What is the status of China animation in the history of world animation development?

China animation is about to usher in another prosperous period in the new century. China animation does not exist as an independent individual. China animation should not only have a domestic market, but also go global. After more than 70 years of animation exploration, China's animation creation has reached a high artistic level. However, the market is a little insufficient, and China animators are also aware of this problem. Especially under the impact of American and Japanese foreign animation, China animation is facing great challenges. Facing the current animation situation, the animators in China have taken courage, perfected the animation production system and distribution system, used the advanced foreign experience for their own use, and achieved good market returns. At the same time, we can't ignore some shortcomings of China's animation. We should make China animation develop better while maintaining the national characteristics. The artistic level of the film ensures its long-term vitality, and good market returns also provide funds for artistic re-creation. How to find a perfect match between artistry and commerce is the concern of this paper.

As an artistic creation, animation has a very broad development prospect in China. In the new century, let's look forward to the bright future of China animation!

foreword

Animation art is a worldwide culture. Since the birth of animation, animation exchanges between countries are very extensive. As a part of world animation, China animation also shines with dazzling light. Princess Iron Fan, China's first animated feature film, caused widespread influence at home and abroad, and was released to Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and other regions, which fired the first shot of animation export in China. Chinese cartoons have also consciously incorporated themselves into the trajectory of world cartoons, which is consistent with the development of world cartoons. Subsequently, Chinese cartoons won awards frequently in the world, which attracted the attention of the world and gained a reputation. Chinese cartoons occupy a position that cannot be ignored in the world animation film and television corridor, emitting unique charm. However, the development of Chinese cartoons has fallen into silence. Since 1990s, Chinese cartoons have lost their previous prosperity. The animation market in China is full of American and Japanese animations, and among the daily necessities and printed materials around people, Garfield, Snoopy and other foreign animation images are more popular. The audience who have high hopes for national animation has a high voice for national animation, and the state also vigorously supports the cause of national animation. China animation artists have also made great efforts for the development of domestic animation. Although domestic animation has made some progress, it is still not satisfactory. Domestic animation is facing great challenges. How to get better development in the new century, grab back the domestic market and go to the world at the same time is an urgent task for animation creators. Where is the crux of the slow development of domestic animation? How to explore a road suitable for the development of animation in China is an urgent problem for domestic animation.

The first chapter is history

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 and Atlas), who are the ancestors of China animation. Under extremely difficult conditions, they produced China's first animated film, Studio Noisy, on 1926.

Opened a page in the history of animation in China. Then 1930, the paper man made trouble again. Since then, Wan Brothers has never

I 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, 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, 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 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 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. 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 "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. Besides, goddess mending the sky, grabbing pillows, Talepool, water deer, cleaning, nets, stealing donkeys, witches, crocodiles and little girls are all 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.

Chapter II Creation of Articles

China's animation creation has been actively explored from the beginning, with rich animation themes and artistic expressions, telling stories that children love to hear. But there is a creative misunderstanding, that is, pure children's presentation. The object of cartoon creation is children. Although animation is also closely related to the real society in the early stage of creation, after animation is on the right track, the objects of animation creation are becoming more and more single. Cats fishing, mindless unhappiness, clever ducklings, making trouble in heaven and so on. Mainly for children. This creative tendency continues to this day, leaving a blank in China's animation creation and a vacancy in the market.

In contrast, American and Japanese animation creation is very active, with a wide range of subjects, including animals, children and teenagers, lingering love stories and so on. Disney's animation works are mostly based on well-known fairy tales, trying to express the warm world with unique animation forms and beautiful music. Focusing on "fraternity", animals are anthropomorphic, so they are loved by small friends and family audiences.

Disney's Mulan had a great influence on China people. Mulan is a well-known story in China, but Americans borrowed the ancient folk story of China, re-created the animation and filmed the cartoon Mulan, which was very popular. This is another example of the success of the United States in adapting classic stories from other countries. In fact, Mulan in the United States just borrowed the story shell of Mulan in China. The core of its role is American, and its role embodies an American rebellious spirit, blending modern ideas into ancient legends. Americans give full play to their imagination and create a kind and brave image of Mulan. The film is full of American humor, such as Long Mu and cricket, two unique supporting roles. Mulan's success in the market can be said to have several tricks. First of all, this is the first cartoon adapted from China folklore in the United States. Secondly, the East has always had a mysterious attraction to the West, and the animation techniques are also new. Whether adults or children, everyone is full of curiosity about what Mulan photographed by Americans will look like. Disney firmly grasps the psychology of the audience and creates a strong sense of expectation. The success of the market is inevitable. Mulan created by Americans is not in line with our ideas in China, but its bold imagination in artistic re-creation is worth learning.

