From the three aspects of narrative method, creative method, theme thinking, interpretation of "My family bought a zoo" 01, narrative method: flat and direct story warm heart warm and warm and twists and turns, the choice of sadness and joy depends on the change of the heart, the little heart that desires to be cured does not need to lick the wound alone 02, creative method: the director's usual romantic style, representing the warm and new color matching, the perfect combination of scenery and animals, the healing is not so difficult 03, the theme idea: This is an adventure about love, It only takes 20 seconds of courage to complete a gorgeous transformation conclusion:

In 2011, a peculiar children's movie "My Family Bought a Zoo" was released in the United States. Based on a true story, the film is based on Benjamin Mill's memoir novel of the same name, "My Family Bought a Zoo: A True Story that Permanently Changed a Young Family, a Broken Zoo, and 200 Animals", the plot is simple and strange and warm and healing, with the usual American family movie clichés, but also has an irresistible unique charm.

The film tells the story of the adventurous writer Benjamin Mill, who has been immersed in the pain of bereavement since the death of his wife. Six months later, because of his son's rebellion and his daughter's expectations, Benjamin bought an abandoned zoo, started a new life, and led the original staff of the zoo to overcome various difficulties and finally reopened the park to welcome guests. At the same time, Benjamin and his son Dylan and daughter Rossi were healed from the loss of their wives and mothers.

The film combines love and adventure, adopts a flat and direct narrative method, and a romantic style of creation, puts forward the theme idea of "20 seconds of courage", and intuitively tells the viewer a very simple and easily overlooked truth: how to choose how to live often requires a little courage. Below, we tell this story of love and adventure from three aspects: the film's plot, creative methods and theme ideas.

1. A healing journey for a family of three

In the film, for half a year after the death of his wife, Benjamin and the three children have been in a melancholy mood. Benjamin doesn't dare to go anywhere related to his wife, Dylan is expelled from school for stealing and dark paintings, Rosie can't stand the singing and laughter of his neighbors, and sleeps with his mother's scented clothes in his arms, all of which are father and son using "escape" to hide their sadness.

When they moved to the zoo, the family of three's grief was healed. Benjamin leads his children to relive the tavern where they first met his wife; Dylan's style of painting has changed from dark to warm, and his relationship with Benjamin has also been alleviated; Rossi has largely played a role in warming dad and building emotional bridges between dad and brother.

Psychological research shows that happiness needs an objective basis, but the objective basis is not happiness itself. There are many factors in daily life that can drain our happiness, which Western psychologists call "happiness thieves". These "thieves" are mainly negative emotions such as sadness, depression, and anxiety.

Among the many emotions of human beings, happiness and sadness are the most commonly expressed emotions, among which sadness tends to leave a deep imprint on the heart. The "happiness thieves" of the Benjamin trio are the sadness brought about by the death of their wives, and they emotionally choose to escape alone, and over time, the happiness related to their wives will be corroded by sadness.

Changes in the environment can make people forget their sadness to a certain extent. Benjamin and the three of them came to the zoo, and the surrounding environment and people and things changed. Cute animals, busy work, and the company of friends make Benjamin and the three of them in a state of love and being loved at the same time, and the feelings of joy, satisfaction, and gratitude dissolve the feeling of sadness, happiness follows, and the sadness of the three people is healed.

2. The adversity rebirth of the zoo

The same painful situation as the Benjamins and the three of them is the closed and dilapidated zoo. Zoo employees expect a reliable investor to return to their former hustle and bustle, and the animals in the zoo are in desperate need of money to make ends meet and treat diseases.

The zoo itself is not only the home of the staff and the home of the animals, but also the place where the visitors have longed for it from childhood to adulthood. After learning that the zoo is about to reopen, the supermarket cashier is very happy and prepares to take the whole family to see the tiger.

However, the zoo's adversity has been reborn in many twists and turns. Benjamin first fell into financial crisis and nearly lost his popularity. Then, the strict supervision and appraisers put forward dozens of suggestions for revision. In addition, the departure of grizzly bears and the serious illness of tigers have increased the difficulty of rebuilding zoos. When everything was ready, a sudden storm made everyone sweat. The storm passed and the zoo opened as scheduled, but there was not a single visitor.

Nixon said, "Adversity can defeat the weak and make the strong." ”

When we are determined to do one thing, we often face many difficulties. But Benjamin was strong, and these difficulties could not defeat him. Listening to his inner voices, Benjamin solved the financial crisis with the savings left by his wife for himself; Benjamin organized his staff to work hard to complete the appraiser's recommendations and prevent him from finding flaws again; expanded the area for the grizzly bear, encouraged the tiger to survive, stood on the trunk of the tree that stood in the way to help tourists enter the park, and so on.

Every trauma is a maturation, and every maturation is a harbinger of happiness. The adversity rebirth of the zoo proves that Benjamin's decision was not wrong. In this journey of healing, Benjamin completed self-healing, helped his children out of their pain, and harvested new love and career success.

The film adopts a flat and direct narrative method, using the most common method to tell the simplest story, which is a warm story of a family of three healing themselves and healing each other. In the process, they also brought to life the abandoned and dilapidated zoo.

