CATDOLL: Yu Shengjun: The box office success of "The Return of the Great Sage" was accidental. I worked hard to be the Black Cat Sheriff

At the end of last year, a post on Zhihu about why the classic Chinese animation "Black Cat Sheriff" was discontinued after five episodes went viral on the Internet, evoked the memories of a generation, and the scene of the words "Please watch the next episode" appearing one after another with four gunshots seemed to be right in front of us. There is no answer to the historical legacy, but the attention aroused by the old "Black Cat Sheriff" at least proves that a cartoon character that has been around for more than 20 years is still deeply rooted in the hearts of many people.

Therefore, it is an exciting thing for "Black Cat Sheriff" to hit the big screen again, but it is not an easy thing to "please" the audience. Shanghai Animation Film Studio has been preparing for many years, and the main creative team has been replaced several times. Even two years ago, the semi-finished products that were almost shot and produced were all torn down and re-made. The nostalgic 70s and 80s have their own yardstick in their memories, and the new generation of animation audiences also have visual and rhythm requirements for current theater movies. From a series of short stories on the small screen of TV to a larger world view and sense of crisis in an 83-minute big movie, the reborn "Black Cat Sheriff" has entered a new era, and the test for it has long been completely different. These tests are also the problems that director Yu Shengjun has to face.

Yu Shengjun regards traditional 2D animation as a craft. The Haier Brothers, which he participated in producing when he just graduated, is also a classic that has accompanied a generation of people growing up. In recent years, he has made the Locke Kingdom series, which has also received good responses. Last year, I Am a Wolf had a dismal run in theaters. He said that it should be the "last animated film completed on paper" in the history of Chinese animation. Black Cat Sheriff was drawn one by one on the computer. The 83-minute animation, 24 frames per second, and nearly 12,000 pictures, mobilized the best 2D animators from all over the country. In his opinion, 2D animation in this era is destined to have "no successors."

"Black Cat Sheriff: Emerald Star" (hereinafter referred to as "Black Cat Sheriff") will be released on August 7. Director Yu Shengjun recently accepted an exclusive interview with reporters at the Shanghai Film Museum. The interview room is right outside the exhibition hall of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons Strike Back in Heaven". The glorious tradition of Chinese animation is frozen in the museum, while there is another kind of "vitality" in the theaters.

Yu Shengjun wore a T-shirt with the image of Black Cat Sheriff printed on it and spoke in a relaxed manner. He clearly knew who this movie was made for and also knew the need for "new wine in old bottles" in this era. Yu Shengjun was even prepared to be criticized for "ruining childhood" because he knew that classics like "Black Cat Sheriff" actually symbolize the beauty of childhood that everyone can never go back to.

A rare realistic theme in the "star-making era" of domestic animation

Reporter: What kind of memory does "Black Cat Sheriff" have for you personally?

Yu Shengjun: "Black Cat Sheriff" is a memory symbol of a generation. It is a very strange phenomenon - we are so familiar with it that we don't understand it at all. Many people can no longer tell what kind of story it has gone through, and don't know how many episodes it has, but they feel that they know it very well. I used to think that it had more than ten or twenty episodes. Today, when we hear its music, we feel that our entire childhood has returned.

Reporter: Now that you have grown up and become a professional, have you summarized the elements of success?

Yu Shengjun: Actually, children watch cartoons unconsciously. When we were young, we liked all kinds of cartoons, but it was not our own choice. We were happy just by watching cartoons. This is the special charm of cartoons. They play the role of partners in children's growth.
Of course, the older generation of cartoons were very successful, because the threshold for animation was very high at that time, there were many talented people, and there were also production investment targets. Only a few cartoons were released each year, and the excellent ones were watched over and over again because of the unequal supply and demand relationship and the limitations of the media. The more we watched, the deeper the impression and the better we thought. It was an era when it was easy to create stars.

The reason why Black Cat Sheriff can stand out from many excellent animations of that era is that its storyline makes children feel close to it. Black Cat Sheriff is a rare "realistic" theme in the history of Chinese animation.

Reporter: There are animals everywhere in "Black Cat Sheriff". How do you understand it as "realism"?

Yu Shengjun: It's actually about the police catching thieves. You can see that other classic domestic animations are all classical themes, such as Calabash Brothers, Havoc in Heaven, The Three Monks, The Magic Book, and Nezha Conquers the Dragon King. There are very few heroes like Black Cat Sheriff that would not feel out of place in any era. Black Cat Sheriff is a hero of the times that can be performed in any era. At the same time, its villain Yizier also has such characteristics. It can be said that Black Cat Sheriff is the character that is closest to the requirements of today's commercial films, and is also the hero that is most likely to keep pace with the times and is most likely to live around us. He is a special down-to-earth hero of the Shanghai Animation Film Studio.

