Reviewing the 80 Years of China Animation
China's animation was once brilliant, which also proved that China's animation is powerful and has artistic laws suitable for its development. Understanding the development of China animation is of great benefit to today's animation creation. We can learn from and absorb excellent traditions, and also find and summarize the shortcomings of China's animation, so as to find a way to develop in the new social development period.
China animation has a long history. As we all know, Mickey Mouse first met the world in 1928, which was the world's first animated film Steamboat Willie. China's first animated film, Studio Noisy, was born in 1926, only 20 years later than the world's first animated film was born in 1906, and it has been 80 years since today.
1926 —— China Animation 1949
If we want to talk about the origin of China's animation, we have to mention Wan's four brothers (Wan Gu Chan, Wan Lai Ming, Wan He Atlas). Hey, when it comes to the Tiger Fighting Brothers, the Wan Brothers loved painting since childhood. 19 19, they watched several American cartoons, such as Popeye, jumping out of the ink bottle and never turning it off. The four brothers tried to make cartoons together. We started talking about "Studio Noisy" which was produced by them at 1926. After that, they made a lot of animations, one of which is also of epoch-making significance, that is 1935, China's first audio animation "Camel Dance". However, these animations have not attracted everyone's attention. It is China's first animated feature film Princess of the Iron Fan that has a real impact in Asia and the world. 194 1 was released. This animated optical film is 9700 feet long and has a screening time of 80 minutes. God, 24 frames per second, 80 minutes ... even now, it's so long. What's more, it was a time of war. Alas, we really admire and appreciate the Wan brothers. More importantly, Wan Brothers' animations all add China's fine arts elements, such as meticulous painting and ink painting. In China, in the early days, few people mentioned cartoons, and more people said "art films", because the animations in that period were all through paper-cutting, puppets and shadow play. In a word, it's not too late for us to start animation in China. At that time, even in Asia, it was relatively advanced. In particular, the first animated feature film Princess Iron Fan caused a great sensation in Asia. Even Osamu Tezuka, a Japanese animation giant, was influenced by Princess Iron Fan before deciding to join in animation!
1950 —— 1977 China Animation
In 1950s and 1960s, China's cartoons, commonly known as art films, ushered in the first climax, which can be said to be the golden age-besides the Wan brothers' participation in the animation production of New China, a large number of technical and artistic talents emerged during this period. Let's talk about a few other firsts of our animation in China: 1953, we filmed the first colorful puppet film "Little Hero" in China, and 1954, the puppet film "Little Beauty's Dream", in which real people and puppets appeared in the same movie for the first time. The puppet film Magic Pen (1956) won the first prize of the world children's entertainment film, which is the first time that China's art film has won the international prize. By 1955, the first color cartoon "Why is the crow black" came out, and in 1958, the first paper-cut "Pig Eight Rings Eat Watermelon" appeared in China, adding a new variety to China art films. Then, 1960, the "ink animation" that amazed the whole world was born. Representative works include Little Tadpole Looking for Mom and Moody, both of which have been highly praised abroad and won many awards at home and abroad. It is worth mentioning that "Little Tadpole Looking for Mother" uses the original painting of Master Qi Baishi, and the buffalo in Moody is also the work of Master Li Keran. Think about it, can these two animations be artistic? Finally, China's animation masterpiece, Making a scene in Heaven, is introduced. This animation was directed by Wan Laiming, one of the Wan brothers, in the early 1960s. It was 120 minutes long and was divided into two episodes. The production of this film was strongly supported by the state at that time. This is really a problem that requires both money and people. In this case, the result can't be wrong. This film won the Best Film Award at the London International Film Festival. Now it has been distributed to more than 40 countries and regions. Look, this beautiful and concise figure modeling, flowing action design, and the perfect combination of China traditional opera music are full of romantic imagination. Ah, it's really the pinnacle of China's animation ... Besides, there are also famous animations in this period, such as Carp Leaping over the Dragon Gate, Pride General, Fisherman, Peacock Princess, etc ... It is estimated that everyone remembers Fisherman. However, the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution for ten years made China animation in the golden age fall into a trough. Although several works were published in the later period, their themes were limited. Moreover, the greatest influence on China animation during this period was the destruction of talents. This disaster has reduced the future development of animation in China by a whole generation ... It can even be speculated that the current low tide of animation is not only influenced by foreign animation, but also caused by the lack of talents at that time.
