CATDOLL: Domestic animation should return to rationality and focus on quality to survive

The 11th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival was held in Hangzhou for six days, attracting nearly 1.4 million visitors and nearly 15 billion yuan in revenue. However, one data point was missing. For many years, the heads of relevant departments would introduce the output of Chinese animated TV programs in the previous year at the conference. The phenomenon of "light weight" is changing.

Domestic TV animation shows a return to rationality

In the annual "Statistical Communiqué on National Economic and Social Development", the output of TV animation from 2012 to 2014 was 261,444 minutes, 199,132 minutes and 138,496 minutes respectively. In other words, the output in 2014 was slightly more than half of that in 2012.

However, we don’t need to be surprised by such a decline in production. As early as the era of “260,000 minutes surpassing the United States and Japan”, the industry generally questioned its value. In the long run, it has become a consensus that Chinese animation needs to change from quantity to quality, and from scale to intensiveness.

As early as the 9th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival in 2013, the relevant person in charge of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television had made it clear that the ranking of animation production minutes in various regions would no longer be announced. At this year's animation festival, Gao Changli, director of the Publicity Department of the General Administration, also said that the production of domestic TV animation has been declining in the past two years, which is a rational return. While the production is declining, the quality is improving.

In 2012, Hangzhou produced nearly 20,000 minutes of TV cartoons, and the entire animation and game industry had an operating income of 4.31 billion yuan. By 2014, the output had dropped to less than 10,000 minutes, while revenue reached 6.58 billion yuan. The growth in revenue was due not only to the improvement in the efficiency of the cartoons themselves, but also to the extension of the industrial chain.

Animation films are a link in the animation industry chain following television, and in China, animation films are emerging. In 2014, a total of 43 films were produced and obtained the license for public screening in China, 32 of which entered the urban cinema market, with a cumulative box office revenue of more than 1.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 67%, a total of 4.87 million screenings, a year-on-year increase of 45.4%, and a total of 86.879 million moviegoers, a year-on-year increase of 43.8%. All three growth rates are higher than the overall level of the national film industry.

The “Boutique Era” is Coming

Taking the theme of Qi Jiguang as an example, a work in 2012 was collectively questioned by the industry. However, last year, the first domestic "Chinese Dream" themed 3D heroic animation "Qi Jiguang" produced by Beijing Television won the silver award for animation series in this year's animation festival's "Golden Monkey Award". Many judges who had "aesthetic fatigue" watched the film from beginning to end.

“Only when telling stories down to earth and standing firmly in the historical context and restoring history truthfully can the stories and characters be made more powerful.” He Wei, deputy director of the Animation Program Center of Beijing Television, said that the team specially invited more than 10 experts in the fields of Ming history, Ming Dynasty costume history, Ming Dynasty weapon history and Qi Jiguang’s life research to supervise the whole process. Weapons such as the wolf-whip and magic arrow used by Qi’s army, and formations such as the mandarin duck formation and the three-row formation were all realistically reproduced in the film.

"China's animation industry has entered a period of transformation and upgrading. Before 2011, many companies were still expanding their scale, but now they must take the high-quality route. Those companies that survive on government subsidies will be eliminated by the market." Professor Pan Jian, director of the Zhejiang University Film, Television, Animation and Game Research Center, admitted that he still often sees works whose thinking remains stuck in five or six years ago or even ten years ago, and such works will not have vitality.

"It was not wrong to talk about channels being king in a certain period, but it is not entirely right to talk about content being king now. In the Internet era, quality should be king." Professor Liao Xiangzhong, Vice President of Communication University of China, also believes that the biggest obstacle for people to obtain information in the Internet era is the overabundance of information. Only quality products can stand out from the redundant information. "As long as you are a quality product, you will not be obliterated. This is a very fair and just era."

The “Era of Quality Products” Needs to be Realized Carefully

"On the basis of being beneficial to the growth of minors, animated works must improve their artistry and viewing quality, and become pinnacle works that integrate ideology, artistry, and viewing quality, and have strength, morality, and warmth. Our highest goal is to produce such high-quality works." Gao Changli said that domestic animated works must work hard to express the theme of the Chinese Dream, inherit the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and implement it in detail.

Shortly before the opening of this animation festival, former Shanghai Animation Film Studio director Ma Xuan passed away. This old director, who participated in the creation of many "ink animation films", set off a wave of nostalgia after his death. "Landscape Love", which won the Best Short Film Award at the 14th Montreal International Film Festival in 1990, was dug up by netizens again and received a rating of 9.2 points (out of 10) on Douban.

Wu Shanming, a famous Chinese painter and doctoral supervisor at the China Academy of Art, who was in charge of the character modeling design at the time, told reporters that ink and wash is a unique art form and language in China, and the success of "Landscape Love" is no accident. Only by adhering to the national style can it go global.

Liao Xiangzhong believes that in the past, in animation creation, our expression of the theme was superficial, that is, using cultural elements such as Chinese red, Chinese lanterns, and Chinese poetry to convey the national elements, but not expressing the national spirit in depth. "The basis for telling a good story is that the author must have a kind emotion, a strong desire to express emotions, and clever means."

Joshua Simon, founder of the American Little Plane Animation Production Company, gave an example, saying that it is well known that the prototype of Mickey Mouse came from a little mouse in Disney's studio at the time, and Winnie the Pooh also came from a toy of the author's son. "The author has feelings for them, so they also bring such feelings to the audience."

Only by keeping your original intention in mind can you achieve your goal.