CATDOLL: "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" is a box office success, but it can't save Chinese animation

Although the domestic animated film "Journey to the West: Hero is Back" encountered two fan-made blockbusters such as "Tiny Times 4", it successfully counterattacked and achieved both word-of-mouth and box office success, becoming a hot topic in major media and social networks. Why did the film achieve such an impressive record? Is Chinese animation on the rise?

"The Return of the Great Sage" made a comeback and received phenomenal praise

"Today, we are all the rescuers brought by monkeys"

The domestic animated film "The Monkey King: Hero is Back" (hereinafter referred to as "The Monkey King"), which was not well promoted in the early stage, broke through the competition of two very popular fan films "Tiny Times 4" and "Gardenia Blossoms", but achieved a dark horse breakthrough and collected over 100 million yuan in box office in just three days. Such a good result is inseparable from the power of word-of-mouth publicity. Netizens jokingly called themselves "tap water" (people who volunteered to promote the movie for free), and said that "I am also worried about the Monkey King" and "We are all rescuers brought by monkeys."

For a long time, the domestic animation that people have seen is like this——

The biggest reason why "The Monkey King" has won so much praise and astonishment from people is that it is so different from the current domestic animation.

Appearance 1: Serious tendency to be "infantilized"

The audience of "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" is mainly children

For a long time, domestic animation production has tended to be "infantile", that is, the audience is framed as children under the age of 12. This directly leads to childish animation content, which cannot attract teenagers over the age of 12 at all, and even leads to the embarrassing situation of "adults disdain to watch and children don't like to watch".

The "infancy" tendency selectively ignores the demand for animation for people over 12 years old. The youth group aged 12-22 is considered to be unable to afford it. The industry has two considerations - on the one hand, the youth group does not have enough independent consumption power; on the other hand, when children are in adolescence, parents rarely have the opportunity to watch animation with their children. Adults are even less considered. Adult animation has to compete with various blockbusters, which is too difficult. Therefore, it is better to earn money from children in peace.

Appearance 2: Quantity but no quality

The "Animation Blue Book: China Animation Industry Development Report (2014)" shows that the number of animation works in my country has firmly ranked first in the world. However, despite the support of various government policies, the animation industry has shown a result of focusing on quantity rather than quality. Although my country now completes more than 300 film and television animation films each year and designs countless characters, there are few images that people can remember, and there are even fewer works that have influence.

There are too many speculators in the Chinese animation industry. For example, some animations are broadcast in the early morning. Because of the policy encouragement, as long as the animation is broadcast, it can get financial subsidies. Many producers lower the production costs, produce shoddy products, and try to find platforms to broadcast them to earn subsidies.

Some cartoons are broadcast in the early morning

Does the success of Monkey King mean the rise of domestic animation? Yes, it is a good start. Monkey King: Hero is Back gives us hope for domestic animation, and domestic animation is rising. No, the success of one animation does not represent anything. The success of one animation does not represent the entire domestic animation. Nothing can be changed unless the overall environment changes. people people

The counter-attack "The Monkey King" is completely the opposite -

Well-told story, well-made

In fact, our audiences are still very tolerant. The frequent appearance of bad domestic films has even lowered the audience's requirements for movies to "being able to tell a good story seriously." Even though the story told in "The Monkey King" is simple, its narrative is smooth, the technology is superb, and the picture presentation effect is first-class, which has brought great surprises to Chinese audiences who have been disappointed with domestic animation and domestic films for a long time. Whether it is the plot or the technology, the heart of "The Monkey King" comes from the seriousness of the production team. The film took eight years from planning to release. Let alone animation, such enthusiasm is rare in the Chinese film market. Too many teams use a few stars and a fabricated story to make money quickly.

The exquisite original painting manuscript of "The Return of the Great Sage" leaked

It has both oriental beauty and a modern core, respecting the aesthetic tastes of Chinese audiences.

