Special guard's creative career

From the beginning of current affairs cartoons, Tewei has been at the forefront of anti-Japanese war propaganda, honed the spirit of initiative and perseverance in the torrent of war, and dedicated this precious struggle and hard work spirit to the art film industry, creating a brand-new world of new China animation.

1955, the cartoon "Why is the crow black" by Shanghai Animation Film Studio won the prize at Venice Animation Film Festival. However, the judges mistakenly thought that the film was a Soviet work, which made Tewei's enthusiasm for the "Soviet model" decline, and he began to think about an innovative way to get rid of imitation.

1956, Tewei put forward the slogan of "exploring the road of national style" and incorporated this concept into his "Proud General", which made the general's modeling faceless and his movements integrated into the elements of the Peking Opera stage. For this film, Tewei led the creative staff to the tomb of Dayu in Shaoxing to feel the ancient feelings, and invited the famous composer Chen Gexin to compose music for the film. Chen Gexin integrated the fragments of Pipa classic "House of Flying Daggers" into the picture, showing the general's hesitation and regret when he was besieged on all sides, which was refreshing and harmonious, and fired the first shot for the animation of China's national style. From General Pride to The Golden Monkey Devil, Tewei's nationalism is consistent.

1960, Tewei introduced the techniques and styles of ink painting into animated films. Shooted the world's first ink cartoon "Little Tadpole Looking for Mom", which turned the dream that many people thought impossible into reality at that time and shocked the international animation industry. China's ink painting art, tempered by thousands of years' history, has a unique style. It is good at expressing China's traditional aesthetic thought and national style with freehand brushwork and likeness, and enjoys a high reputation in the world. The film successfully combined it with animation. Every scene is an excellent ink painting, and the gentle painting style is full of poetry. Small animals such as tadpoles, frogs, shrimps and crabs described by Qi Baishi, a master of Chinese painting, are lifelike on the screen, and the action expressions of the characters are beautiful and smart. Ink animation has no outline, and ink is naturally rendered, resulting in the effect of complementary shades and brushwork, breaking the traditional production method of "single line flat painting", with beautiful artistic conception and vivid charm, which makes the animated film far-reaching and has unprecedented artistic aesthetic value. As an artistic director, Mr. Tewei contributed a lot. The shooting process of ink and wash comics is extremely complicated. The time it takes to shoot an ink cartoon alone is enough to shoot four or five ordinary cartoons with the same length, which is a miracle created by the creative collective's efforts and perseverance. Mao Dun, then Minister of Culture, wrote the inscription "Making Ghosts".

Two ink cartoons, Tadpole Looking for Mom and Moody (1963), have been well received at home and abroad and won numerous awards. The French newspaper Le Monde commented: "China's ink painting, with its soft scenery, meticulous brushwork and actions to express anxiety, hesitation and happiness, makes this film full of charm and poetry." An American scholar also praised: "This is really a complete Chinese cartoon", and China's animation has begun to emerge in the world. After more than 20 years, "Mountain Color" makes the ink painting situation reappear, and it still attracts the attention of the world.

Ink cartoon is a new genre successfully created by Tewei. In addition, he also strongly supports the innovation of other genres. Wan Guchan, one of the Wan brothers, had the idea of making newspaper clippings as early as Hong Kong, and ran around to raise money, but no one dared to take the risk. From 65438 to 0956, I returned to Shanghai and entered the film studio. He immediately got the support of the director Tewei. Through constant experiments, the artist absorbed the artistic characteristics of Chinese shadow play, folk window grilles and paper-cutting, and created the first batch of paper-cut characters for cartoons. Pig Eight Rings Eat Watermelon was finally born on 1958, which once again created a new variety in chinese comic. Then fishermen, Jigong cricket fighting and ginseng dolls consolidated and developed this species, and the golden snail photographed by 1963 reached a new height in art and skill. Yu Zheguang initiated origami "Smart Duck" on 1960, which evolved from children's origami and handwork. Its modeling and performance are exaggerated and concise, and its rhythm is brisk and lively. Compared with only two-dimensional origami, it has three-dimensional characteristics and a more vivid three-dimensional sense. Because of its lightness, flexibility and childlike innocence, it is very popular with children.

It turns out that puppet film is also a boutique here, and it shines brilliantly. As the first director of Shanghai Animation Film Studio, Tewei got rid of imitation and advocated innovation. Over the past decades, he has actively broadened the variety of comics, adhered to the road of nationalization, set off the climax of a hundred flowers, and produced a series of classic works such as "Noisy Heaven" and "Noisy Sea". After smashing the Gang of Four, Tewei reiterated the idea that nation is the world at the first working meeting. He also wrote "China Ethnic Art Film" (Encyclopedia 198 1. 1) to encourage innovation. It is this road of national innovation that makes China's animation walk out of a brilliant new world and lays the important position of "China School" in the world animation. Tewei can be said to be the founder of the new China animation. In recognition of his achievements in the artistic creation of fine arts films, the organizing committee of the first China Film Festival from 65438 to 0989 awarded the China Film Festival an honorary award. Mr. Tewei is also the only person from China who won the lifetime achievement award of ASIFA (World Animation Society). August 22nd, 2004 is Mr. Tewei's 90th birthday. Nowadays, the animation industry is in urgent need of revitalization. Looking back on his great contribution to Japanese animation and looking forward to the future of Japanese animation, we can find that it is still the key to get rid of the simple imitation of Japanese and American animation and take the road of nationalization and innovation. I believe that Japanese animation will continue to move forward along this wise road, carry forward the excellent traditional culture of 5,000 years, and keep pace with the times in combination with contemporary advanced science and technology.