1977 —— China Animation 1985
After the Cultural Revolution, China animation ushered in a renaissance period, known as the Silver Age of China animation. In this new creative climax, our animation production has not only increased rapidly in quantity, but also innovated constantly in form and theme, the most noteworthy of which is the cartoon What Is the Sea Made of. "Things change" is a large-scale wide-screen animation, the story, as we all know, is based on the classical fairy tale "Romance of the Gods". In the animation, Nezha is not afraid of power, and the spirit of fighting the Dragon King is pleasant. Finally, Nezha saw countless scenes of life, which made many people cry. In addition, there are avanti full of wisdom, three simple and humorous monks, Lu Zhongshu with ink animation, Mr. Nan Guo with quaint style, newspaper clippings as hairy as monkeys fishing for the moon, fighting between snipes and mussels with ink style, Laoshan Taoist with humor and philosophy, and fireworks of peacocks.
1985 —— China Animation 1995
The time machine has entered 85 years. During the decade of 85-95, it was also the time when the post-80s had the most contact with domestic animation. This decade should be said to be a turning point of our China animation, but it is a pity that it is not a good turning point. During this period, some good works have appeared in our domestic animation. Some animation series, such as Hulu Brothers, have left a deep impression on the generation born in 1980s, regardless of the plot, color and obvious Chinese style. There are The Adventures of the Sloppy King and Shuke and Beita, which are still classics. In the animation episodes of this period, it is worth mentioning that "Mountains and Waters" and "Shooting without Shooting" are not as popular as those series just now ... Among these little-known excellent animations, "Mountains and Waters" won many awards at home and abroad, but it is also known as the swan song of Chinese ink animation, because at this time, this finely crafted movie animation has begun to decline and slowly began to move towards the later academic school. Since 1985, many Sino-foreign joint venture animation companies have entered China, and a large number of animation talents have been poached by these companies. On the other hand, many foreign animations entered the China market at low prices at this time. Transformers, Flower Fairy, Wizard of Oz, Astro Boy, most of these animations have novel themes, strange imagination and bright colors, which have been welcomed by China audiences.
1995 —— China Animation 1995
Speaking of post-95 animation, alas, it's really hard to be proud. During this period, domestic animation began to appear problems such as shoddy and naive content. In contrast, imported animation can be said to be unstoppable. What saints, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Later, with the development of the Internet, foreign animation can almost enter China at the same time. In this embattled situation, our domestic animation has also begun to reflect. Here are some films worth mentioning. First of all, Lotus Lantern (1999) spent four years making this animation, and invested120,000 yuan. Its characteristic is that the production method is in line with international standards, and a large number of two-dimensional animations are combined with three-dimensional animations, which was still a pioneering work in China at that time. In addition, its audience age is also higher than other animations in the same period. For example, celebrities such as Xu Fan, Jiang Wen and Peisi Chen were invited to voice this animation, and CoCo Lee, Jeff Chang Shin-Che Shen Che and Liu Huan sang the theme song for it. The production is very atmospheric and has achieved good market returns. However, this animation also has some shortcomings, such as the traces of imitating American animation, and the content positioning is still suspected of being younger. Another animation that should be mentioned is "I am crazy about singing" in 2002. At that time, this animation was regarded as the hope of China animation by anime fans, because its positioning was an animation with a youthful theme, and it was very fashionable and even a little rebellious in both character design and plot setting. However, after the vigorous pre-publicity, there seems to be no movement. The reason why this movie didn't really become a big hit is because the finished animation you saw didn't reach the expected level, and many places were very imprecise. Many places that shouldn't use Q version inexplicably use Q version characters, which makes anime fans very disappointed. Don't be disappointed too early, because we haven't stopped trying. In recent years, with the enthusiasm and efforts of animation enthusiasts and the attention and support of the state, more and more animation industrial bases and animation companies have been established in China, and these companies have also produced a large number of exquisite animation works. Moreover, many of them are still trying to do youth animation. For example, the animation of Heroes of Sui and Tang Dynasties, the movie animation of Butterfly Lovers, Rain Stone and Storm Decisive Battle, which we introduced before, are also excellent works. After five days' review, we can find that China animation has been revived despite its low tide. We are not short of technology or art, and we are fully capable of achieving world-class standards. Therefore, let us animators and animation lovers believe that China animation will surely usher in glory again.
