"Legend of the Magic String" must know a few cold knowledge before watching the movie

Produced by Laika Studios in the United States, directed by Travis Knight, and co-voiced by Hollywood A-list stars such as Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Rooney Mara and other Hollywood A-list stars, the stop-motion animation film "Legend of the Magic Strings" will meet chinese audiences on the big screen on January 13.

The Legend of the Magic String tells a legendary story that takes place in ancient Japan. Kubo, a one-eyed teenager who lives by the sea with his mother, has magical powers, and can manipulate pieces of paper with a magic harp and make a living selling art. However, Kubo, who disobeys his mother's orders, is in danger in the darkness of the night, and in order to stop the bloody disaster that is about to fall on the village, he must find the three treasures left by his father and embark on a journey for this purpose. However, what awaits him during the journey is not only the adventure, but also the amazing secrets of the family.

As an annual animated feature film of Laika Studios that focuses on stop-motion animation films, the "Legend of the Magic String" created at a cost of 500 million yuan can be described as the work of the main creators, which combines magic, adventure and family characteristics, adding a different warmth and enthusiasm to this winter, leading this winter winter vacation.

Before the release of the movie "Legend of the Magic String", you may wish to take a look at these "cold knowledge" involved in the movie, not only can you gain unexpected new experiences in the process of watching the movie, but also show your hand in front of your friends!

Laika Studio

In 2005, under the impact of the economic crisis, Travis Knight's animation company Will Vinton Studio was on the verge of bankruptcy, Travis's father, Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, invested $1 billion, Travis officially became the CEO of the company, and renamed the studio "Laika". Since then, the company has been run independently by him, and Travis is not only a producer, but also a chief animator.

Laika Studios specializes in stop-motion animation and impresses with its consistent "gothic style", and the most famous work he has previously worked on is Tim Burton's Zombie Bride. But before The Legend of the Magic Strings, Laika already had three successful original animated feature films: Ghost Mother, Psychic Boy Norman, and Box Monster. All three were Oscar-nominated and were all created by Travis and the studio, while Legend of the Magic Strings was his directorial debut.

Stop motion animation

Stop-motion animation is an animation that produces a dynamic effect by continuously projecting a captured still image, usually performed by clay puppets, puppets, or mixed material characters. The formal history of stop-motion animation is as long as the history of hand-drawn animation, and may even be older.

A continuous projection of more than 24 frames per second of still pictures can be considered to be a moving picture by the naked eye, so at least 24 photos should be taken per second of stop-motion animation. With a full length of 101 minutes and 27 seconds, Legend of the Magic Strings is the longest original stop-motion animation to date, with 1359 shots and 133096 frames. Despite their skill and dedication, each Laika animator can only complete an average of 3.31 seconds of footage per week due to the meticulous production, which takes 94 weeks to produce, and the total working time is 1149015 hours.

In order to make the facial expressions of the characters real and delicate and more expressive, Laika Studio has produced a large number of character models, and the protagonist Kubo's mouth expressions alone have 11,007, 3,789 special eyebrow expressions, and a total of 23,187 facial expressions. The film has the largest and smallest 3D printed face replacements from animated films: the largest is a double-sized Kubo face, which was used to shoot close-ups of tears running from the cheeks, each 4.5 feet wide, and the smallest is the face of a monkey, which was used when caught by a skeleton, only half a foot in size.

3D printing and various new technologies

On February 13, 2016, Lycra Studios was awarded the Academy Award for Science and Engineering for inventing rapid prototyping (RP). Laika used this patent to change the process of face replacement in stop-motion animation: for decades, in order to change the facial expression of the puppet, the entire head was replaced, which was very expensive and energy-consuming, but the breakthrough fast-forming 3D printer could produce the upper and lower parts of the face, saving a lot of work and breaking the boundaries of the film medium of stop-motion animation.

Travis Knight said: "When there is nothing we need that does not yet exist, we invent it ourselves. "In the process of creating 'Legend of the Magic Strings', there are constant attempts to reach and expand possibilities in stop-motion animation that have never been reached and expanded, using techniques from theaters, stages, mechanics, carpentry, from traditional artists to craftsmen, to futurists and technical preferences... Some are even phobia sufferers.

Oriental Story from the United States

"Legend of the Magic String" is a heroic narrative method of American comics, but when the shell is removed, the audience will see a soft and delicate oriental heart. Knight's personal respect for oriental art and culture dates back thirty years, the five years that produced The Legend of the Magic Strings, and a love letter to oriental culture by the entire film's creators— Deborah Cook learned the well-known folding techniques of modern Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake; lighting photographer Dean Holmes watched a series of oriental filming documentaries; the puppet group studied the samurai armor structure in the Portland Art Museum, and the 90-year-old dance artist Nakanishi Sandache. Led the dancers to complete the festive dance in the film...