Superheroes such as Superman and Batman have won a large number of fans in the Chinese film market. However, there are all kinds of monsters in domestic films, but there is a lack of superheroes that can make people's blood boil. It is no surprise that "The Monkey King" has become a blockbuster. The description of Sun Wukong in the film fits the feelings of several generations for this Chinese superhero. At the same time, the core of the modern animation industry can be clearly seen in the plot design and production details of the film. This is very familiar to the young generation who grew up watching American and Japanese animation.

The burning image of the Monkey King has the shadow of an American comics superhero

There is only one Monkey King. If Chinese animation is to continue to develop, it must work hard to learn from experience.

Anime is definitely not for young children. We need to enrich the subject matter and try to classify it.

In the theater, many adults and children were moved to tears by Sun Wukong and Jiang Liuer. Adults did not think that "The Monkey King" was childish, but rather that it was an adult animation. This shows that the Chinese market has a huge demand for adult animation, and animation is definitely not childish. What can we do? We can learn from Japan, which produced Hayao Miyazaki.

The subject matter of Japanese anime is very wide, covering various aspects of social life, including sports, religion, mythology, education, art, etc. Anime authors are always paying attention to the changes in social life and people's way of thinking, and create works that they like for audiences of different ages and different knowledge backgrounds. The richness of the subject matter can attract more audiences, which in turn stimulates the increase in market demand.

Of course, adult animation is not suitable for children most of the time, so it is important to do a good job of classification. The Japanese animation classification system is not officially promulgated and implemented, but is self-disciplined by the industry. They position animation films in three age groups: 3-12 years old, 12-18 years old, and over 18 years old. The Japanese animation industry even claims: "Everyone from young children to 80-year-olds has their favorite animation and comics." The establishment of a classification system can not only help producers avoid censorship risks, but also because the audience is clear, they can better create on demand.

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The characters in the Japanese detective comic "Detective Conan" are deeply rooted in people's hearts

Does the success of Monkey King mean the rise of domestic animation? Yes, it is a good start. Monkey King: Hero is Back gives us hope for domestic animation, and domestic animation is rising. No, the success of one animation does not represent anything. The success of one animation does not represent the entire domestic animation. Nothing can be changed unless the overall environment changes. people people

Policies can no longer blindly support the market, let the market speak

Many people in the industry complain about being poor and believe that the government should vigorously support our domestic animation. However, as mentioned above, the government's support is not too little, but too much, which has attracted many people who are only interested in making money and have no animation background to get a piece of the pie. These speculative behaviors have worsened the industry environment, making it difficult for films like "The Monkey King" that require a lot of money to polish to attract investment. Tian Xiaopeng, the director of "The Monkey King", said that the film was prepared for eight years, and half of the time was spent on attracting investment.
Instead of providing support indiscriminately, it is better to let the market speak. Whoever respects the needs of the audience will be successful. This is the only way to truly encourage promising people in the industry.

Face up to the audience's modern animation aesthetic taste, rather than working in isolation

So what kind of animation do audiences really need? As analyzed above, "The Monkey King" is an oriental superhero story. People can see both oriental stories and feelings, as well as the influence of the western animation industry. It must be admitted that the developed American and Japanese animations have influenced a large number of young people. Looking at the domestic animation films produced in the past, it can be found that those that have been successful in the market also borrowed the styles of American and Japanese animations. For example, the style of "Legend of the Rabbit Hero", which has a good reputation, is similar to American comics, and the style of "Kuiba", which was once called a breakthrough in domestic films, is similar to Japanese comics.

"Kuiba" draws on the style of Japanese comics

However, the domestic animation industry cannot correctly view this phenomenon. Some industry insiders blindly believe that domestic animation should maintain originality and independence, pursue Chinese characteristics, and develop behind closed doors without any development.

Conclusion

The phenomenal success of "The Monkey King" does not represent the rise of domestic animation. If domestic animation cannot respect the market, respect the audience, and get out of the misunderstanding like "The Return of the Monkey King", it will be difficult for domestic animation as a whole to make progress, let alone expect to get market returns.