitation of the market economy. Because, you can earn more by choosing to do OEM animation on the other side of the ocean. Around 1995, Disney's "The Lion King" and "Toy Story" swept China, at this time, Shanghai TV and the United States Film Studio also completed the merger, and the newcomers cultivated also had the ability to take charge of themselves.
At that time, there were still 4 years before the 50th anniversary of the birth of New China, which was also the cycle needed for the production of an animated feature film. "Baolian Lantern" was put on the agenda as a "gift film" of the American Film Studio. The film is escorted by the top veteran artists of the United States Film Studio - Chang Guangxi, a first-class animation designer who has participated in the production of "Havoc in Heaven" and "Nezha in the Sea", as the director, the famous film director Wu Yigong as the art consultant, and the famous composer Jin Fuzai as the music director.
Chang Guangxi, who had been an original painter in the United States Film Studio for nearly 40 years before directing "Baolian Lantern", was born in 1979 "Nezha in the Sea", the saddest scene of that domestic film - Nezha's self-slaughter was from Chang Guangxi's hand.
In order not to lose the unique Chinese cultural spirit of the animation of the United States Film Studio, before starting the production, Chang Guangxi specially went to Xi'an Museum, Dunhuang and other places to collect style. So it is not difficult for us to see that in the background of the film, there are many shadows of the traditional culture of the Chinese nation, and the bronzes and bells in the Heavenly Palace are all derived from ancient cultural relics. Considering market factors and integrating with international standards has become inevitable, in terms of character design, Chang Guangxi and his team borrowed from the American animation style that was more in line with the aesthetics of the audience at that time, such as the little monkey of Agarwood, and the shaping of the image of some animals.
Chang Guangxi mentioned in the audience sharing meeting of "Baolian Lantern", "We want to put the Chinese spirit in the 'Baolian Lantern', and at the same time consider that the tastes of contemporary audiences have changed under the influence of Japanese comics and Disney, they are more demanding, and we should also explain to the current audience." At the same time, in the quiet period of a few years, the United States Film Studio has cultivated enough excellent young talents for "Baolian Lantern". Zhang Zhenhui, a die-hard fan of the American Film Studio in his early 20s, is one of them. In 1992, Zhang Zhenhui, who saw a new advertisement for new recruits from the United States Film Studio in the newspaper, was "lucky" to become a student of the animation training class of the United States Film Studio. After several years of study and practice, he appeared in the animation group of "Baolian Lantern". "In the original painting group and the animation group, young people account for a large proportion," Zhang Zhenhui, who worked as a "retoucher" in the Baolian Lantern crew, recalled to Time Jun. Therefore, it is not difficult for us to understand why "Baolian Lantern" looked so "trendy" in terms of action and painting style. "Unlike now, which is all done on a computer, 'Baolian Lantern' is the last hand-drawn animated film," Zhang Zhenhui recalled, "The hooking and coloring of 'Baolian Lantern' are all purely manual, which is very time-consuming and labor-intensive. "Although the pictures are not as gorgeous as today's domestic anime, the background is also ethereal and looming, unlike the strong chiaroscuro of international popular animation. But it is precisely because of this that from "Baolian Lantern", you can also find the unique style of the American film studio and full of Chinese artistic conception.
Pre-dubbing in line with international standards
"Lotus Lantern" has a whole different way of working. Before the start of production, the studio set the basic route that it must be in line with international standards, both in terms of technology and art.
In the production, the crew divided each process into a detailed division of labor, using the internationally accustomed pre-dubbing soundtrack, as well as the latest technologies such as Dolby SRD six-channel full digital sound recording technology and computer three-dimensional special effects. This was the first time in the history of Chinese animation and even live-action cinema at that time. On the one hand, it is handmade, and on the other hand, it is assisted by technology. In the era of alternating old and new technologies, Baolian Lantern undoubtedly leads Chinese animation to take a step in technological exploration. The three-dimensional computer stunt was used in the scene where Agarwood's parents met at the beginning, and the sense of space brought by the lens transition left a deep impression on the audience.
Zhang Zhenhui said, "This picture is very complicated to make, the three-dimensional lens scene, plus the two-dimensional background animation, when the lens changes, it has to be proofread frame by frame, and I invited a Hong Kong animation special effects production company to help complete this picture." In addition, the studio invited a group of powerful actors including Jiang Wen, Chen Peisi, Ningning, Xu Fan, Liang Tian, Zhu Shimao and other powerful actors to dub the film in advance. At that time, "it was difficult to dub in advance because the actors couldn't see the picture," director Chang Guangxi said in an interview with the media. The actors can only take the storyboard and lines provided by the director and add their own imagination to shape the characters. However, this provided great support for the creation of the original painting in the later stage.
Zhenhui has a deep understanding of this, "Some emotions in the actors' dialogues, the emotions of the performances are in them, and some of the expressions and actions of their characters are judged and designed according to the actors' emotional voices, as well as exaggerated body language, which is more referential and more sufficient." In this way, whether it is in terms of mouth shape or personality characteristics, the animated characters have the highest degree of fit with the interpretation of the actor himself.
Interestingly, Jiang Wen was watching the storyboard of "Erlang God".