[Edit this paragraph] 1. A difficult early stage
When it comes to China animation, we can't help mentioning Wan Brothers (Wan Laiming, Wan Guchan, Wan and Atlas), who are the ancestors of China animation. Under extremely difficult conditions, they produced China's first animated film "The Studio" in 1926, which turned a page in the history of animation in China. Then 1930, the paper man made trouble again. Since then, the Wan brothers have worked tirelessly to create China's animation. Under the influence of anti-Japanese imperialism and the left-wing cultural movement, the Wan brothers filmed a large number of anti-Japanese works, such as Blood Money, Saving the Country by Aviation, History of National Mourning, New Trends, etc., as well as the Year of Domestic Products and Fragility, which advocated domestic products, and some children's fables, such as Rat Frog, unexpected trouble and Tortoise and Rabbit Race. Until the 1940s, Wan Brothers created China's first animated feature film Princess Iron Fan, which was distributed to Southeast Asia and Japan, and was warmly welcomed by people, paving the way for China's animation to go international. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, Wan Brothers were forced to interrupt animation creation. At that time, a group of animators centered on Qian Jiajun also drew an animated short film "Nongjiale" with anti-Japanese content, and then drew two short films. Chinese cartoons are always closely related to the atmosphere of the times in the early stage of creation. At the same time, the earliest animators also showed indomitable spirit and a strong sense of national mission.
[Edit this paragraph] Second, explore ways of national customs
After the founding of New China, China animation began to develop more widely. As early as 1947, Chen Boer, a people's artist, and Fang Ming (Tadahito Mochinaga), a Japanese animation expert, created the first puppet film "The Emperor's Dream" and the animated film "Catch a turtle in a jar" in New China. They finished filming under the difficult conditions of insufficient personnel and poor equipment, which opened the prelude to the development of cartoons in New China.
In the subsequent development, China's cartoons consciously began to explore the road of national style, which is the result of the times and the world environment. Shanghai Animation Film Studio was established in 1957, and its director is Tewei. At this time, the number of animators in China has grown to more than 200. Wan Laiming, Wan Guchan, Wan, Qian Jiajun, Yu Zheguang, Zhang Chaoqun, Jin Jin, Ma, and many other famous artists and writers have successively joined the ranks, making great contributions to the development of China animation.
The early days of the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC) were a period when Chinese cartoons were toddlers. China animators actively learn from foreign advanced animation technology and art, mainly the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and their animation technology has been greatly improved. At the same time, the animation style is inevitably influenced by the animation of these countries, such as Catfish (1952), Little Beauty's Dream (1954), fistful of dollars (1955) and other films all have the shadow of Soviet animation. In particular, 1956 "Why Crows Are Black" won the prize at the International Animation Festival. Sadly, the participants thought the film was a Soviet film. This misunderstanding makes China animators deeply realize: "Imitating other countries' animations step by step is not conducive to the development of China's animated films. "It can only lead to the reduction of China animation." Only nationalization is the way out for China's animated films. "In fact, China's early animated films also have this tendency. The Paper Man Disturbed by Wan Brothers is an imitation of American animation, which pursues entertainment and is just a simple stunt farce. In fact, this is also the embodiment of the essence of animation entertainment. Movies give people entertainment, there will be audiences, and there will be markets. At the same time, it still has national characteristics in the design of characters.
