< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > order</h1>
In a towering, complex, and heavily organized castle lived a tyrannical king. There are three paintings in the king's chamber—a portrait of himself, a beautiful shepherd girl, and a chimney sweeper. One night the figures in these paintings are brought to life, and the king in the portrait banishes the real king to the dungeon, and he falls in love with the shepherd girl, and wants to break up the shepherd girl who loves each other and the chimney sweeper. The pair of outlaw Mandarin ducks, with the help of birds, eventually escaped from the palace. The imposing castle was reduced to rubble with the riots caused by this escape.
The animation "The King and the Birds" shook the world with its sophisticated production and profound meaning. This animated film, produced by the famous French animation director Paul Gullimo for thirty years, is an unsurpassable classic in the history of French animation, which has made French animation famous all over the world and influenced many animation creators.
To understand how King and Bird influenced Takahata and Miyazaki, and even on Ghibli and even Japanese animation, it is first necessary to understand the beginning and end of this animation and its characteristics that distinguish it from Disney animation.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > stubborn creator and difficult creative process</h1>
In 1947, director Paul Gullimo and screenwriter Jacques Plevi began working on Shepherd and the Chimney Worker (the predecessor of The King and the Bird). The production team of more than 100 people worked for three years, less than 80% of the completion, the production budget was overdrafted and the production completion time was far away, the company could not withstand the pressure of near bankruptcy, so without Paul's knowledge, the unfinished version was released publicly. The film received a strong response after its release, and in 1952 it won the Venice Film Festival Jury Special Award.
Paul Gullimo
Although not the total production cycle of thirty years, Paul Gurrimo's dedication to the work is amazing. As for whether the work can achieve the desired effect in his mind, Paul Gurrimo has devoted all his efforts.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > two, "futuristic" animated films</h1>
Released in Japan in 1955, Shepherd and the Chimney Worker was translated as The Tyrant with The Squinting Eye. After its release, it caused a heated discussion and was compared with Disney's animation.
The difference between "Shepherd Girl and The Chimney Worker" and Disney animation lies in the number of paintings and animation effects on the one hand, and in the form and connotation of the story on the other hand.
1. The number of paintings and animation effects
Disney is known for its full-frame animation, which is to achieve the flow of character movements almost like live-action performances through a large number of drawings. In disney animations produced in the 40s and 50s of the last century, Pinocchio painted 500,000 copies and Peter Pan painted 2 million copies.
There are many characters in "Peter Pan" and the action portrayal is meticulous, and such a scene is difficult to achieve the expected effect without a large number of paintings
The publicity of "Shepherd Girl and Chimney Worker" was said to have been produced by 180 animators in nearly 5 years, with a total of nearly 1.2 million hours and 400,000 drawings.
Although the number of such paintings is already amazing enough, it is ordinary in front of Disney animation. However, the animation rhythm of the characters in "The Shepherd and the Chimney Worker" ("The King and the Bird") is very well grasped, and the urgency is also achieved, which also achieves the effect of truly expressing the dynamics of the characters.
The dynamic portrayal in "The King and the Bird" attaches great importance to the grasp of rhythm, reflecting a different sense of rhythm
2. The form and connotation of the story
Disney animation is generally a fairy tale story, and incorporates the expression of musical theater, full of a cheerful and beautiful atmosphere.
In the 1950s, when Japan was in the midst of a period of post-war reconstruction, people were eager for social revival and had a strong need for culture. The audience was aesthetically tired of disney's animation's cookie-cutter style, and the appearance of "Shepherd Girl and Chimney Worker" was eye-catching. The ironic story behind the witty and vivid characters makes people think about it endlessly after reading it, and each character has a different symbolic meaning that is more thought-provoking. Such fresh animation makes people realize that animation is not only suitable for children, but also for adults.
The Asahi Shimbun once commented: "This is not an animation for children, but an experimental film, which can be said to be 'futuristic'."
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, the effects of The King and the Bird on Takahata and Miyazaki</h1>
At that time, due to the lagging economic development and the immature market, the development of Japanese animation, especially original animation, was very difficult.
With the popularity of television, the demand for television animation has become larger. Osamu Tezuka has carried forward the limited animation method, and in Japanese TELEVISION animation, the characters only have eyes and mouths moving, and they use a lot of static postures and close-ups to save costs. Although the production of animation in Japan is booming, this kind of low-cost, action-free animation has also been criticized by many people.
Many animators feel that it is contrary to the original intention of animation, and the appearance of "Shepherd Girl and Chimney Worker" gave them a great inspiration.
