What is the history of China animation?

The animation works of this era are not necessarily the most, but they are the best; Perhaps not the most exquisite, but it is the most serious production; It may not meet international standards, but it is the most prominent traditional feature of China, and it often wins international awards.

When it comes to the golden age of China's animation, we must talk about the Wan brothers, because 1926 they produced the first cartoon "Studio Scream" in China, and then "Reply Letter". Before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, they drew more than 20 cartoons, including 1935' s first audio cartoon "Camel Dance", but in 65438, the Wan brothers' works mainly imitated American animation, which they were not very satisfied with. They have been looking for ways to make animation take root in the traditional soil of China. At 1940, the American cartoon Snow White gave them a great shock, and they made up their minds to make a work with the traditional characteristics of China. They organized 100 people to participate in the drawing, and drew 20,000 pictures before and after, using one. 194 1 year, they finished the first animated feature film Princess Iron Fan in China and even in Asia. The 80-minute length, the story based on Journey to the West, the dubbing of famous actor Bai Hong and others, the background of China's landscape painting style, and the modeling design of China's traditional opera art all make this animation occupy the fourth place in the world film history after Snow White, Lilliput and Pinocchio. Moreover, the rich characteristics of China make it obviously different from the first three. The Wan brothers wanted to shoot "Make a scene in Heaven" next, but the plan failed because of the investor's problems. After the founding of New China, the Wan brothers entered the Shanghai Animation Film Studio in 1954, and tried to shoot the cartoon "Pig and Pig Eat Watermelon" in 1958. Later, they shot the ginseng doll and the golden conch in paper-cutting, and from 19 1 to 65438,

The Silver Age (1976- 1990)

After the Cultural Revolution, the animation industry naturally suffered a great impact. Moreover, 65,438+07 cartoons, such as Trumpeter, Little Eight Road and East China Sea Sentinel, which were shot by Shanghai Meiying during the period of 65,438+0972-65,438+0976, cast a serious shadow on the later animation creation ideas: realism and educational purposes, and made cartoons target at children.

After the reform and opening up, animation production entered a prosperous era, and a number of animation production departments emerged, which also changed the previous situation that Meiying was the only one. During the ten years from 1978 to 1989, these production units have produced 2 19 cartoons, such as What's the trouble with the sea, The Golden Monkey Demon and Wonders of Heaven. Moreover, the TV cartoons at this time also have impressive works such as Hulu Brothers, Black Cat Sheriff, and The Story of Two Generations of Love. Generally speaking, this is a relatively average era, with a small number of all-age art cartoons and a large number of mainstream educational cartoons purely for children like the black cat police chief, and the production methods basically follow the genre initiated by Shanghai Meiying Brothers. There is not much innovation, nor does it absorb advanced experience from the outside world, but the high output during this period just caused the production of the works to be inaccurate. And because the starting point of production is for children, dubbing soundtrack is obviously not as hard as before. At the same time, Japan is also developing steadily from the stage of making simple materials for European and American animations, gradually learning and absorbing European and American experiences and creating its own unique style.

So this era is the silver age, because Wang Xiaobo once said a riddle in the novel The Silver Age: The future world is silver. In fact, we are talking about the thermal dynamic balance of the universe mentioned in the theory of thermal silence. All points have the same temperature, which means nothing stands out. This is the impression given by China animation industry from 1976 to 1990. If some excellent works are taken into account, perhaps it should be considered as a quasi-silver age.

Black Iron Age (1990-2002)

First of all, in the 1990s, major animation manufacturers began to exchange and cooperate with the international animation industry. The complacency of the silver age is over, and the digital production mode replaces the previous manual drawing mode, which greatly improves the production efficiency. The diversified development of production units in each system has increased the production quantity; All kinds of professional and versatile talents enter this industry, which greatly improves the quality of production. However, even if the quantity and quality are improved, there is not much breakthrough in the theme because the concept of making cartoons is for children.

Secondly, from 65438 to 0995, China Film Projection Company no longer adopted the planned economic policy of unified purchase and marketing for cartoons, pushed the animation industry to the market, changed the production state and business model of cartoons, and established the concept of win-win social and economic benefits. Originally, this was an excellent opportunity for the commercial development of the animation industry, but it was also limited by the above production concept. Producers can only make educational things suitable for children, but they dare not make a breakthrough. In the related teaching materials, they even proudly declared that "China animation is healthy in content and uplifting in spirit compared with the animation in capitalist countries such as Europe, America and Japan, and it is a work suitable for children's traditional education".

Finally, the development direction of animation in this period changed from cinema to TV animation, and the number of animation production companies and enterprises also increased to more than 120. A large number of continuous series of cartoons were released, such as blue mouse and big-faced cat, big-headed son and small-headed father, all of which were made during this period, so it seems that the total length of animation works in this period is longer than before. For example, 200 1, the total output of cartoons is 18000 minutes, but on the whole, it seems that there are actually 7 animated short films and 42 series films. In other words, in order to get more broadcast fees from the broadcasting department, the longer the number of episodes, the better, and the quality can be imagined.

Therefore, this is a black iron age, because TV stations have introduced a large number of cartoons from Europe, America and Japan in order to meet the broadcast time, while domestic cartoons have exposed serious deficiencies in content, pictures and personnel design, especially in cartoons made with traditional educational concepts, some children often talk about children informally, which makes teenagers who should be viewers favor foreign cartoons in succession. On the surface, with the increase of production units, the quantity and quality of production are improving, but in fact, it is at this time that a large number of viewers "fled" and stopped watching domestic cartoons and regarded them as a symbol of childishness and clumsiness.

Here, I want to mention Lotus Lantern in particular. Although there is a lot of investment in the production, there are famous actors dubbing, famous singers providing dubbing, and the modeling has absorbed many elements of American animation, it has not escaped the bondage of that concept in essence: it is still an animation with children as the main audience, and the flavor of imitating Disney animation is too strong, which can only be regarded as a work of this era and cannot be detached. After all, watching The Lion King and Mulan is better than imitating.

Confused era (2002-present)

The reason why 2002 should be designated as the first year of confusion and revival is only because of the appearance of "I am crazy about singing". Perhaps this 52-episode animation will be accused of imitation, but I think we should pay more attention to its production concept-it is the first animation shot for teenagers, not just children, which is definitely a major breakthrough from the previous concept that cartoons are just extracurricular teaching materials for children. Compared with this important significance, all other shortcomings are insignificant, because it is like the first pottery fired by human beings. Although ugly, it marks an epoch-making progress from barbecue to cooking.

But I am fascinated by singing, and the later "The List of Gods" and "The Legend of Heroes in Sui and Tang Dynasties" did not go any further after breaking through the old ideas. They didn't produce rich peripheral products around animation, and the breakthrough of age level was limited to children and teenagers, and there were few similar works in China. Most animation production units are still making so-called children's animation with sloppy production attitude, education-oriented production concept and children-oriented production starting point. Compared with the production of TV series in the same period, it has reached the saturation state that it can not be broadcast after production. The output of animation was only 20,000 minutes in 2004, which was far from the 60,000-minute broadcast time stipulated by TV stations. If the quantity is not enough, it must be introduced, and the acceptance of children should be considered, so that a monster like Eagle Warrior will appear in the new century.

Some cartoons have changed the orientation of the audience in the past; There are all kinds of imported comics, which exceed the previous restrictions; There are various types of Japanese, European and American cartoons provided by the network; Accordingly, domestic traditional cartoons have been pushed out to a very poor position. Although there are still many staunch fans in the younger age group, it is an indisputable fact that slightly older children will not watch domestic cartoons if they have other choices. This is the confused era of China animation.