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.
First, the difficult start-up period.
When it comes to China animation, we can't help mentioning Wan Brothers (Wan Laiming, Wan Guchan, Wan, 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 the first feature film "Princess Iron Fan" of China animation, which was distributed to Southeast Asia and Japan, and was warmly welcomed by people, paving the way for China 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.
Second, explore ways of national style
After the founding of New China, China animation began to develop more widely. As early as 1947, people's artist Chen Boer and Japanese animation expert Fang Ming (Tadahito Mochinaga) created the first puppet film in New China.
The emperor's dream and cartoon caught a turtle in the pot. 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, so the general's facial makeup draws lessons from Beijing opera characters and adopts Beijing opera style 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 the excessive emphasis 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 films such as Fisherman (1959), Jigong Fighting Cricket and Golden Conch (1963) were filmed, which absorbed the artistic features 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.
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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 origami "Smart Duck", which was full of fun and excitement. 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 "One 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.
Third, the new development after the 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 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 classic cartoons/appreciation/China's classic cartoons/
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