People's lives will encounter more or less twists and turns, good times, bad times, but everyone faces difficulties, and the attitude and psychological endurance they hold are different. In fact, happiness is really simple, the key is how our hearts choose. Although the journey of healing will be full of twists and turns, choosing to forget the pain is not to forget all, peel off the skin of the pain, and leave only good memories.

1. The creative method of romantic style

Although the film is based on real events, in reality, buying such a zoo to live in is itself an incredible surreal thing, which makes people full of imagination.

There is a big house, there is a large piece of land, there is a group of cute animals, raising animals when busy, watching beautiful scenery in leisure time, singing and dancing with friends when bored, away from the noisy city, this is the life that people yearn for.

The film uses yellow as the base color of the picture, full of warm and romantic feeling, with green patches of grass and forest, the sense of vitality is born. This color palette contrasts with the sadness of a family of three and the struggles of the zoo. This is also a contrasting technique often used by the Romantic style.

If the sadness of a family of three is expressed in color, then the "blackness" of Dylan's dark paintings can perfectly interpret this feeling. Before meeting Lily, Dylan's paintings had a terrifying, bloody feel, and the most commonly used color was black. Because black represents hell, no sun, dark and terrifying, this is also a manifestation of Dylan's sadness, and this feeling is extremely incongruous with the warm and vibrant reality around him.

This romantic style of creation is the usual practice of the film's director Cameron Crowe and screenwriter Ellen Bloch McKenna. The Romantic style of creation is characterized by the use of rich imagination and exaggeration to shape the character image and reflect real life.

Cameron's "Mr. Sweetheart" and "Almost Famous" are excellent works of Romanticism, and Eileen's "The Queen Wearing Prada" is a romantic memory of her youth. As a kind of creative method, the romantic style, on the basis of reflecting objective reality, pays more attention to starting from the subjective emotions of the characters and expressing the ardent pursuit of the ideal world by the characters in the film.

Through this contrast of colors, the film portrays the character changes of the characters, shapes the change process of the characters from the original loneliness and rebellion to the later warmth and happiness, expresses the extremely distinct love and hatred of the protagonists, and achieves a strong lyrical role.

2. The choice between death and vitality

The first half of the film is themed "death", and the death of his wife and the imminent death of the tiger are both telling us about this theme. In the face of death, how do we choose? The film conducts a dialectical discussion of this issue.

Faced with death, the deceased wife told her family that some things that seemed painful were not so painful. Of course, the wife said this sentence to comfort the children, do not want them to be too sad, this is also the wife's open-mindedness in the face of death during the illness.

Benjamin, as a bystander, could not accept death from beginning to end, not to his wife, and to the tiger who was dying. Benjamin often accompanied Tiger Spa, gently doing psychological counseling and expressing his worries. When employees suggested euthanizing Spa, Benjamin insisted that "it would be fine." This is Benjamin's insistence. To Benjamin, the near-death Spa seems to be a seriously ill wife, hoping to be able to exchange his perseverance and efforts for the hope of being alive.

The second half of the film takes "vitality" as the theme, and the reconstruction of the zoo and the breaking of the shell of the little peacock bring the hope of "life" to the audience.

In the film, Rossi has a very good animal friend, the peacock. After a difficult fertility process, the mother peacock gave birth to several peacock eggs. Finally, the peacock egg broke, and the furry little peacock crawled out of the egg little by little, first revealing its small paws and finally breaking away from the eggshell. This is the power of the new birth.

Tagore said, "Let life be as splendid as a summer flower, and death as the quiet beauty of autumn leaves." ”

Life is such a miracle. The process of life is simple, from birth to death. Under this theme of "life" and "death", there is happiness and sadness, as well as effort and fearlessness.

In contact with the dying tiger Spa, we understand the meaning of life: in the face of death, there is no difference between animals and people. And at the moment when the little peacock breaks out of its shell, we have infinite hope.

Benjamin was an adventurous man. This personality also prompted Benjamin to buy the zoo. Throughout this adventure, Benjamin has been practicing his life motto: "Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of irrational courage." Benjamin nearly went bankrupt because of the adventure, and "20 seconds of courage" gave him the courage to go forward.

Benjamin's life was also an adventure. Because of "20 seconds of irrational courage", Benjamin embraced the love that made him unforgettable and gave birth to two lovely children.

As a legacy, Benjamin passed on this "20 seconds of courage" to Dylan. Dylan thus embraced the feelings that made him shine.

American success guru Dale Carnegie once said, "The whole life is an adventure." The people who go the furthest are often those who are willing to do it and are willing to take risks. ”

In this adventure, "good times" and "bad times" are like twins, which will always appear in everyone's growth path. Just like Benjamin, in this adventure about love, remember the "20 seconds of courage" and give yourself a reason to face it bravely, so that no matter how big the difficulty is, it will flash like a meteor, leaving only the brilliant starlight after bravery.

The film tells the theme of "love" and "courage", adopts the most commonly used flat and direct narrative method, and romantic creation methods, intuitively expresses for us the fear of death, the hope for life, and explains the importance of people's subjective choices.

Life is an adventure. When facing "adversity", how you face it depends on your own heart. If "adversity" is infinitely magnified, it may become an insurmountable obstacle in life; if it is underestimated or ignored, then there will be enough confidence and ability to overcome and bear it. Sometimes, it only takes 20 seconds of courage to complete a life adventure about love.