The Incredibles 2 Chinese movie poster
The reference news network reported on July 6 that although it is not necessary to watch cartoons too seriously, the reference culture still observes the heartache of working mothers in "The Incredibles 2".
On June 22, 2018, the Pixar animated film "The Incredibles 2" was released in China, and as of July 5, it had achieved a box office of 296 million yuan. This record is a bit dismal compared to the $180 million ($1 is about 6.5 yuan - this online note) in the first weekend box office in North America.
Mothers with children are "musts" and fathers are "cute points"
"The Incredibles 2" is the film's return after a gap of 14 years, and the protagonist of the story shifts from the husband of the Superman Agent family, Mr. Bob, to his wife, "Stretch Superwoman" Helen. Bob, who has retreated to the second line of "Saving the World", has begun to live a hard life of "full-time daddy": always optimistic about his trouble-making eldest son, who wants to protect his daughter from harm but is self-defeating, and there is a small baby who breathes fire if he is not careful.
"Stretch Supergirl" rides a cool mount to save the world, and her husband, who is also Superman, has to take the children at home.
Superman's mother, who is busy saving the world outside, is always at ease with her husband and children at home. While riding a motorcycle to chase the bad guys, his son also called to ask where the sneakers were. At the end of a busy day at work, the first thing to do is to call your husband and ask if the children are okay. Obviously, the first day the father and the child were alone, they were not in a good mood.
The audience was amused by Superman's father's busy journey with a baby, and "The Incredibles 2" was once classified as "mother and baby" and "parenting", deriving many subtitles that were far from the film industry. For example, "Save the World with Your Child" or "Even if you were once a king, you have to bow to the power of the bear child!" " let the film "painting style" once deviate.
Compared with "full-time mothers", the word "daddy" is always full of cute points, and fathers can often get praise from the audience in the face of their children's helpless and clumsy appearance. And dads with children well, or a hundred percent plus, not a necessary skill.
Mom, should have been Superman?
In "The Incredibles 2", the most thought-provoking thing is probably the psychological gap when the husband learns that his wife is more popular with society and the workplace, and he wants to retreat to the second line. Although the words are very good, "I can also take care of the children", but also a fake smile squeezed out of the teeth: "If you go out to save the world, I can, even better than you." 」 ”
Superman Dad with kids always seems tired.
As early as 2015, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post published an article saying: Chinese mainland more and more highly educated women choose to be full-time mothers. In fact, in many families, women choose to give up work and raise children at home after childbearing, not because they do worse than their husbands in the workplace. Whether it is because of the preference for the family or the demands of the husband, this conclusion should not be taken lightly.
The standards and requirements of the public and society for mothers to raise children are far less tolerant than those of fathers. Such harshness can be seen from the name of a variety show: "Mama is Superman". The name of the parent-child variety show, which is the main father role of the mirror image, is very relaxed compared to the well-known superhuman name: "Where Did Daddy Go" and "Daddy Is Back". The former seems to imply that the father is inherently absent in the parent-child relationship, and the latter seems to imply that the show's return to the role of the father is a compliment rather than a singing.
Mom, on the other hand, was supposed to be Superman.
Just like a line in the movie: taking children is also saving the world, provided that it is brought well.
Reflecting society's incomparable harshness on working mothers
In the cartoon "The Voice of Joy", the mother pig who is trapped by housework is eager for a stage for singing.
"The Incredibles 2" is not the first time that the cartoon has shown the image of "Superman's mother". In the 2017 Chinese cartoon "The Voice of Joy", the mother pig was forced to become a "superhuman mother" in order to realize her dream. Mother Pig used to be a full-time mother, basically doing housework every day, taking care of more than a dozen piglets to ensure that Pig Daddy can work smoothly. With a dream of singing, when she decided to participate in the competition, she did not sleep all night to build a batch of machines to mechanize all the housework. In the end, when she was not at home, the mother pig also used her wisdom and ingenuity to complete all the housework and take care of her husband's children. But sadly, they are accustomed to the role of wife and mother, and they are not aware of the absence of wife and mother.
"Audiences of all ages can find something they like in this film." Catherine Taff, head of Disney Pictures' distribution department, said of The Incredibles 2.
Just like in the 2017 Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film "Zootopia", the children see a harmonious scene of various animals living together, a wonderful journey of foxes and rabbits to explore together. Adults mostly see power, political struggles, and pervasive stereotypes.
Fairy tales are still fairy tales, but unfortunately the ideal country no longer exists.
Maybe the children saw the Superman family's mighty spirit to save the world in "The Incredibles 2", but we still captured the dilemma of working mothers.
Let Superman's mother save the world, Superman's father at home with a baby, this setting and the continuation of the series of stories reflect the incomparable harshness of this society on working mothers. Rather than criticizing this setting for being full of prejudices, reference culture believes that such a reality is permeated into cartoons, and Pixar's method of depicting real society in a fictitious way is superior.
In fact, in the real modern society, people's requirements for working mothers are much stricter than the requirements for Superman in movies.
Working mothers are in a particularly difficult situation in this society, you see, even superhuman mothers, it is difficult to escape this "robbery". (Text/Sun Zhibing)