Shanghai Animation Film Studio used to be regarded as China’s Disney, but why has it fallen into this state now? Are you being eliminated by society if you don’t make progress?

The Shanghai Art Film Studio was established in 1957, making China the first professional factory to independently produce art films. A large number of artists and writers joined the industry. From then on, Chinese cartoons entered their first prosperous period. Under the guidance of Mao Zedong's literary and artistic policy of "Let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend" and inspired by the slogan "Explore the road to national style", the enthusiasm of artists has been fully mobilized. Artists draw nutrients from traditional Chinese culture and art, and strive to express China's unique Stylish characteristics, this has brought China's animation production into a prosperous development period. Animation production increased, reaching unprecedented levels of both artistic and technical quality. As a result, many films won awards at international film festivals, forming a Chinese animation school recognized by the world.

Since then, the types of Chinese animation have also increased. In 1958, the trial production of the first Chinese-style paper-cut film "Zhu Bajie Eating Watermelon" was successful. In 1960, the production of the first origami film "Smart Duck" was completed. In 1961, the first ink cartoon "Tadpole Looking for Mom" ??was produced. "The birth of " has added a new type of film that best represents Chinese style to the animation film industry in China and even the world. Among them, "Tadpole Looking for Mother" gives Qi Baishi's ink paintings vivid "life". The tadpoles, which were originally just a group of ink dots, now embody the charm of Chinese landscape painting in their rhythmic movements.

In 1961, the world-famous classic blockbuster "Havoc in Heaven" (Part 1: 1961, Part 2: 1964) was born. In 1963, another ink cartoon "Mu Flute" was produced, using ink to express characters, livestock and landscapes, expanding the field of expression of ink cartoons. These two animations are world-renowned and have pushed Chinese animation to a peak.

"Havoc in Heaven", "Tadpole Looking for Mom", "Peacock Princess", "Zhu Bajie Eating Watermelon", "Golden Conch" and other works, although not as high quality as cartoons from the United States and the Soviet Union, But they carry forward the Chinese nation's national culture and its own characteristics.

Among them, "Havoc in Heaven" is the masterpiece of this period. It caused a sensation in Europe and the United States and was distributed in more than 40 countries and regions, setting a record for the highest output of Chinese art films. It has almost become synonymous with Chinese cartoons in the minds of foreigners. Although the conditions were simple at the time, its images, backgrounds, actions and plots were all top-notch. Many elements of Peking Opera are added, such as facial makeup and so on. The movements are typical Peking Opera routines. The entire "Havoc in Heaven" is simply a masterpiece of Chinese culture.

1957~1965 was the golden age of Chinese animation. During this period, Shanghai Animation Film Studio, as the only animation studio in China, produced 105 films, including 40 cartoons, 37 puppet films, 16 paper-cut films, 3 origami films, and puppet documentaries. After 9 films, the number of employees has reached more than 380, and a large number of excellent original animation talents have been cultivated.

From 1966 to 1976, our country entered the period of the Cultural Revolution. As animation manufacturers across the country continue to "stop production and start revolution," the development of animation in China lags behind. In 1972, Shanghai Art Film Studio took the lead in resuming production. By the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, it had produced 17 cartoons. The cartoons of this period all described the revolutionary war before the founding of the People's Republic of China, described the class struggle, line struggle and ideological struggle in the socialist society, and praised the workers, peasants and soldiers. For example, the 1973 "Trumpeter", "Little Eight Road" and "Little Sentinel in the East China Sea"), etc.; in terms of expression techniques, they follow realism, such as the ink and paper-cut film "Bamboo Shoots Growing in the House" filmed in 1976, which cleverly combines Chinese ink painting and folk paper-cutting, and has become a leading example of world cartoons. A new seedling has been added to the garden.

But we should also see that while the planned economy has brought scale and better working conditions to China’s animation creation, it has also without hesitation purged the increasingly cultivated market in the minds of animators. concept. Not only is it impossible for operators to take advantage of scale to embark on the path of overall development, it is even less possible for operators to consider how to operate the animation industry from a product structure perspective. Animation is no longer a commodity but a political necessity. The audience is no longer God, but the object of their education. Obeying the leader’s intention to educate the audience has become a natural continuation of the ancient Chinese tradition of literary and artistic enlightenment in Chinese animation.

The ten-year Cultural Revolution also almost caused a devastating blow to Chinese animation. Although a group of talented Chinese animators have still produced animated short films of top international standards and won many awards internationally, behind the light, Chinese animation has not been guided on the right track. Instead, these artists believe that winning awards is the key to success. First and foremost, it doesn’t matter whether there is an audience or not.

