CATDOLL: Why can’t Chinese animation play with “Chinese elements”?

Nowadays, animated films are becoming one of the hottest movies on the global screen. With the expansion of the Chinese market and the export of Chinese culture, "Chinese elements" have appeared frequently in animated films around the world, and these films often achieve impressive box office results. However, these animations that make a lot of money with "Chinese elements" are rarely "made in China". Why is this the case? Why can't Chinese animations tell Chinese stories well? How to discover and explore Chinese symbols and use them in domestic animations to show the power of Chinese culture? Recently, the "Internationalization Road Seminar of China's Animation Industry" was held in Beijing. Many industry insiders attended the event and diagnosed the pulse of China's animation industry.

"Rabbit Hero: Legend of Qingli"

Chinese symbols have become a "commercial weapon" for global animation, but they cannot bring profits to domestic animation

Since the 1990s, Chinese culture has become a trend sweeping the cultural fields around the world. At the same time, "Chinese symbols" have also become a "commercial weapon" for world animation.

For example, Mulan made $23 million in the three-day weekend box office in the United States since its premiere on June 19, 1998, and its global box office totaled $304.3 million. Ten years later, Kung Fu Panda made $60 million in the three-day weekend box office in the United States since its premiere in June 2008, and its global box office totaled $577.1 million, becoming a box office miracle in the history of Hollywood animated films. "Chinese symbols" are constantly bringing considerable profits to foreign animation production companies.

On the other hand, there are few excellent Chinese animated films in recent years. Take the Cannes Film Festival film market exhibition area for example. The booth of the China Film Overseas Promotion Company has always been located on the basement floor, in a less conspicuous corner, selling several films that are not very well-known in China. In 2014, the booth was directly turned into a special animation show, where dozens of domestic animated films were promoted and advertised. The person in charge said that the buyers were mainly from the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The overseas market is not optimistic. Xue Yongfeng, research director of the interactive entertainment business center of iResearch, said frankly that domestic animated films still have a long way to go if they want to catch up with the international standards.

From a global perspective, except for Hollywood cartoons that have good commercial performance in various countries, even Japanese cartoons do not have a share in the international commercial market, and Hayao Miyazaki's animations are only more outstanding in the field of art. It is an indisputable fact that today's Chinese animation is just in its infancy in terms of commerciality, and even cartoons that have excellent box office performance in the domestic market have not been able to go abroad.

Have Chinese animated films never had good works? Chinese animated films have gone through more than 80 years of baptism, starting with the first animated film in Chinese film history, "Princess Iron Fan". In the early 1960s, films such as "Havoc in Heaven", "Three Monks" and "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King" pushed the development of Chinese animation to a climax.

Therefore, while we marvel at the charm of "Chinese symbols", we should reflect on why we now have "sharp weapons" in our hands but cannot be as brilliant as "Havoc in Heaven" in the past, and instead worship the "cultural replicas" of our foreign animation ideas and techniques.

Zhou Tiedong, general manager of Beijing New Film Association Cinema, believes that before 2008, the only type of domestic films that could go abroad were martial arts blockbusters, but after 2008, Chinese animated blockbusters also began to be sold and distributed overseas. At present, it seems that animation is a genre that urgently needs a breakthrough. Animation is the easiest to reach global audiences. Because animation is the type of film that can best cross market boundaries, overcome cultural discounts, and integrate industry wisdom. Animation creation has unlimited imagination and can accommodate various content and themes.

Kung Fu Panda

The creation is unprofessional, the values ​​are unclear, and it does not express Chinese culture from a modern perspective.

Why can't we tell the same story abroad, but others can take our story and become popular all over the world? Zhou Tiedong said: "That's because we tell Chinese stories, not Chinese stories. There are human feelings in the movie, but no humanity." He took Disney's classic animated film "Mulan" as an example, "Our story about Mulan is about Chinese loyalty and filial piety, while Disney's Mulan is regarded as a woman with feelings, embodying self-realization and gender equality, and is completely globalized. The largest share of domestic animated films is still low-child animation. Although many films are claimed to be family films, in fact, they are still far from Hollywood-style family films.

Li Jianping, dean of the Animation School of the Beijing Film Academy, believes that the internationalization of Chinese animated films will be a long-term issue. First of all, we must lay a solid foundation and respect the laws of creation. In particular, we should work hard on creativity and scripts, production technology and art style. China has dozens of animated films every year, but not every animation director has experience in creating animated films, and some creators of animated films are not professionals. For example, some "successful people" who simply have business capabilities may not necessarily be able to make good animated works. After all, you can only operate with good products. It is not possible to produce good works just by having money. It is necessary to mobilize the ability and enthusiasm of professionals and give professionals space and time to grow.

