What are the characteristics of American animation and China animation?

American cartoons have a wide range of materials, including Arabian Legend Arabian Nights, German fairy tale Snow White, and China historical story Mulan. There are the lion king who describes the animal world, Little Mount Tai who describes the relationship between man and nature, and Transformers who describe the sci-fi world. There are Tom and Jerry for all ages, and Beauty and the Beast and Romance in the Wind, which are more suitable for adults to watch. It can be said that all kinds of themes are used in American cartoons, which makes American cartoons constantly innovate and lead the world animation trend.

But China's animation theme is relatively simple. Whether it is the early Pride General, Little Tadpole Looking for Mother, or the later Love Story of Two Generations and Lotus Lantern, it all embodies the strong spirit of "entertaining through education". Whether it is an innocent cartoon character or a legendary hero, the theme of China's animation reflects the profound influence of traditional Confucian culture. Compared with American animation, China's animation pays too much attention to educational function, with too much didactic color and poor visibility.

Because China's animation has a heavy traditional thought, many classic animation images are not specially created for animation, but just another interpretation of China's classical mythology. Therefore, there are few vivid characters in Chinese cartoons that people will never forget. In the end, people will only remember the original myth in their minds, not the animation adapted from the myth.

There is no country in the world whose animation is inseparable from "painting" or even based on "painting" like China's animation. This tradition of China's animation is obviously related to China people's understanding of the essence of animation: animation, as its name implies, is a "moving" painting, as long as the "painting" moves, it is animation. In this way, from theory to practice, the tradition of "painting-oriented" in China's animation is naturally reasonable. Moreover, the "painting standard" of China's animation refers to Chinese painting, which has nothing to do with western painting. Taking ink animation as an example, the creators of China animation have successfully applied the basic principles of Chinese painting with a long history and profound tradition to animation after many experiments, and created excellent animation works such as Little Tadpole Looking for Mom, Moody and Mountain View. At the beginning, American animation pursued "action orientation". In their view, animation is first of all a kind of movement, a kind of "movement" after special treatment. Animation is not a "moving picture", but a "drawn movement".

One is "painting-oriented" and the other is "moving-oriented". The visual impact created by the two different creative concepts is of course different. China's animation is based on painting, so the movie screen lacks movement, the movement of the lens and the scheduling of characters are less, and the appearance and admission of characters are relatively dull. Coupled with the scattered perspective of Chinese painting, it is mostly two-dimensional and lacks three-dimensional sense. For those who are used to seeing large-scale visual wonders in the United States, there is indeed a lack of visual impact. American animation, on the other hand, is dominated by the concept of "action-based", and basically takes animation in the form of regular movies. The movements of the characters and the use of the lens are extremely exquisite and dynamic. In addition to the differences in visual impact, the narrative styles of Chinese and American animations are also very different: China's animation is relatively lacking in narrative skills because its creators are mostly art talents. American animation emphasizes "action-oriented" and tries to tell stories in action, so it is generally original.

In the eyes of Americans, usefulness is truth, and success is truth. Therefore, their animation industry also embodies their own national personality characteristics. As long as they can earn more money, they are brave enough to try and enjoy the subversion of cartoons by various themes and animated characters. China people, on the other hand, pay attention to responsibility and conscience, so they will not tamper with the spiritual food left by their ancestors. Therefore, China's traditional cartoons can never get rid of the shackles of rules and regulations. Under the influence of conservative thoughts and China's traditional ideas, it is impossible for China animators to subvert the characters and themes in the sacred original works. Of course, this will not attract the attention of today's critical audience, let alone continue to attract the world's attention to China's animation.

In recent years, American cartoons are extremely prosperous. Disney has successively launched "annual animated blockbusters", with huge investment, exquisite production and mature operation, which is very attractive to children and adults, and the market income is very considerable. Disney's Toy Story and DreamWorks' Shrek grossed as much as $/kloc-0.2 billion in the United States, and the huge profits of cartoons prompted major companies to launch their own animated films. The animators in China are deeply influenced by the traditional culture of China and are not driven by interests. Naturally, they devote themselves to the art of animation and pursue the cause of animation persistently. For us in China, money can't measure the depth of our thoughts. It is this complex that makes China's culture flourish. Behind this is the clear and pure spirit of China, a spirit that all China people should be proud of.