CATDOLL: How did Chinese animation rise? Building brand awareness is the top priority

Once upon a time, a group of national cartoons represented by "Havoc in Heaven" and "Little Tadpole Looking for His Mother" with national elements, national techniques, national stories and national spirit became a cultural name card that the Chinese are proud of. The 1980s and 1990s were milestone years for domestic cartoons. The Shanghai Film Studio alone had a trend of dominating the world animation film industry. The richness of themes and techniques made the audiences of all ages at that time dazzled. "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King" and "The Book of Heaven" were based on folk stories and their shapes were inspired by classical New Year paintings and opera images; paper-cut animations "Calabash Brothers" and "Ginseng Dolls" are all good at international film festivals. Especially for traditional themes like "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King" and "The Book of Heaven", the large-scale use of Chinese painting materials, the gray Chinese painting of the large background and the beautiful patterns and saturated colors of the characters form a harmonious contrast. Every element of the picture, pavilions, towers, and streams, all show nationalization and present a unique Chinese cultural atmosphere.

However, since the 1990s, overseas animations have "invaded" Chinese TV screens in large numbers, and the number of Chinese local animation works has not only dropped significantly, but also has been much lower in terms of quality and influence. How can Chinese animation continue to play a social role in spreading the excellent traditional culture of the nation today, and how can it achieve good economic benefits in the fierce market competition? This is a difficult problem facing every practitioner who is committed to creating and promoting Chinese animation.

Satisfying the public's aesthetic taste is the key

World animation is developing along two main lines: stylization and convergence. They are closely intertwined like the double helix structure of DNA, but they also keep a certain distance from each other. Stylization refers to the phenomenon that the creative styles and characteristics of different directors and companies are extremely differentiated; while convergence refers to the phenomenon that the styles and characteristics of works created by different directors and companies are roughly similar. Stylization meets the personalized needs of niche markets more, while convergence meets the universal needs of the mass market more. For example, countries around the world are now creating CG (usually referring to digital works) animations, and the character modeling and plot settings of these animations are very similar to the CG blockbusters dominated by the United States; animation or comics companies in many countries in the Asian cultural circle are influenced by Japanese anime and are creating Japanese-style animation works. These are all manifestations of the phenomenon of convergence, that is, when a style is recognized by the mass market, it will trigger a convergence effect of widespread imitation.

The national elements and national techniques in national animation are often more reflected in the stylized effect. If it is to perform well in the mass market, it is necessary to build a bridge from stylization to convergence, that is, to find a support point for the public aesthetics for national animation. For example, the comic book "Legend of Bao Zheng" co-created by Chinese cartoonist Nie Chongrui and French screenwriter Patrick Marty has a strong comic book style, and the elements used are all Chinese classical costumes, architecture, etc., but it tells a detective story that includes love, hatred, and vengeance. The plot of the genre film makes this originally very stylized comic converge with the cultural products that are generally recognized by the public aesthetics in terms of the story, thus gaining good sales performance and reputation in the international market.

Therefore, a good national animation work should integrate the characteristics of the times and national style into the creation of animation. Whether in modeling, color, sound, clothing, or narrative, it should integrate national culture, so that nationalization and internationalization can coexist harmoniously and keep pace with the times. China is a country with extensive cultural resources and a broad market space. How to reasonably use these valuable resources, combine them with the aesthetic needs of the public and the times, and transform them into artistic images that can be loved by contemporary people is a major issue in the current animation industry.

Building brand awareness is a top priority

In the planned economy era, we only regarded national animation as a cultural work. In today's market economy era, national animation must not only be a good-looking work, but also a good-selling product. To make national animation regain its glory, there must be brand awareness so that it has the possibility of widespread sustainable dissemination. After the brand concept is established, we should not only look at the short-term effect, but also focus on the future, occupy the market with well-made domestic animation, attract audiences, form a virtuous circle, and drive the development of the industrial chain. A good animation work can drive the prosperity of many industries such as commodities, tourism, food, and real estate, from costumes and props to cultural landscapes and natural scenery.

At present, most domestic animation works have not established this brand awareness, and believe that the later derivative products have nothing to do with the previous content planning. In fact, derivative products survive by relying on excellent works that can penetrate the hearts of the audience. Some derivative products are also cleverly integrated into the content and are recognized by the audience together with good stories. In the recently released Hollywood animated blockbuster "Penguins of Madagascar", the evil octopus collected a lot of penguin bubble glass balls. These glass balls are clues for the octopus to catch penguins in different locations, but in reality this is actually a very important toy product line in the film. There will also be many magical props, magical animals, etc. in national animation, and they also need to be given special functions and meanings, so that the audience will have the desire to further interact with them and buy their products.

Today, it is far from enough to let Chinese animation simply serve as a business card for Chinese animation in the world animation community, because a business card can only indicate your identity, but cannot bring in revenue. Chinese animation needs to shift from business card value to brand value. Just as the words "Disney production" mean the quality assurance of an animated film, Chinese animation can eventually settle on the director's brand and company brand. Disney built its own brand through world classic fairy tales such as Snow White and Pinocchio, and our animation directors and animation companies can also rely on national myths, national stories, national symbols, etc. to effectively build their own brands, and ultimately rely on the established brand recognition to promote the creation, dissemination and industrial prosperity of more Chinese animation.

There is great potential for ethnic animation

The Chinese government has always been strongly supportive of ethnic animation. Last year, the Ministry of Culture issued a plan to support animation works with socialist core values, which clearly stated that it would focus on supporting animation works with the theme of "animation tells the story of the Party" and revolutionary traditional education, and animation works closely related to the excellent traditional Chinese culture and excellent ethnic folk culture. The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television also listed the creation of "Chinese Dream" themed animation as a key project, and continued to implement the "Original Power" China Original Animation Publishing Support Plan. In these government support plans, excellent ethnic animation projects are the top priority.

Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done in the development of national animation, such as setting up a national animation research and development platform, timely discovering excellent national animation ideas, understanding the convergence trend of domestic and foreign mass markets, and allowing national animation to truly become a product that can meet the public's aesthetic needs from the beginning of its creativity; for example, strengthening channel support, building a national animation dissemination system, helping national animation to be better broadcast in the domestic market, and working hard to create conditions for national animation to enter the international mainstream market.