"Mamma Mia Duck": the new dawn of domestic animation films
2015 is known as the take-off year of domestic animation films, "100,000 Cold Jokes" released on New Year's Day has become a box office dark horse, and the summer file "The Return of the Great Sage of Journey to the West" has swept the box office by 1 billion, creating the myth of domestic films. But since then, domestic animation films have returned to the confused groping road, and "The Return of the Great Sage" has not brought much innovation to domestic animation films. Looking at the entire world animation film market, there are many reasons why domestic animation has not been able to find a way out: on the one hand, Hollywood and Japanese animation have shown a rapid development trend at the beginning of the new century, constantly squeezing the market for domestic animation; on the other hand, although China has excellent works such as "The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace" in the 60s, the Shanghai Art Factory in the 90s has brought us many classics, but it has not been able to form a virtuous circle and failed to cultivate a stable audience for domestic animation. This is the root of chinese animation's failure to find a way out.
In countries where the world's animated films flourish, audiences are generally accumulated from an early age, whether it is Marvel, Disney or Japan's Ghibli. Looking back at "The Return of the Great Sage", the key to its success lies in the vast audience of the Westward Journey IP and its excellent picture, and domestic animation films are still constantly groping and progressing: after experiencing the exquisite picture of "Big Fish and Begonias", the narrative smooth and adult "The Great Protector", the continuous baptism of the young "Bear Haunting" series, and the "Mamma Mia Duck" that is being screened, indicating that the domestic animation film has finally found the right way.
"Mamma Mia Duck", jointly produced by Wanda Film and Television and Force Animation, frankly admits its own commercial film attributes: it brings together thousands of behind-the-scenes people from the two teams in China and the United States to jointly create and achieve global synchronous distribution. This film is produced under the mature film industry system, with well-made animation, complete and smooth narrative, diversified character images, and the main connotation of giving deep meaning, etc., it abandons the single narrative structure of traditional domestic animation, nor does it rely on traditional stories for reproduction and continuation, let alone the extension of children's stories at a young age, but recreates a new animation world and fully integrates the traditional Chinese spirit of completely original domestic animation films.
In terms of picture production, there are many types of animals included in "Mamma Mia Duck": the protagonist "Dapeng", the two little yellow ducks Taotao and Tao Tao, the turtle soldier uncle, the red-crowned crane brother BaoRong and Yaohui, the chicken couple Chun Pepper and Zhiming, the pigs, the big villain fat cat Scar Boy, the little squirrel who loves to invent, etc. The anthropomorphism of each animal not only grasps the attributes of its own animals, but also highlights the character characteristics, and also spoofs the Classic Hong Kong movies "Spring Light" and "Zhiming and Chunjiao". The image of the little yellow duck Taotao and the well-behaved, cute and eccentric is perfectly presented through special effects technology, and the fluffy hair is clearly rooted, especially the hair changes in different states of the big villain fat cat: the hair bursts when it is angry, the water droplets when it falls into the water, and the action after being frozen are even more vivid. The film differs from previous films in that it also creates a multi-spatial, multi-ecological animal world, and the choice of adventure theme requires the scene to unfold in multiple spaces: endless terraces, lakes under the sun, black cave worlds, rugged and steep mountain roads, rocky mountains, illuminated cities, snow-capped snowy mountains, etc. The degree of detail reduction of each scene is very high, which cannot be achieved by previous domestic films, especially the scene of Taotao and Taotao being driven to the brightly lit night market, which makes people feel like they are in a ghost town in "Spirited Away".
In terms of story, "Mamma Mia Duck" no longer relies on traditional Chinese stories, but instead creates a new story: the adventure of the injured geese and two naughty ducklings. At the same time, it also creates a vivid screen image, not only the protagonist Taotao and Yi Tao are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but other supporting characters also have their own characteristics, such as the red-crowned crane brothers with the attribute of nagging, their dialect makes the characters more local and makes people feel more intimate. And the big rooster Zhiming, who has a strict wife, also has many shadows of ironic social reality. The wild geese contained in the story are very traditional Chinese culture, and the three people who are killed not only have to find a way to catch up with the team before the arrival of winter, but also get rid of the big villain fat cat, and the double narrative thread makes the story both joyful and dangerous.
In terms of production and distribution, "Mamma Mia Duck" has opened up a new path, absorbing excellent foreign post-production teams with wonderful stories, and implementing global synchronous distribution, which is a good start for domestic commercial films to go global. Domestic animation films can not only rely on the feelings of the Chinese people, but also can not blindly indulge in the advantages of traditional culture, but to produce more excellent works that can enter the world market. "Mamma Mia Duck" not only integrates the style of Chinese landscape painting, but also absorbs the advantages of Hollywood narrative and production, which is a new dawn of domestic animation and a good beginning for domestic animation to go to the world.