This year's domestic animation market has ushered in a long-lost bustle.
"Nezha" is not much to say, it has already jumped out of the animation circle, it depends on whether it can win the second position in the history of Chinese film "The Wandering Earth".
But beyond that, we can't forget "Whitesnake: Origins" that was released at the beginning of the year.
At the beginning of a screening, it can be said that no one cared about the domestic animation, and the box office on the opening day was only a pitiful 10 million or less, which was suppressed by the Japanese manga "Fate Night" released at the same time.
However, a few days later, this domestic animation that was once unloved was actually brushed with major news headlines, and all kinds of stars and big Vs were Amway, and finally successfully obtained a box office performance of 400 million+ before the release, becoming one of the darkest domestic animations in recent years.
Who is to blame for the success of Whitesnake? There is no doubt that investing in and producing its light-chasing animation is a crucial presence.
It's an animation company founded in 2013, but be aware that Whitesnake isn't their first animated work.
In the past six years, they have brought us another cartoon that has been blown up by many netizens, "Little Door God".
However, it is a pity that the final box office is only 78 million (the production cost is 70 million, plus the cost of publicity and distribution, which is basically a loss of tens of millions).
Why is this happening? Is the box office downturn of "Little Door God" caused by the "high viewing threshold" like "The Great Protector", or is it caused by poor quality?
Let me get straight to the point, when I recently looked back at this anime, it gave me only two words: regret.
Why?
We all know that at the end of 17 years, Pixar brought us "Dream Quest", the most tear-inducing thing about this work is the "ultimate death" setting--- people will go to the soul world after death, where they can also get wonderful, but if the human world no longer has the memory of their people, then they will usher in the ultimate death.
The beauty of this is the word "bondage", through this work, you and I in front of the screen can understand that death is not a terrible thing, and we can further feel the preciousness and warmth of the connection between people.
The same thing can be seen in "The Little Door God", and this is my favorite plot---
At the beginning of the film, the director arranges a "puppet show" to illustrate the relationship between gods and humans.
Once the gods and immortals were the beings that human beings longed for, and every family was pursuing the ascension of the Tao, as well as praying for the favor of the gods and immortals all the time.
However, with the passage of time, with the development of society, human beings have gradually abandoned their dependence on gods and immortals, and even the two brothers of the door gods who once had unlimited scenery, "Yu Lei" and "Shen Di", have fallen into the prison of unemployment as people no longer post "Door God New Year Paintings" at the door of their homes.
Human beings and immortals, once yearning and dependence, and the current stage of oblivion, like the setting of "Finding Dreams"? You should know that this is a domestic animation that was released nearly two years earlier than "Finding Dreams".
And before it was over, after the puppet show was performed, the director also arranged for the old artist who manipulated the puppet behind the scenes to appear---
"How many people still have a door-to-door god in their homes?" Raise your hand and take a look."
A theater, a bench, and yet not a single audience was present.
What can you feel? One word: cool.
At this moment when the plot played to two minutes, I was really stunned, and my heart was about to move: "I X, is the domestic animation going to fly?" ”
You see, isn't the situation faced by the Brothers of the Door God exactly the same as that of the old artists? Coupled with the difficulties faced by the old wonton shop run by the heroine "Yu'er" grandmother who appeared later.
In fact, the main idea was clear at the beginning: in the face of the torrent of the times, where should the old things go?
I don't judge whether this is higher or lower than "Finding Dreams", but being able to match "forgetting" and "times" is really an intriguing setting.
And then what?
The director of the whole plot sets two plot lines: "The Immortal's Self-Professional Redemption" and "The Commercial Transformation of the Wonton Old Shop".
The former mainly describes the "Yu Lei" in the door god who secretly went down to the mortals, intending to open the seal of the "nian", so that this ancient fierce beast could return to the human world to make trouble, causing the mortals to pray for the protection of the gods and immortals again.
The latter arranged for Yu'er and her mother to encounter financial difficulties when running a wonton shop, and finally embarked on the road of transformation.
This arrangement is not bad, and it can be said to be wonderful.
But the question is, all said well, so why has many years passed, and now this animation has only a rating of 6.9 on Douban? And I don't see that it can be juxtaposed with the lineup of "The Return of the Great Sage", "Big Fish and Begonias", "The Great Protector" and so on?
In fact, the answer lies in the "detail setting" of the above two plot lines:
How the plot inside advances, how each process is connected, this is the worst part of this animation, and even this detail setting has led to a certain degree of distortion of the main idea.
It can be said that the logic is a mess, and the cards that the opening king of the first hand have exploded have been diluted.