With the development of science and the increasingly rich and rapid means of communication, cultural, entertainment and artistic exchanges between countries all over the world are very extensive and convenient. People receive all kinds of information every day, so people's ideas and appreciation ideas have also changed a lot. People need something fresh, exciting and creative. Animation based on modern technology will inevitably pay close attention to people's thoughts.

In order to keep up with the track of world animation, China's animation creation must update his creative ideas. With the development of animation in the world, especially under the influence of American movies, the audience's appreciation taste is becoming more and more complicated. Animators in China shoulder the heavy responsibility of creating more and better movies that audiences like. China animation should not only win the domestic audience, but also go global. China animation is always in close contact with the world, and China animation should achieve better development in the following aspects in the new century:

First, change ideas and break through the mindset.

China's animation creation has always been adhering to the purpose of "entertaining through education" and has achieved fruitful results. However, there are deviations in this process, and the significance of "education" has been overemphasized. The first practice of the theme was blocked and the thinking was rigid. The loss of entertainment makes animation move from the public to the minority. The creation of Chinese cartoons needs to change the traditional way of creation, and it can be said that we should take a road of reference and innovation. The previous animation creation has provided us with rich artistic accumulation, but the market concept is lacking. The change of concept should be synchronized with the change of market concept and audience concept. The change of market concept will be discussed in the next article. Animation creation should not be limited to tradition, but should be shackled. Animation creation should have a more colorful world. One idea embodied in the creation of Chinese cartoons is that cartoons are children's world. China's cartoons are also naive. Moreover, under the influence of this concept, the audience has also developed the habit of watching movies: cartoons are children's films, not for children. This concept makes the vision of animation creation very narrow, and the theme of animation is also limited, which is reflected in the lack of imagination in creation, thus making China's animation lose a large number of adult audiences. Moreover, under the concept of "education", cartoons often put on a coat of education, but lack childlike interest, which leads to the situation that adults don't watch and children don't watch. China's animation should change the single children's performance in the past, change the audience's concept and enrich the audience. Shanghai Animation Film Studio's big production Lotus Lantern, which lasted for four years, made an attempt in this respect. The positioning of this film is between the ages of 6 and 80. It can be said that this is a challenge for animators, and it is not easy to take into account such a large audience. The story of the film is based on the story of "Breaking the Mountain to Save Mother" in ancient China. Telling the story of a hero saving his mother is well thought out in image style and character modeling, and adding the image of a little monkey that does not exist in the original work, which is clever, funny and humorous and has won wide market recognition.

Second, the expansion of imagination and creativity.

China's cartoon theme is full of childlike interest, animal stories and fairy tales. Animation is a world full of fantasy, turning intangible into tangible. The change of ideas needs extraordinary creativity and imagination to match, and the animation industry in China can flourish.

Imagination and creativity are manifested in the framework of the film story, the arrangement of the plot, the design of the character modeling, the depiction of the film background and so on. In fact, many American animation creations are based on the story prototypes of other countries, such as Cinderella and Snow White, and the Lion King also interprets the story of the prince's revenge. If the creative space of animation has greater tolerance, the content of animation will be rich and colorful, which will attract the public. Similarly, many Japanese animation creations also draw lessons from the archetypes of story characters in other countries, such as the Monkey King in Dragon Ball, which is completely a Japanese re-created image, completely different from the Monkey King in The Journey to the West. But the Japanese created a series of Dragon Ball legends according to the Monkey King's words, which were loved by the public. At the same time, the artistic level is also very high, and the story has depth. The story set by Miyazaki Hayao, a Japanese animation master, does not care about time and space, but emphasizes that there is something in the painting, calling for people's cognition and memory of the past and protection and exploration of the future. This film can make people think deeply.

Starting from the history of animation in China, this paper has some knowledge about the creation rules of animation in China, and tries to find the combination of market and artistic creation. Through historical observation, this paper provides some views on China's animation. China's animation is independent and innovative in the development of world animation. China animation has great market potential. China animation should break through the mindset, tap the market, and form a benign interaction between social and economic benefits. The artistic level ensures the long-term vitality of the film, but good market returns also provide funds for artistic re-creation. In the new century, China animation has developed better. In addition to being in line with international standards, we should also treat specific problems in light of our own characteristics. China animation has a bright future. Let's look forward to the bright future of China animation!