In order to tell this legend that occurred in the ancient East, the creators not only referred to and paid tribute to a large number of Oriental art, but also achieved the ultimate control of details. When the consultant and translator Taro Goto was in Tokyo on a remote guide to the Legend of the Magic Strings, he saw a scene where a village woman and Kubo were communicating, and When Mr. Goto noticed that the character was sitting on the ground performing, he pointed out that "that woman, regardless of her social class, would never sit on the ground like that." The creators were shocked and taken seriously, and immediately modified this shot.

Voiced by Oscar stars

Laika's past works have had many strong female characters, such as the naughty girl Winnie in "Box Monster", and in "Legend of the Magic Strings", this female character is Kubo's companion Monkey. Oscar winner Richards Theron, who voiced Monkey, said: "I thought my kids wouldn't want to see my work until they were 55, and now I think Tales of the Strings will be the first movie they'll see for me. I participated in The Legend of the Magic String because I became a mother. ”

Another Oscar-winning actor involved in the dubbing, Matthew McConaughey, would read the script to his children as a bedtime story. "My kids will support the losers in the story, the most clumsy or abandoned," he said. ”

Soundtrack

In Laika's work, there is a sound and then an animation, which makes the work of voice actors and soundtrack artists more difficult, but Dario Marianelli, who scored for the soundtrack of The Legend of the Magic Strings, is no stranger to this creative process: "In Pride and Prejudice, a lot of the soundtrack I had to write out very early, because the actors needed to perform on the screen. He also joked: "This is pure oriental music that an Italian arranger living in London and Oregonese in the United States work together." ”

When Kubo's ancestors appeared, the traditional Japanese water lantern made the scene very oriental, and the soundtrack of the overall film also incorporated a series of oriental elements. Soundtrack mixer Nick Wollage mentions that the ending music alone was done by 75 london performers. The symphony orchestra that plays the soundtrack uses a very wide variety of instruments: "We have string groups, 50 to 60 woodwind instruments, double wind instruments, and six trumpets, including two trumpets, three trombones, one large trumpet, two pianos on each side for the purpose of sound separation, and in the other stand are percussion instruments, and there are some live percussion instruments and timpani drums." The instruments are arranged according to symphonic rules. ”

Shamisen

The protagonist of the film, Kubo, has the magical power to manipulate origami and the koji. As the name suggests, the sanshin should have three strings, but the English title of the film says that there are two strings, which are actually arranged intentionally and will be explained to the audience at the end. The trio is played by plucking and playing, and the form is similar to that of the guitar and the banjo, with a neck on which the strings are on top, and the body is like a drum, hollow inside. Unlike the banjo, the front and back sides of the three-stringed piano are covered with leather. Music editor James Bellamy said the instrument was also used in the film's soundtrack: "The music at the end is like the last tangram. We used a lot of special instruments, such as the flute and, of course, Kubo's three-stringed violin. ”

printmaking

The world of "Legend of the Magic String" has small and vast scenes, including a scene of a giant ship facing the waves that took the whole group 19 months to shoot, which is depicted with reference to the traditional oriental printmaking art. In this set of shots, Lycra Studio pays tribute to the famous Japanese printmaker Katsushika Hokusai. Printmaker Katsushika Hokusai was an artist of the Edo period, and his masterpiece "Kanagawa Surfing" became an important reference for this scene of crossing the dangerous waves.

In addition, the work of the more recent master printmaking Kiyoshi Saito provides more inspiration for The Legend of the Magic String. Known for his famous work Aizu Winter, Saito Kiyoshi was a prominent supporter of printmaking, an art movement that emerged in the early 20th century and encouraged authors to express themselves.

The first step in creating a print is for the artist to prepare a draft, then transfer it to a carving board, then attach the painting to wood, traditionally using cherry wood—and then carefully carving out the lines of the image on it. Eventually, all these color blocks will be printed on the paper by a painter, and the engraver will carve off the surrounding wood along the pattern, leaving a raised surface, that is, a wooden relief. Next, the printer's ink brush is placed on the relief. It is then placed on a colored piece of wood with wet paper and made by rubbing it with Topography. Thousands of wipes may be required before the pattern can appear.

Nelson Lowry, art director of Legend of the Magic Strings, said: "Every step of printmaking requires refining nature, many of our scenes are simplified large natural shapes, and many wood textures with a printmaking style are applied in the film. ”