For example, shortly after the opening chapter, Shen Di said this sentence when he saw Yu Lei planning to touch the "music box" flying from the human world:
"We can't communicate with humans or something terrible will happen"
On the face of it, this sentence can make sense for three things:
1. Obliterate the possibility of immortals looking for a solution in the face of an employment crisis (Yu Lei is a radical exception);
2. Used to emphasize that conformism is actually a pedantic thing (later proved that this is just a false rule);
3. Let the later silence of the gods have a basis (in order to find his brother Yu Lei, he came to the mortal world and had a wordless time with Yu'er, as detailed below).
But after careful consideration, we will find such a question: What is the basis for setting such a rule?
I said that even if you can't do it, "This is the rule that cannot be violated in the alternate world" (obviously the second one is a slap in the face), then you should pave the way, saying that because in the past, there was a "misunderstanding" that caused the disaster to occur because of the fact that a certain immortal had gone down without permission and caused the disaster.
As a result, there was no, and suddenly the "prohibition of contact between the gods and humans" was thrown out, and at this moment, the immortal world was still facing a severe wave of unemployment.
Moreover, Yu Lei also gave such a rebuke: "Why can't we contact, in the past, didn't we often go down to the mortals?" ”
What is this to get? Is it to reflect the ignorance or cruelty of the ruler of a certain immortal, and not to pay any attention to the death or death of the little immortal?
Isn't it also true that there is a "reemployment training center" arranged for the immortals in the play? Moreover, the official radio of the immortals is also constantly broadcasting how the unemployed people march to protest against yunyun and other things, which can be regarded as the contempt of the rulers for the little immortals?
Can't escape the kerry, this is obviously the director's disregard for the overall plot, so the fabricated can only be used to explain the rationality of a certain plot, but he obviously forgot the truth of "pulling the whole body".
Not only that, but even if I assume that the above setting is reasonable, in fact, you can still see strange things in the specific plot---
In the play, shendi accidentally came to Yu'er's house in order to find Yu Lei, but because he was afraid of communicating with humans, he did not immediately say the reason, and could only obediently follow Yu'er's mother and daughter to the dance party, and became acquainted with each other.
It can be seen that this is a plot derived from the premise of "gods and humans cannot communicate", and there is nothing at the beginning, accidents, encounters, emotional brewing, every work has a routine.
But the crux of the matter is that Shen Di is playing "too crazy", dancing, helping them reopen the store (once framed by the restaurant next door and causing the shop to be closed), and wearing a new costume given by Yu'er's mother, and happily becoming a store employee.
In nearly 1/5 of the time, there is no "Yu Lei" thing, completely used to depict the fun of Shendi and Yu'er's family, which is definitely an inexplicable thing, no matter how interesting and vivid the depiction is, this can not be separated from the suspicion of "off-topic".
Elementary school composition teachers have taught us, which is a proper failure.
Then let's take a look at Yulei's side---
Let's start with his relationship with the flower fairy.
The two first met in the play at the "re-employment training class", when the flower fairy took the initiative to talk, but also with a full of expectations, enthusiastic emotions, feeling that they met Oba and wanted to climb the relationship.
Yu Lei's attitude is 180 degrees opposite, and there is a kind of "how is it you" to avoid the performance.
Interestingly, however, just as Yu Lei went down to lift the second seal, he once again encountered the flower fairy who was guarding the seal at that time.
But at this moment, the flower fairy seemed to completely abandon the previous flower idiot, turned into Gao Leng Royal Sister and said such a sentence:
"Do you know why I didn't show up before you waited for me for seven days and seven nights?" Because you are selfish and have so many jobs not to do, you have to choose a job like God that has no future."
First, how to measure the future or not? Is the work of the Heavenly Court still divided into three, six, and nine grades? If it is divided, where is the foreshadowing and instructions? All we can see is the photos of the countless awards and highlight moments that the Door God Brothers have won, is such exposure still promising?
Second, what is the history of sudden love? Do you know that your previous performance of flower infatuation was simply the embodiment of you waiting for Yu Lei for seven days and seven nights and he did not appear?
It was messed up, and the director's purpose of arranging this was to make Yu Lei say such a sentence:
"Because I like to be a door god"
This sentence is very important, which can reflect Yu Lei's sense of "mission" to the profession of the door god, and it is precisely because of this lofty importance that a series of things that Yu Lei has done that violate morality have become reasonable (releasing the Nian Beast and destroying the human world).
But please, there are many ways to guide, why does the director have to show it in such a contradictory and abrupt way?
Before we finish, let's take a look at the drama between Yu Lei and the Giant Spirit God---
After Yu Lei's descent, his first stop came to the seal by the stream, and it was here that Yu Lei and the giant spirit god who had just been assigned to work here met.
Trouble pay attention to the conversation between the two:
"What are you here for?"
"I'm here to open the seal."
"Well, if you open it, I don't have to guard here."
Yes, it is true that the two are good friends, but please, now the immortals are worried about not working, and the giant spirit god has also been to the reemployment training class, which shows his urgent yearning for a job, right?