1957, Tewei, director of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Factory, put forward the slogan of "exploring the road of national style", and the national style construction of China animation began. China animation artists draw nutrition from China's traditional culture and art for their own use, and strive to show China's unique style, and have made remarkable achievements. In the cartoon "Proud General", the national characteristics are full. The facial makeup of the general of Peking Opera draws lessons from Peking Opera characters and adopts the style of Peking Opera in action design. The background music of the film uses folk music appropriately. When the general was helpless, the ancient pipa "Flying in All directions" sounded, and the picture and music were perfectly combined, achieving the effect of seeing the moon through the clouds. This cartoon, which lasted only 30 minutes, was full of strong nationalism, giving people a refreshing feeling and greatly inspiring the nationalization exploration at that time. At the same time, animation artists in China are actively engaged in exploring new animation technologies and improving animation skills. In China, famous puppet film directors Jin and Qian Yuanda went to study in the Czech Republic in 1950s. King's first masterpiece Princess Peacock has a touching story. Later, King's Who Sings Best was technically perfect, but ideologically limited. At that time, the literary and artistic policy was dogmatic, which limited the further development of puppet movies because of its overemphasis on "politics first", "revolutionary tradition" and "theme first". In 1957' s Pulling Radish and 1958' s New Discovery of Ancient Doctors, Qian Jiajun paid attention to exploring the childlike interest and childlike innocence of cartoons. 1958, China animators developed China's first newspaper clipping "Pig Eight Rings Eating Watermelon", which added a new variety with distinctive folk art characteristics to China animation. Then the paper-cut animation "Fisherman" (1959), "Jigong Fighting Cricket" and "Golden Conch" (1963) were filmed, which absorbed the artistic characteristics of Chinese shadow play and folk window grilles, made the animated images vivid and full, and promoted the traditional folk art in China. In 1980s, paper-cutting technology became more and more mature. On this basis, Meiying Factory successfully developed a new process of "napping" paper-cutting, and produced an ink-and-wash paper-cut entitled "Snakes and Clams Struggle", which won the Silver Bear Award at the 13th Berlin International Short Film Festival, the Special Award at the 6th Zagreb International Animation Film Festival in Yugoslavia, the Special Award at Toronto International Animation Film Festival in Canada, and the Excellent Art Film Award at the Ministry of Culture 1984. 1985' s "Grass Man" was also well received, winning the first prize of children's film at the second Hiroshima International Animation Film Festival in Japan, 1985' s Excellent Art Film Award from the Ministry of Culture in China, and the second prize of the "Dragon Boat Award" for national minority movies. This species has been recognized at home and abroad and welcomed by the audience. In addition, 1960 filmed an origami animation "Smart Duck", which was full of fun and lively. In the same period, ink and wash comics were invented, which is the most China-style comics. It combines China's ink painting with animated films, making China's unique interest in pen and ink perfectly reappear on the screen, forming the most artistic style with China characteristics, which shocked the whole world cinema. Little Tadpole Looking for Mother (1960) and Moody (1964) can be said to be representative works. Rhythmic pictures and poetic artistic conception give people beautiful enjoyment, and animation art has reached an aesthetic realm.
At this time, animation creation reached an unprecedented height. It can be said that the late 1950s to the mid-1960s was a climax of China's animation. It is also a mature stage of the national wind. The first and second episodes (196 1, 1964) of the animated film "Noisy Heaven" draw lessons from the characteristics of ancient paintings, temple fair art and folk New Year pictures in terms of modeling, setting and color, and also incorporate the performing arts of China traditional operas to depict the well-known the Monkey King, which makes this image leap from the screen to the tangible. It has a distinctive national style and exquisite artistic skills. "Foreign film critics said:" Make a scene in Heaven "not only has the beauty of ordinary American Disney works, but also has plastic arts that Disney-style art films can't do, that is, it completely shows China's traditional artistic style." "This is a real animation masterpiece."
The artistic level of Chinese cartoons has not only won the recognition of the international community, but also made cartoons with China national characteristics penetrate into the people of the world. China animation is independent of the world animation forest because of its unique national characteristics, which exudes unique artistic charm. Chinese cartoons have gained higher and higher reputation at home and abroad.
However, due to the influence of the Cultural Revolution, the animation industry in China was hindered and developed slowly. After the Cultural Revolution, a hundred flowers blossomed, and the animation industry in China also ushered in the second spring. Animators in China devoted themselves to animation creation with greater enthusiasm, and along the road of "national style" in the past, they made new explorations in themes, artistic forms and production techniques, and achieved gratifying results. At the same time, due to the implementation of the open policy and the expansion of foreign exchanges, China's animation industry is also more in line with international standards, breathing more fresh air, showing a vibrant scene.