Children's animation can create "bad guys" but not "horror"

Reporter: The old version of "Black Cat Sheriff" is a series of popular science stories. The requirements for the plot setting of the big movie are different. What kind of trade-offs were made in this?

Yu Shengjun: The old version is actually a popular science film, using the shell of a policeman catching a thief to do popular science. The protagonist is positioned as a "forest guard", and the animal attributes are emphasized, and animal knowledge is taught. In the new "Black Cat Sheriff", the only clue we retained from the old version is the relationship between the black cat and One Ear in the past Black Cat Sheriff. The main contradictions and conflicts are retained, and a bigger villain character is created. One Ear is just a small minion who threaded the needle in it. In the end, One Ear was still not caught, but Black Cat Sheriff resolved the crisis. Black Cat Sheriff has become a new era superhero. The worldview of the entire cartoon has become larger. The characters are anthropomorphized instead of animalized. The animal attributes are no longer strengthened, and the animals are more like people.

Reporter: The old version of Black Cat Sheriff won by knowledge. Now his skills have been upgraded?

Yu Shengjun: Yes, it is built according to the routine of the superhero that everyone is familiar with. Now Black Cat Sheriff has super cool kung fu, powerful equipment, and super strong abilities. All the skills that a superhero should have have been upgraded. It can be said that Black Cat Sheriff is now "Iron Man's wisdom + Captain America's physical fitness + 007's equipment", and there are also scandals.

Reporter: Why did you give up the call for popular science?

Yu Shengjun: Nowadays, movies no longer need to carry the mission of popularizing science. There are so many ways for children to learn science now, so let "Black Cat Sheriff" return more purely to the essence of a feature film.

Reporter: The old version of "Black Cat Sheriff" has been criticized over the years for being too bloody. Has this evaluation affected the production of the new version?

Yu Shengjun: The traditional "Black Cat Sheriff" is also quite bloody. But the "blood" back then was already a product of some unconscious ideology of that era. There are other examples of similar children's themes, such as Pan Dongzi chopping people to death with an axe and Nezha committing suicide in front of the camera, which are quite scary in the eyes of Americans. Today, there is a basic consensus on children's cartoons, such as no blood and no particularly cruel plots.

So when we made "Black Cat Sheriff" this time, we consciously wanted to guide people to be positive and healthy from the beginning, and not to cause psychological pressure on the audience. For example, in the creation of the villain, the scene where the monkey-eating eagle appeared in the old version, the whole atmosphere actually made many children feel terrified, and some children were afraid to sleep at night after watching it. We have a very clear consciousness that we should not create "evil" and "horror", but we can create "bad guys", and we don't want any thriller or horror parts. In the preview, some children asked why Black Cat Sheriff didn't beat the bad guys to death. In fact, this is the value that animation wants to convey today, and it is not necessary to beat the bad guys to death.

Now it is more difficult to do 2D than 3D

Reporter: "Black Cat Sheriff" is going to be made into a movie. We have heard this news over the years, but what process did it go through before it was officially released?

Yu Shengjun: The process was long, because the IP of Black Cat Sheriff is so important to the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, and everyone wanted to do it well. After a long period of preparation and preparation, and repeated revisions in the middle, it took nearly five years. There were attempts to do it according to the original ideas, and there were problems with the film language being too slow. Sometimes the story was not in line with the current aesthetic needs, and there were also times when the style was too simple for television, for various reasons. We still hope to bring something familiar to the nostalgic old Black Cat fans, and also give new little Black Cat fans something that is in line with the times.

Reporter: Doraemon, another cat in Japan, has become 3D. Has "Black Cat Sheriff" ever thought about "keeping up with the times"?

Yu Shengjun: There were a lot of debates at the beginning about whether to make it 2D or 3D. We tried to make a 3D model, but it was too far from the impression of "Black Cat Sheriff". Doraemon became 3D, but you have to know that it has been filming non-stop for these years, and it would not cause much controversy if one of the films tried 3D. But "Black Cat Sheriff" hadn't made anything for 30 years, and it suddenly changed at the beginning. People would definitely not accept it. But making 2D is too tiring. Over the years, many animation talents have switched to 3D, and making 2D is now more difficult than making 3D.

Reporter: I usually hear people working in 3D complain about the lack of talent or the high cost of special effects.

Yu Shengjun: 2D is not a question of money, it is simply impossible to make it. The main reason is that the painting skills are not good enough. To be a film painter, you must hone your painting skills for more than 15 years. 15 years means that you have to spend your entire youth on it, and you still don’t make any money. A problem that can be solved in a few hours with 3D takes several days with 2D, but the market pays the same, or even less, and the theaters sell lower tickets. No one is doing this business now. It is a traditional industry, similar to Peking Opera.
The average age of the entire Black Cat Sheriff who is responsible for the painting part is around 40 years old. In addition to the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, the backbones of 2D animation from all over the country were summoned during the entire production process. Young people can no longer do this, and no one will do it anymore.