Secondly, we must be clear about what kind of values ​​we want to convey to the world, as many creators are not clear about this now. Then we need to carefully study and adjust the storytelling method, improve the ability to adapt and re-create stories, tell Chinese stories to the world, narrate Chinese stories in a way that resonates with the world, and convey values ​​through stories so that the world can accept these values.

China has resource advantages, that is, China has content advantages, a long history, splendid culture, and rich traditions. The resources here are inexhaustible. We should let the world know about the living conditions, life attitudes, family relationships and personal relationships of the Chinese people through our works, and let the world know that Chinese culture is as excellent as other cultures. Let the world understand and like the Chinese people, and even be willing to visit China. Let Chinese symbols truly express the connotation of Chinese culture.

In addition, one of the current problems in the Chinese animation market is that the audience is accustomed to watching foreign works and has no confidence in Chinese works. It will take time and excellent domestic animation to change the audience's attitude and make sure that what is conveyed in the story is accepted and touching.

Overseas markets rely on co-productions to support the establishment of a professional original team.

In recent years, more and more Chinese animated films have adopted the co-production model for investment. Zhou Tiedong believes that the current overseas market for Chinese films is mainly supported by co-productions, and co-productions have become the main channel for Chinese films to go global.

Zhang Xiaoliang, chairman of the American AQUAMEN Entertainment Company, drew inspiration from "Journey to the West", one of the four great Chinese classics, and invited Barry Cook, the director of Disney's animation "Mulan", to be the director, and Iain McCaig, the concept designer of the "Star Wars" series, to be the co-director. They invested 50 million US dollars and cooperated with China, South Korea and the United States to create the 3D animated film "KONG".

Mulan

How will Hollywood directors tell the Chinese myth of "Journey to the West"? Zhang Xiaoliang said that "Journey to the West" involves many complex Chinese elements. Although Chinese people are well-known, it is difficult for foreigners to understand. If these elements are put on the screen unchanged, it will be difficult to win the international market. Hollywood animated films pay attention to large and complex backgrounds and simple story lines. Therefore, when adapting "Journey to the West", those complicated, overly national and religious parts are stripped away, the most essential things in the original work, the most touching things in human commonality are excavated, and the story is expressed with modern elements, giving it modern value. This is the creative idea of ​​​​this movie.

How to bring the Chinese image of Sun Wukong to the international screen? Director Barry Cook said in an interview that in the creative process, first of all, there must be a good script story and a vivid character, and then time is invested in development. When making "Frozen", it took three years to announce it to the public, but Disney spent 15 years to develop the character of "Snow Queen". It took a lot of effort but it was not completed in the end. Instead, it took three years to make "Frozen" and presented a perfect effect. We hope that we can serve as a bridge to spread the Chinese story to audiences all over the world, but first we ourselves must understand this Chinese story well enough. There will be many plans and arrangements when planning a movie. When setting the character image and story, many drafts may be scrapped, so we need to have enough patience and time to complete it. Of course, thinking is also very important. We can't make a decision on a whim. We still need the collective wisdom of the team, so this time we have the support of international teams from China, South Korea and the United States.

Barry Cook said that it is still difficult to predict the film "KONG", but it will take at least three years. The key is how to use the most appropriate cost to achieve the best effect. When Illumination Entertainment produced "Despicable Me", the cost was only 69 million US dollars, but the effect was comparable to that of Disney or Pixar's films.

KONG

There are many things that Chinese animated films need to learn from Hollywood. Su Da, the animation director of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, once said that Hollywood animation's technological innovation, especially the excellence in computer animation production and software development and application, are all worth learning from. This successful model has enabled some large companies, such as Disney, DreamWorks, Pixar and other companies, to build a strong and mature animation industry system. From investment and financing models, legal guarantees to creative planning, script creation, technology development, software application, style design, market positioning, marketing and distribution, they are all based on a reasonable, practical and operational foundation. The key is that every link has very professional and very professional talents to execute. At a new starting point for the development of Chinese animation, we must fully understand these principles and start to build our animation industry system on the basis of understanding. Otherwise, we will compete with them with a relatively elementary or even workshop-style scale and method, and the gap will be too big.

Over the past 20 years, global animation technology has made great progress, but China's animation production level has not improved significantly. Zhou Tiedong said that the domestic competition environment for animated films is relatively harsh. In 2014, during the Children's Day holiday, several animated films were released simultaneously, which is impossible in the international market. Instead of producing many low-end and uncompetitive animated films at a low cost, it is better to create a super-large product that has achieved success at home and abroad through macro-control, industry norms and industry consensus.

Li Jianping said that to enter the international commercial market, we need to have a professional original team, or cooperate with international teams to connect with the international market. Choosing to cooperate with top international people is one way. Such cooperation can create learning opportunities for Chinese animators and teams, allowing Chinese animation teams to mature and make more international animation films. A good cooperation model can make full use of local resource advantages and talent advantages and convert them into content advantages and market advantages.