The second peak period of Chinese animation (1978~1989):

Starting from the end of 1978, China entered the era of reform and opening up. Animation workers' creative enthusiasm is rising again. This period was the most prosperous era for Chinese cartoons in the 20th century.

In the past 10 years, many new animation production departments have emerged, changing the situation where Shanghai Art Film Studio was the only one to excel.

The country has produced 219 animated films nationwide, producing a number of outstanding films that represent the highest level of Chinese animation, such as "Nezha Haohai" in 1979 and "Book of Heaven" in 1983 , "Deer Bell" in 1982, "Landscape Love" in 1988, "The Fox Hunts the Hunter" in 1978, "My Friend Little Dolphin" and "Snow Child" in 1980, "Monkey Catches for the Moon" in 1981 and "Mr. Nan Guo", "The Clam and the Sandpiper" and "Butterfly Spring" in 1983, "The Fire Boy" in 1983, "The Golden Monkey Conquers the Demon" from 1948 to 1985, "The Straw Man" and "Clamp" in 1985 "Rescuing the Deer" and "Nuwa Mending the Sky", 1988's "Fish Plate" and "Shoot Without Shooting", etc.

With the popularization of television, the series of animated short films are very adaptable to the requirements of television, so TV cartoons and animated series were produced for the first time. Among them, there are a number of outstanding works that are deeply loved by the masses, such as 1981 ~ "The Story of Afanti" in 1988, "Black Cat Sheriff" from 1984 to 1087, "Calabash Brothers" and "The Adventures of the Sloppy King" in 1987;

Animation themes are even more It is a vast country and has produced many artistic cartoons with profound content, sharp satire, and criticism of current ills, such as "Three Monks" in 1080, "Super Soap" and "New Doorbell" in 1986, and "Cow's Injustice" in 1989, etc. . This is of great significance for correcting the prejudice that "cartoons are children's films" and expanding the audience for cartoons. At the same time, the social influence and international reputation of Chinese cartoons have also jumped significantly, winning widespread praise.

Among them, "Nezha Makes the Sea" can be said to be the masterpiece of this period. The film draws materials from "The Legend of the Gods", removes the superstitious parts, focuses on describing the conflict between Nezha and the Dragon King, and creates the image of Nezha as a hero who eliminates harm for the people and has the courage to sacrifice himself. The shooting technology at this time has improved a lot compared to the time of "Havoc in Heaven", and the traditional national style and characteristics have not been reduced. For example, there are more than a hundred shots of waves in it, all of which adopt the painting method of waves in Chinese traditional paintings. People will know at a glance that this is the sea of ??China.

The new period of Chinese animation (1990-present):

The 1990s was a period when the Chinese animation industry continued to expand in scale. The exchange of experiences with foreign cartoon manufacturers, the massive involvement of digital production methods, the diversified development of production units with various systems, the continuous growth of animation talents with one specialty and multiple abilities, etc., have made the production of Chinese cartoons in terms of quantity and quality. There was a leap. Especially since 1995, the China Film Projection Company has no longer implemented the planned economic policy of unified purchasing and marketing of cartoons, pushing the animation industry to the market, changing the production status and management methods of cartoons, and gradually establishing a win-win situation for social and economic benefits. concept. These have undoubtedly injected new vitality into traditional animation, thus promoting the animation industry.

At the same time, Chinese animation began to turn to large-scale animated series, and entered the international trend of large-scale, continuous, and serialized TV cartoons. In addition to several animated feature films such as "Lotus Lantern" in 1999 and some animated short films such as "Twelve Mosquitoes and Five People" in 1992, most of the animated works in this period were animated serials, such as 1989 ~"Shuke and Beta" in 1992, "Blue Mouse and Big-faced Cat" from 1993 to 1994, "Big-Headed Son and Little-Headed Dad" in 1995, "Haier Brothers" in 1998, etc.

In terms of production, computer technology has been popularized and developed in animation, and two-dimensional and three-dimensional computer animation have developed particularly rapidly. Chinese animation has begun to form a new concept of "big animation system" from planning, creation, dissemination to series product development.

After entering the 21st century, China’s animation companies, animation production enterprises and animation production have continued to grow. Artistic animated short films are on the rise. Computer animation and online media animation are developing rapidly. For example, "Blue Cat Naughty Questions 3000" was all produced through computers, and Flash animations on the Internet are even more popular among young people. The animation during this period was still dominated by animated series, such as "Little Tiger Returns Home", "The Legend of Nezha", "Young General Di Qing", "I'm Crazy about Singing", etc.

At the same time, the number of colleges and universities with animation majors is gradually increasing. Animation programs and channels are also improving and receiving government attention and support. Hangzhou, China also started hosting the first China International Cartoon and Animation Festival in 2005.