Reporter: Have you considered transformation yourself?

Yu Shengjun: "Black Cat Sheriff" is a 2D movie drawn on a computer. There are very few people like this. Last year, we made a 2D movie "I Am Wolf", which should be the last pure hand-drawn animation movie on paper in the Chinese animation industry. There will be no more in the future. I have a kind of craftsman sentiment towards 2D, but the arm cannot twist the thigh, and the mantis arm cannot stop the general trend. It's full of tears when I talk about it. I will stick to it as long as I can, but "Black Cat Sheriff" is indeed what everyone needs to watch 2D to find the nostalgic feeling rather than the visual impact of 3D.

"The Monkey King: Hero is Back" triggered revenge consumption among viewers

Reporter: "Black Cat Sheriff" wants to play the nostalgia card for adults, but also hopes to attract young audiences. Will it please neither side? After the preview, some comments have said that the movie is too low-age.

Yu Shengjun: Before making a film, you must think clearly about one question: who is this film for? Is it for the whole family or for teenagers? Today, movies have entered the era of segmented audiences, and animations also have such requirements. Teenagers watch films like "Attack on Titan", so "Black Cat Sheriff" will seem too childish to them; but if it is for parents who bring their children to the theater to watch together with their children, then it is very suitable for this group of people.

Although we advertised that the main target audience was those born in the 70s and 80s, many of them are now parents and are willing to bring their children to share their childhood. So the general direction was very clear from the beginning, which was to allow two generations to experience the same childhood and have a family reunion with the same image.

Reporter: This year, all filmmakers are suddenly talking about IP, and Shanghai Animation Film Studio is also taking advantage of the opportunity to rediscover the surplus value of a number of old animations. Do you think this is a good thing for Chinese animation?

Yu Shengjun: I think it is natural to put new wine in old traditional bottles. In today's entertainment era, only things that are familiar to people will attract attention and be widely spread. People don't care about people cheating all over the world, but they care about articles cheating. This is the importance of eyeballs. People only care about the stories of familiar people. Hollywood is also doing this, spending a lot of money to shape IP, and then constantly releasing sequels to create new stories. Since Marvel's heroes have to form an alliance after fighting each other, Superman is about to fight Batman, and Spider-Man has filmed two series in just over a decade, we should of course do the same and let familiar characters experience new stories.

Reporter: But everyone is used to Hollywood remakes and remakes, but every time China remakes a classic it is almost always criticized.

Yu Shengjun: First of all, the remakes are really disappointing and getting worse. This is a fact. Another reason is that Chinese people tend to let classics carry a lot of personal feelings. For example, in fact, few of us really know Black Cat Sheriff, but everyone has repaired the memory of Black Cat Sheriff very well. The memory of growing up has faded, but the impression is that the time spent watching "Black Cat Sheriff" was beautiful. After watching the animation, I was very happy and it was very good. I don't know exactly how good it was, but because it symbolizes the good times of my childhood, it is very good. If I watch this animation again today and don't get the same experience as before, I will feel disappointed and will blame the creators for ruining my childhood.

But everyone has seen so many things as they grow up. Today, after seeing Hollywood and all kinds of new things in the world, your evaluation criteria are no longer the same as they were in the past.

Reporter: So are you ready to be scolded?

Yu Shengjun: Some people have already criticized the film without even watching it, which I completely understand and am not surprised by. But I think what we have done is worthy of the name "Black Cat Sheriff".

Reporter: The box office of "The Return of the Great Sage" has reached nearly 800 million yuan. Is this a shot in the arm or a pressure for animators?

Yu Shengjun: I think this box office has nothing to do with animation. It is a phenomenon. If it were not for Gardenia Blossoms and Tiny Times, and it had faced Monster Hunt and The Pancake Man a few days later, its reputation would not have risen, and it would not have been possible to have 30% of the screenings.

The Monkey King: Hero is Back has led to a phenomenon, not the revival of domestic animation, but a movie that promotes "feelings" has triggered "retaliatory" consumption at a specific time. Many viewers did not pay attention to The Monkey King: Hero is Back at first, but because they were angry that so many bad youth films were shown in theaters one after another, they wanted to express their attitude.

Animators should not take it as a case study with reference significance. I think it has nothing to do with animation or us practitioners. It is rare that a film of the same period can be so bad that everyone is holding back their breath to criticize it, which makes the film with sentimentality nearby gain reputation.