CATDOLL: The inside story of the suspension of "Black Cat Sheriff": Tears of a generation of veteran animators

When Dai Tielang first started working on "Black Cat Sheriff", the studio didn't even give him a team, so he hired a lot of young people who had just joined the studio. They spent 10 months making two episodes of animation, but after the internal screening, it was stopped because "the fighting and killing in it doesn't conform to traditional aesthetics, and the scientific principles in it don't have much artistry." It wasn't until a year and a half later that a film bureau leader watched it and thought it was good. After some children tried it out, the response was also very enthusiastic. Without any publicity, "Black Cat Sheriff" was released.

"Black Cat Sheriff" was broadcast for 5 episodes, but after the Black Cat Sheriff typed "Please watch the next episode" at the end of the 5th episode, the audience never got to wait for the 6th episode. Because of that day - Mr. Dai Tielang's original words: "That day I was called to the personnel department, and they handed me a retirement certificate, saying that I was old enough and it was time to retire. At that moment I was stunned. After I came to my senses, I didn't say a word, took the retirement certificate and turned around and left."

As for why the Shanghai Animation Film Studio did this, it involves personal grudges and other people's privacy cannot be disclosed. The key point is that such an excellent animation was abandoned. In fact, there is no earth-shattering conspiracy, but it is just because people's hearts were sinister in that era.

After the release of "Black Cat Sheriff", it brought great benefits to the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. At first, the peripheral products of Black Cat were sold out as soon as they came out. But for Dai Tielang, after the release of Black Cat Sheriff, he became distant from him - small shops were selling Black Cat Sheriff, but no one thought of giving him one. So he paid for a Black Cat Sheriff motorcycle and kept it at home, treating it like a treasure.

A few years later, a friend brought his child to play. The child saw the motorcycle and asked Dai Tielang to borrow it for two days, but never returned it. Later, Dai Tielang talked about this incident with his friend, who said that after the child got tired of playing with the motorcycle, he lent it to a relative's child, who then broke it.

In 2010, the movie version of "Black Cat Sheriff" was put on the screen. Many people born in the 1980s took their children to the cinema to relive the classic, and the box office revenue reached 15 million yuan. Even though the former "Black Cat Grandpa" is old, the image he created still lives majestically in the hearts of young people.

That day, "Black Cat Grandpa" sat in his 50-square-meter room and spent an afternoon calmly reviewing his rough life. When talking about the past that he couldn't bear to look back on, he just laughed. In the first 50 years of his life, China's history was changing suddenly, and his fate was like a dandelion in the wind, and he didn't know where he would end up tomorrow. In his old age, he picked up a lame stray dog ​​from the street and took it home to raise it. Later, he raised it to be very healthy. He suddenly realized the truth: "People should learn from animals and survive anywhere. You can't always be successful, and you can't know what will happen tomorrow." In the 27 years of being coldly treated in his life, he went home and closed the door, and kept writing. He said that he "didn't fight or compete, just regarded it as the time not yet". But he never stopped creating, and he wanted to be fully prepared for his future as a director.

Facing the younger generation who grew up watching "Black Cat Sheriff", his tone is full of love: "You are still young, and the future is still long. You must live every day well and seize happiness. As for me, even though the sun has set, I also want to live every day well."

Someone told me about the grand re-screening of "Black Cat Sheriff" that year. The media knocked on the door of "Black Cat Grandpa". The 80-year-old sat by the window, staring at the model of Black Cat Sheriff he made. After more than 20 years of weathering, the black cat was full of cracks and one of its ears had fallen off. He smoked one cigarette after another and said, "This is a good era, so good that I often regret it. It would be better if I were younger."