【Art Review】
Original title: The journey of domestic animation is still far away
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In this year’s summer season, the domestic animated film “New Gods List: Yang Jian” was released on the same day as the well-known Hollywood IP film “Minions with Big Eyes: The Prequel of Despicable Me”. Some people once worried that “New Gods List: Yang Jian” would fail due to the competition of films of the same type. However, it turns out that the timing of the release was no problem this time around. Up to now, “New God List: Yang Jian” has won more than 400 million box office, and “Minions Big Eyes: The Prequel of Despicable Me” has only recorded more than 200 million.
For a long time, Hollywood and Japanese cartoons have been popular in my country’s film market, and domestic animations can only follow step by step, and it is difficult to produce high-quality products. Until 2015, “Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage” unexpectedly created a box office miracle, providing a creative paradigm for domestic animated films to draw on.
The return of the “Great Sage” has sounded the horn of the rise of domestic animation films, and since then, the creation of Chinese animation films has ushered in an upsurge. Works such as “Nezha’s Devil Child Comes into the World“, “Jiang Ziya”, “White Snake: The Origin”, “Big Fish and Begonia”, “The Great Protector”, “New God List: Yang Jian” and other works have come out one after another, and they have been well received at the box office, word of mouth and discussion. Performance. Nowadays, more and more domestic animation films attach importance to absorbing nutrients and materials from traditional culture, especially the theme of traditional myths and legends has become a bonanza for their adaptation.
In today’s domestic animation film market, the modern presentation of traditional culture has become the mainstream. Stronger drama and viewing, the integration of modern life and values, and the fusion of artistic concepts all make such works present a new style of the times.
“Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage” embodies themes such as evil and self-seeking; Nezha shouted “My life is up to me”, fully demonstrating the subjective consciousness and hard-working spirit; “White Snake: Origin” and “Blue” “Snake·Jieqi” deeply explores the relationship between people and society and the self, reflecting the growth process of some women… These three-dimensional and rich new images are not only the modern presentation of classic characters, but also artistically reflect today’s The growth difficulties and struggle marks faced by young people resonate at the same frequency as the spiritual pursuit of young people, reflecting the new ideas of the times. At the same time, these works in the audio-visual style mostly show the characteristics of combining Chinese and Western, ancient and modern integration, while inheriting , the spiritual temperament has a sense of transcendence.
However, it is too optimistic to say that we have ushered in the strong rise of Guoman. How much potential does mythology have to tap? While retaining the image of the mythical characters and the main line of the story, the transformation and reconstruction of modernity must be carried out, which can be described as “dancing in shackles”. In this way, the development space of the story is obviously limited, so that several works have similarities in conception and structure. In a few more works, the characters are not full and three-dimensional enough, so they use technology to make up, and the highlights are placed on the visual spectacle. However, without the support of content, no matter how powerful technological progress is, it is only the pursuit of formalism, which is putting the cart before the horse.
While mythology-themed animated films have become mainstream, reality, sci-fi and other themed animations obviously lack creative ability, and a few works also lack attention. This is inevitably worrying. If domestic animated films are only devoted to retelling or modernizing traditional stories, they are likely to fall into the same pattern of genre and content, and it is difficult to form a viable and sustainable diverse creative ecology. In this way, the audience will inevitably produce aesthetic fatigue.
To go further, domestic animated films must demonstrate the perfect integration of nationality, modernity and entertainment consciousness, not just re-interpretation of traditional classics, but also the creative “force” that transforms the endogenous force of Chinese culture. Create more excellent works that convey Chinese temperament. In the 20th century, films such as “Havoc in Heaven” and “Nezha in the Sea” created by Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio once made Chinese animation usher in the most glorious moment. Today, the younger generation of film creators have taken over the banner of their predecessors, and should also inherit the creative spirit of their predecessors of “not imitating others, not repeating themselves”, boldly surpassing and innovating, and let Chinese animation reach a new height.