But what's going on now, what's the so-called "I don't have to keep it when you open it"? Is it purely for the sake of making jokes, so it is strange to portray the giant spirit god as a brain convulsion?
Not only that, but what happened to Yu Lei on the last sealing field was also really dramatic---
It was a ruined temple, but inside stood the "old puppet show artist" mentioned above, who seemed to know everything, understood that Yu Lei was a god, and also understood his intentions.
So when Yu Lei asked the reason in surprise, he replied with this sentence:
"Immortals either change from man or from the heart." Man knows the things of the immortals better than the immortals themselves."
At first, it sounds quite flavorful, but if you think about it carefully, you will find that this is simply chaotic--- you say that change will change? Is it clear to be clear? Where is the evidence? Could it be that, like "Dream Hunting", when human beings don't miss the gods, the gods will disappear?
There is no ah! So what else can it be?
Also, in order to lure Yu Lei to open the seal, the old artist said this sentence:
"The world is divided for a long time, a long time, the year does not come out, there will always be other things out"
When hearing this sentence, Yu Lei replied quite conspicuously: "Then why should human beings be afraid of the year coming out?" ”
Then, the old artist used this sentence to answer:
"Whether it is man or God, it takes courage to face change"
How? See the hint?
The first sentence at the beginning, "Dividing and merging for a long time..." is actually used to describe that turmoil is a normal thing, and the year is just a common and not special thing (such as the "torrent of the times" that the characters in the play encounter).
But what does the question immediately after Yu Lei's premise in this context mean? Bottom line: Why would human beings choose to be "invaded by the torrent of the times" but not face the beast of the year?
Do you understand? His meaning is "in the two kinds of change, why choose one", so what does the old artist mean by the general sentence "It takes courage to face change"?
The bull's head does not match the horse's mouth, is it not a mystery?
And worse, do you say "divide for a long time, divide a long time"? There is no foreshadowing, and Yu Lei, as a god, actually believes it all by default, don't you think such a plot is a bit inexplicable?
In addition, this old artist induced Yu Lei to open the seal of the year, what was his motivation?
Could it be that he also wants to come out and make trouble in the year, and then let human beings like puppet dramas again?
Which way to play which? It is true that human beings rely on the gods, but this is not directly related to puppet dramas, can't they watch animated cartoons?
Also, Yu Lei's behavior is also nervous. Obviously, he had already found the last sealing stone tablet, and he had also cut a little bit of it with a bang.
However, suddenly, Yu Lei stopped, I don't know why, obviously no one has ever persuaded him since the end of the world, but he inexplicably stopped at the last step, and after Shen Di and Yu'er arrived, the two of them only used one sentence of persuasion: "Yu Lei give up, otherwise Yu'er will be in danger", and then really let Yu Lei completely give up.
Is this a joke, can you live up to the audience's expectations of you in the first 80% of the plot?
Finally, let's spray the sense of mission mentioned above---
When Yu Lei and the Flower Fairy are playing, this sense of mission is indeed quite handsome, but the funny thing is that after successfully destroying the Nian Beast, people re-pasted the "Door God New Year Painting" on each household, which means that they can be loved again.
However, in the end, the door god brothers gave up being the door god and turned to selling buns in the Heavenly Palace.
What about the so-called mission? Just to cater to the "consistency of the plot direction" (Yu'er and her mother innovated the wonton noodle shop through innovation, and once again came to the clouds), so they ignored the possible situation of punching the face before and after?
There is no need to be good or bad, each person chooses the most suitable method to solve the torrent problem of this era, and it is also a good ending!
<h1>At last</h1>
In the face of such a sparse plot in "Little Door God", I really have to feel sorry for it.
First, this is a plot theme that is comparable to "Finding Dreams", and second, in early 2016, when "Little Door God" was released, it still haunted the afterglow of the national comic "The Return of the Great Sage"--- analogous to "The Wandering Earth" to "Shanghai Fortress".
However, as the general director and screenwriter, "Wang Wei" (who is also the founder of Chasing Light Animation) has completely lost this opportunity to be famous in film history.
If you have also understood the interpretation of the animation process of "Nezha's Devil Boy Descending" by director Dumpling in the past half a month, then you should also be aware of these time data: 5 years of preparation, 3 years of production, and 2 years of script polishing.
Did Wang Wei hear that? To achieve a national comic masterpiece, the most core is the arrangement of the rationality of the plot.
The director of the dumplings is willing to spend nearly half of the production time to polish the plot, so that today's "Nezha" only has praise and no complaining sound--- which is a treatment that the rise of national comics including "Great Sage", "Big Fish", "Great Protector" and "White Snake" has never had.
To learn a lesson, we are looking forward to chasing the light after "White Snake: Origins" to bring us a domestic animation comparable to "Nezha".
That's it for today, so feel free to post your thoughts in the comments section below.
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