Sun Jiashan, China Academy of Arts
Comparing "Nezha's Devil Boy" with Hollywood films of the same type is certainly not the first time. It's just that the "first time" in history is really quite early - as early as the 1920s, that is, the stage when the world film pattern has only begun to take shape.
In February 1925, the American film Baghdad (also known as "Moon Palace Treasure Box", the name is familiar) because of the leading production technology and visual effects at that time, caused a shocking experience for Chinese film audiences of that era far more than the Hollywood blockbusters of the mid-to-late 1990s. So much so that at that stage, Chinese films must logically respond to the challenges from Hollywood in the commercial genre of films.
At that time, in order to respond positively to the genre of gods and monsters, the "Journey to the West" theme became the most realistic art resource grasp. The earliest surviving work on the theme of "Journey to the West", "Pansi Cave" in 1927, is the product of this vein. The first "westward fever" in the history of Chinese cinema is also a direct result of the "anxiety of influence" from Hollywood. Later, the modern value of the "Journey to the West" theme was enhanced, and it was officially opened from then on.
Before that, the original figures such as Nezha and Sun Wukong, especially Sun Wukong, although they also had various skills in the original sense, were far from the overwhelming status of today in the value sequence - not much stronger than Nezha. In other words, the Nezha and Sun Wukong we see today are not purely natural. The pure natural Nezha and Sun Wukong are far from the "true fragrance" imagined.
It's just that at the moment, the most direct dialogue object of "Nezha's Devil Boy Descending" is not a hollywood film of the same type, but "Nezha Noisy Sea".
Dragon cramps, foot stepping on the Dragon Palace... These classic moments in "Nezha Noisy Sea" that have been imprinted in the emotional memory of generations are mainly from "Journey to the West". In "Nezha Noisy Sea", the scene of Nezha wielding his sword in the heavy rain was also repeatedly mentioned after the hit "Nezha's Demon Boy Descending". That scene is indeed a classic that can be engraved in the history of Chinese cinema.
On the one hand, that scene deeply reproduced the Chinese tragic spirit that had been widely sung and praised in the operas and miscellaneous dramas of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties such as "The Orphan of Zhao" and "Dou E'e Grievance"; on the other hand, the complete "disappointment" of the father's generation also alluded to the mood of that era, so that many things that had been done before suddenly had a sense of substitution (don't underestimate this scene, this spiritual temperament has always affected the Chinese-style costume blockbusters of the first decade of the new century, such as "Full of Golden Armor" and "Night Feast").
It is precisely because of the combined force of the above two factors that the position of "Nezha Noisy Sea" in the contemporary emotional structure has been established in one fell swoop.
Of course, "Nezha Noisy Sea" also has a more direct label - national style.
In 1937, the world's first animated feature film Disney's "Snow White" came out; in 1941, China's first animated feature film "Iron Fan Princess" launched by the Wan brothers was also born, laying the groundwork for the exploration of the national style of Chinese animated films. By 1955, when Mr. Te Wei proposed to "explore the road of national forms and knock on the door of comedy style", it had naturally become the consensus and conscious pursuit of the whole industry at that time.
Therefore, although "The Haunting of heavenly palace" has become famous in the history of world animation films and even the history of world cinema, its appearance in 1961 is actually thick and thin, and its acceptance and radiation range are far beyond today's imagination. Japanese anime giant Osamu Tezuka, from "Princess of the Iron Fan" to "The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace", has repeatedly been inspired by the artistic inspiration of the national style exploration of the national style of the generation of animation film masters in China such as the Wan brothers, which is a great irony for the Chinese animation industry that has little ability to fight back today.
In this sense, especially to the ink animation represented by "Little Tadpole Finds Mother", "Mudi", "Deer Bell", and "Landscape and Water", Chinese animation films have indeed found their own, modern, stable national style, and realized the multi-genre presentation of national style aesthetics.
Without understanding the above context, it is impossible to understand where "Nezha's Demon Boy Descending" came from and what changes have been made because of this era.