Produced by DreamWorks and set in ancient China, Kung Fu Panda tells the story of a giant panda named Ah Bao, who is the heir of the noodle shop, but has the dream of becoming a martial arts master in his heart, and through his own continuous efforts, he has grown into a real "Dragon Hero" step by step. The film's strong Chinese elements swept the world, and after its release in Chinese mainland on June 20, 2008, it achieved a good box office performance of 180 million.
First, the influence of the collective subconscious on the film
The theory of the collective subconscious was proposed by the famous psychologist Jung. Refers to the process of human ancestor evolution, the spiritual sediment at the bottom of the collective experience of the soul, at the lowest level of the human spirit, is universally possessed by human beings. Whether you recognize it or not, it will affect some of people's codes of conduct and emotional resonance. The collective subconscious exists in the human population and is extremely universal and collective. On the basis of this commonality, people can eliminate obstacles such as different cultural backgrounds, different language communication methods, and even different political tendencies to communicate and form psychological resonance.
Although "Kung Fu Panda" was produced by an American team and transplanted chinese stories, the film reflects a large number of collective subconscious, which is a good integration of American culture and Traditional Chinese culture. As the "Chinese image" in mainstream Movies in the United States, Ah Bao can be recognized by people of different races, different cultures, and different political backgrounds, so that the masses of different cultural backgrounds can resonate, which is based on the most basic common platform of human nature. At first, as a clumsy and timid panda, Ah Bao did not want to spend his life by opening a noodle shop, and always had a heroic dream of saving the world.
In the contest to select the "Divine Dragon Hero", Ah Bao was selected by chance, due to the prejudice of Master Raccoon, Ah Bao, who had just entered the division, was not welcomed by the same door, but Ah Bao was not discouraged in his heart, under the guidance of the master, he worked hard to learn martial arts and practiced a unique martial art, Ah Bao gradually grew into a partner who could fight side by side with the "Five Heroes", they learned martial arts together to protect the village, defeated the Great Dragon, and grew into a real "Divine Dragon Hero".
Second, the collective subconscious in "Kung Fu Panda"
The director rooted the mainstream culture and value orientation of American society in "Kung Fu Panda", that is, life is not smooth sailing, no matter how humble the little people as long as they have faith, brave and strong, the courage to take responsibility and pain, will eventually succeed, and even become the "savior". The film portrays Ah Bao as a model of an "American hero". Due to the historical reasons of the United States, in the depths of the American people's thinking have a heroic dream, this collective subconscious is also more or less presented in their film and television works, the image of Ah Bao's "savior" is the prototype of the Americans' countless experience accumulation and precipitation in the memory structure of the mind, so the local audience is more likely to resonate in the subconscious when watching the work, and it is more relaxed and pleasant in the spirit, and finally gets great psychological satisfaction in the process of watching the film.
The layout of a large number of Chinese elements such as landscapes, sets, costumes and even food in the film is more in line with the love of Chinese audiences, and the lofty mountains and mountains in the film are continuous, just like traditional Chinese landscape paintings, and the strong visual impact brought by the strong Chinese style hits the aesthetics of Chinese audiences. The film focuses on filling in Chinese elements and creating a mystical East that has long been recognized by Westerners.
Panda, martial arts kung fu, noodle shop, dragon dance, tai chi, dragon hall and other chinese characteristics of the shape and story environment, so that Chinese audiences have a very high sense of identity and acceptance. The emergence of shadow puppets and ink paintings is not only enough to evoke the memories of the past by the majority of the audience, but also unconsciously evokes the collective subconscious of the Chinese people, a cultural genetic code that has been passed down from generation to generation and has long penetrated deeply into the bone marrow and blood of every Chinese. The film portrays the Kung Fu Panda as a myth, and the mythological plot is deeply rooted in the mind of the Chinese, and is widely alive among the people today.
It can be seen that the success of "Kung Fu Panda" is inseparable from the creative team's clever integration of the value orientation that people can accept in their consciousness and subconscious and the entertainment of the film, making it easier to activate the original image hidden in the depths of people's hearts, so as to achieve psychological compensation in the spirit.
Third, the archetypal significance of "Kung Fu Panda"
Jung argued: "The collective subconscious is expressed in the form of archetypal imagery. "Prototypes are the balancing and compensating factors that correspond to human beings when they encounter problems in real life. Since it is a sediment of thousands of years of human experience in the struggle for survival and environmental adaptation, whenever a similar situation is encountered in life, it reawakens the accumulation of this archetype. The prototype in film and television creation is not blindly restored, but the process of giving the work a new connotation and life. In this process, we can neither separate from the event itself, nor can we simply reproduce the event, but we must follow the principle of truth as the mainstay and taking into account fiction. The artistic image created by the author can only be recreated through the audience's own experience and imagination, and can a vivid and plump real "character" be formed in the audience's mind.
In "Kung Fu Panda", Ah Bao is the embodiment of the hero archetype, and the process of Ah Bao's victory over the demon symbolizes the process of a man breaking free from the shackles of his parents and growing up to be an adult. Ah Bao is cute, naïve and kind. In the archetypal portrayal, the protagonist no longer has a character aura, but more close to reality, the film's Ah Bao is clumsy, likes fantasy, and sometimes plays a little clever, is a typical American civilian hero image. But it is precisely because of these small shortcomings in his body that the psychological distance between the typical characters and the general audience is narrowed. The director's portrayal of the archetypal character is no longer a tall image of blind face, but more civilian and diversified in the character setting, increasing the three-dimensional sense of the character. The "prototype" task, which is similar to the audience's experience, is more in line with the subconscious requirements of the audience for the animation image, and is more conducive to the audience growing up with the protagonist and obtaining psychological recognition in the process of watching the movie.
summary
The huge success of the film "Kung Fu Panda" at the box office, and the pursuit of the film in China and even the world, are inseparable from the influence of the collective subconscious hidden in the audience's heart. The protagonist of the film, Ah Bao, is a typical "Chinese image" in mainstream American films, and the clever integration of American humor and Chinese elements proves the positive significance of cross-cultural exchanges.