Takahata said in an interview:
If these two big-name directors hadn't met "Shepherd girl and chimney worker", maybe we wouldn't have seen the Ghibli style work behind us. This work has had a subtle impact on their creative careers.
1, the same stubbornness
Takahata's first theatrical version of the anime, The Adventures of the Sun Prince Halls, produced by Toei, had a very similar experience to Paul Gullimo's The King and the Birds.
At the time, Toei was in a state of loss, and Takahata served as the overseer of the "Adventures of the Sun Prince Halls" at the recommendation of Yasuno Otsuka, and he recruited the young Hayao Miyazaki as the original painter. They were worried about the deteriorating quality of Japanese animation and the embarrassing situation of Toei, and they regarded "The Adventure of the Sun Prince Halls" as Toei's last theatrical version of the animation, and they had an inexplicable sense of mission in their hearts.
The script was finalized in March 1966 and the Adventures of The Sun Prince Halls, scheduled for release in early 1967, was originally only eight months to produce. However, despite the extreme shortage of manpower, they still insisted on high-quality painting methods, and the slow production progress directly led to Toei's termination of the project in October 1966.
After a three-month hiatus, the project "The Adventures of The Sun Prince Halls" was restarted, and after a year of production, the entire film was finally completed in January 1968.
Takahata's dedication to animation quality is similar to that of Paul Gulli. He was criticized by the upper echelons for being too complicated, and should close the lens to increase the still picture, ostensibly conforming to the opinions of the upper echelons, and then secretly making up for the animation. While this cannot be said to be the direct influence of Paul Gullimo on him, these similar experiences are not all coincidences.
Of course, Takahata had the same influence on Miyazaki. The meticulous and almost perverted pursuit of animation quality also allowed Miyazaki to later earn the reputation of Ghibli's "tyrant", which is also a well-known thing.
The kind-looking "tyrant" - Hayao Miyazaki
2. Source of inspiration
The main place where the story of The Shepherd and the Chimney Worker takes place is the vertical space of this tall and majestic castle.
The film pays attention to the combination of horizontal motion and vertical movement to increase the sense of space of the picture, and the work "Shepherd Girl and the Chimney Worker" pioneered the application of this sense of cinematic lens to the animation performance, using a large number of vertical space movements. The footage of shepherds and chimney workers fleeing inside a tall and majestic castle is a classic.
Miyazaki also has a great penchant for depicting tall, isolated buildings, castles in the sky, moving castles, oil houses, etc., all of which are impressive buildings in Miyazaki's works. The complex structural relationships in the oil house in Spirited Away are also easily associated with the castle in Shepherd and the Chimney Worker. Does chihiro's scene of her descending the stairs have similarities with the shepherd's escape?
Although it cannot be said to be a deliberate imitation, it is difficult to deny that "The Shepherd and the Chimney Worker" gave him inspiration.
3. The connotation and depth of the work
The most important thing about the influence of "Shepherd Girl and The Chimney Worker" on Takahata and Miyazaki is their emphasis on the depth of the core of the work, which pushes the animated film to a higher cultural level, not only children are happy to watch, but adults can get inspiration from it.
Although "The Shepherd Girl and the Chimney Worker" is a fairy tale on the surface, it contains a metaphor for the resistance to power and the pursuit of freedom, and the characters also have various symbolic meanings, which is an animation work more suitable for adults.
Under the influence of this work, "The Adventures of The Sun Prince Halls" is also different from the low-level style before Japanese animation, full of thinking about complex issues such as war and labor movement.
Miyazaki once said: "'The Prince of the Sun' is definitely a work that changes the public perception. Because Takahata proves one thing through this work, that is, animation has the power to deeply depict the human heart. ”
Including the animation works behind Takahata, such as the familiar "Tomb of the Fireflies", "Fairy Tale of the Ages", "The Changing Tanuki Cat", "The Tale of Hui Ye Hime", etc., although the themes are different, they all fully show Takahata's concern behind the work for issues between humans and humans, between humans and nature and society.
This is also fully expressed in Miyazaki's works, which reveal the love for nature, the antipathy to war, and how human beings do not forget their original intentions in the face of temptation, etc., each of which shocks the audience's heart.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > epilogue: signposts ahead</h1>
Both Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki were inspired by Paul Gullimo's "films for people", and on the basis of retaining the most original and authentic aesthetic value of animation, they paid attention to human beings themselves and paid attention to the connotation and depth of animation works.
No matter how the technology develops, the basis of animation creation will not change. Excellent works are the signposts that guide future generations forward, although they are not taught in person, but they can be pulled by an invisible magical force. More and more people are also influenced by Takahata and Miyazaki and continue to move forward on the road of animation creation.
Thank you to these persistent creators.