However, while it is developing rapidly, the problems of China's animation industry are also prominent. During this period, the number of classics that can be compared with animations such as "Havoc in Heaven" and "Nezha Hao Hai" was significantly reduced. Most animations have rough characters and bland plots. Moreover, due to the impact of the ten-year "Cultural Revolution", there has been a gap in China's contemporary high-level animation talents. Although there are many new generation animators, there are also a lack of truly successful people. In addition, due to the slow recovery of private investment in animation production and small profits, most animations in China are still produced by the state.

Coupled with the impact of well-produced and interesting foreign cartoons, Chinese animation has been eclipsed in the international market. Many domestic animators are engaged in the animation processing industry, so a new force in the driving force of Chinese animation production has been lost.

It can be seen that in this new period of Chinese animation, Chinese animation is facing unprecedented challenges.

Chinese animation also has its influence, for example: the budding period of Chinese animation (1922~1947): Let us focus on China in the 1920s, a China that was being carved up by the great powers. At that time, China was undoubtedly under foreign influence in politics, economy, culture and other aspects. And this semi-colonial and semi-feudal society is also allowing Chinese people to open their eyes to the world. So, at this moment, animation began to jump into the eyes of Chinese people.

In the early 1920s, a number of American animations such as "Popeye" landed in China. These moving pictures made the Chinese people's eyes shine, especially the Wan brothers - Wan Laiming, Wan Guchan, Wan Chaochen and Wan Dihuan. After being influenced by American animation, the Wan brothers held the belief of creating China's own animation and set the first milestone for Chinese animation.

In 1922, the Wan brothers used a frame-by-frame camera modified from an old camera. After arduous exploration and development, they produced China's first advertising cartoon "Shu Zhendong Chinese Typewriter". Filmed animated commercials such as "Yili Soda" and "MSG". Although it was an animated commercial, it gave the Wan brothers a lot of experience in making animation for the first time. Subsequently, in 1924, the China Film Company produced the cartoon "Dog Treats" and the Shanghai Tobacco Company produced the cartoon "New Year". Although these two films were the earliest animated films in China, they did not have an impact until the Wan brothers drew the first animated short film "Havoc in the Studio" in 1926. In 1935, China's first sound cartoon "Camel Dance" was also produced by the Wan brothers.

But these were not the pinnacle of the Wan brothers' careers. So in September 1942, the Wan brothers completed the animated feature film "Princess Iron Fan" produced by Shanghai Xinhua United Pictures Company. "Princess Iron Fan" can be said to be the first time that Chinese animation went out of China, becoming the second animated feature film in the world after Disney's "Snow White" in the United States. "Princess Iron Fan" is based on the story "Three Borrowing Banana Fans" in the Chinese classic "Journey to the West". It has been warmly welcomed in China, Southeast Asia and Japan. It is worth mentioning the story of "Princess Iron Fan" and the originator of Japanese animation, Osamu Tezuka. At that time, Osamu Tezuka loved animation very much, but the strength of American animation and the vacancy in his country's animation industry made Osamu Tezuka give up his dream for a time. But when he saw "Princess Iron Fan", "Princess Iron Fan" seemed to be a shot in the arm, strengthening Tezuka Osamu's dream of animation. So Osamu Tezuka, the father of "Astro Boy", was born. Osamu Tezuka once said that the Wan brothers were his first teachers, which shows how influential "Princess with the Iron Fan" was at that time.

(However, it is a pity that after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Wan brothers were forced to interrupt animation creation, and the budding period of the development of Chinese animated films also ended.

And at that time, China Social unrest and inconvenient transportation meant that animation could only be seen in big cities like Shanghai. Most of the animators in China at that time took this path because of their personal hobbies. Such social conditions destined that Chinese animation would not appear like Disney in the early days. Such an animation company. So although Wan Animation was a strong player at the time, the entire Chinese animation industry has not developed, and the quality of animation has not improved significantly in these years)

It can be seen from this: The Japanese animation and comics industry is now so prosperous, and China’s influence on it is indispensable! Since Japanese animation began with Osamu Tezuka, Japanese animation has entered a glorious period and has been brilliant until now.

From this we must believe that there are good Chinese-style animation works, and the power of Chinese animation is gradually growing. When we look back: from the beginning of Chinese animation to today, we have reason to believe in Chinese animation, because the roots of Chinese animation were deeply rooted in the Chinese land that gave birth to the Chinese nation as early as 80 years ago. Chinese animation, like its people, cannot be defeated or overwhelmed.

As long as there are people who love animation like us, and as long as there are people who are determined to work in Chinese animation, Chinese animation will definitely usher in its glorious period again!