1979, China's first color wide-screen animated feature film "What Makes the Sea Noisy" came out. This work, known as "colorful, elegant and imaginative", has been well received at home and abroad. The national style has been well continued on it. The cartoon "Three Monks" has inherited the traditional art form and absorbed modern foreign expression techniques, making a new attempt in developing national style. The cartoon Snow Child has a beautiful and poetic picture. Mr. Nan Guo showed the artistic style and simple style of Han Dynasty. Huo Tong combines the characteristics of decorative modeling and national art, including Two Little Peacocks, One Night Gallery, Foxes Beating Hunters, Good Cat Mimi, Fool Buying Shoes, Black Rooster, Duckling, Ginseng Fruit, Naughty Golden Monkey, If I Were Song Wu, butterfly spring, etc. 1984 The large-scale cartoon "The Golden Monkey Demons" once again put the Monkey King on the animated screen, creating a touching image of the Monkey King. In the way of expression, it combines traditional national style, abstract painting and modern music to explore the new development of national art. The cartoon "A Clip to Save Deer" is elegant and lyrical, with the quaint style of Dunhuang murals. The paper-cut "Grass Man" simulates the form of China's meticulous flower-and-bird painting. In addition, the goddess fills the sky, grabs pillows, Talepool, water deer, cleaning, nets, stealing donkeys, witches, crocodiles and little girls. It is also full of ethnic customs.
[Edit this paragraph] III. New development after 1990s.
From the development of animation to 1990s, China's animation creation has a slow trend compared with the world's animation development. Under the impact of American animation and Japanese animation, and because of the lack of market operation, the recovery of animation is relatively slow. In the past, animation in China was purely invested by the state, and people were unwilling to invest, which led to the loss of animators and the slow development of animation industry in China. China animation should change its previous operation mode. In order to revive domestic animation, Meiying Factory has produced the animated film Lotus Lantern for four years, which is the largest cinema animated feature film invested by China so far. The story is based on the folklore of China. The pictures and characters are carefully designed, and the music production is extremely elegant. At the same time, the application of modern high technology also adds a lot of color to the film, giving people a refreshing feeling and winning unanimous praise from the audience. At the same time, a number of excellent cartoons were born, such as Five Weeks in a Balloon, Kyle Polo's Return to Du Xiang, Ouch, Mom and so on, which injected new vitality into animation and presented a thriving scene.
Looking at the development of China animation in recent decades, we can see that China animation has been committed to taking a road with its own characteristics. After the reform and opening up, this purpose has not been abandoned in the tide of world animation. Cartoons are filled with lively and fresh breath, giving people beautiful enlightenment. At the same time, we attach great importance to the significance of education, and adhere to the principle of "entertaining through education" in comic creation, so that comics will not become superficial and purely entertaining. After decades of painstaking efforts, Chinese cartoons have built an animation kingdom.
China's first newspaper clipping
1958, Wan Guchan directed China's first newspaper clipping, Pigs and Pigs Eat Watermelon, which added a new variety to art films.
China's first cartoon.
1926, Wan Brothers overcame many difficulties such as funds, venues and materials, and finally successfully developed China's first animated film "Make a scene"; It is also the beginning of China's fine arts films.
2 1 century domestic animation problems: domestic animation can not be supported by Chinese people.
cause
(1) Domestic animation is regarded as "simple", "naive" and "boring" by Chinese people. Domestic animation teaches young people how to behave, which is pure and relatively suitable for children. It has been positioned and can't keep up with the trend of the times. In contrast, foreign animation is more popular with Chinese people.
(2) China's animation is relatively rough compared with foreign countries, and it has always been recognized as animation rather than animation. Dubbing lacks excellent sound quality.
(3) The state is too strict in protecting domestic animation and lacks real development policies.
(D) Domestic animation lacks creativity and can't really play an educational role.
(5) Animation production can't really develop without commercialization and marketization.