1947 the production of new China art films began. In Xingshan Town, the northeast liberated area, the first puppet film "The Emperor's Dream" and the animated film "Catch a turtle in a jar" of new China were successively produced. People's artist Chen Boer and Japanese animation expert Fang Ming (Tadahito Mochinaga) made important contributions to this. What's commendable is that they completed the filming work under the condition of insufficient personnel and poor equipment, which opened the prelude to the development of new China fine arts films.
From 65438 to 0949, the Art Film Group, an organization specializing in making art films, was established in Changchun Northeast Film Studio, with cartoonist Te Wei and painter Jin as the main characters. 1950 moved to Shanghai and became a part of Shanghai Film Studio. With the continuous expansion of personnel, 1957 established the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, with Tewei as the director, and it has grown from a dozen people to more than 200 people. Famous artists and writers such as Wan Laiming, Wan Guchan, Wan, Qian Jiajun, Yu Zheguang, Zhang Chaoqun, Jin Jin, Ma, etc. all participated in this work. Since then, art films have developed rapidly based on Shanghai.
The early 1950s (1950- 1956) was its growth stage, and the increase of artists brought about the development of creation. Through production practice, a large number of young artistic and technical talents have been trained, which laid the foundation for the development of art film industry. During this period, many excellent films were produced, such as the cartoon Good Friends, Why Crows are Black, Pride General, puppet film's Wit Goat, Magic Pen and so on. In particular, Ao Jiang and Mo Pen have made successful experiments in exploring national styles. There are also gratifying achievements in technology. The first color puppet film "Little Hero" was shot in 1953, and the puppet film "Little Beauty's Dream" was completed in 1954, using the technology of combining real people with puppets for the first time. The first color cartoon "Why Crows Are Black" was also a success 1955. Since then, art films have entered the period of color films.
The period from the establishment of the factory to the "ten-year turmoil" (1957- 1966) is the heyday of fine arts films, with various forms. The artistic features of art films have been fully exerted, and the national style has become more mature and perfect. It has produced a batch of works that are still the best in the history of China fine arts films, and gained a good reputation at home and abroad. Premier Zhou Enlai pointed out before his death that the Fine Arts Film Department is an excellent and stylish department in China film industry. 1958 added a new variety-paper-cutting, and the first work "Pig Eight Rings Eat Watermelon" was a success. Because of its distinctive folk art characteristics, it is deeply loved by people and opens up a new road for the development of paper-cutting art. 1960 created an ink cartoon, which combined elegant China ink painting with animated films to form the most artistic style with China characteristics. Two films, Little Tadpole Looking for Mom and Moody, were great successes. With their beautiful pictures and poetic artistic conception, they make animation art enter a higher aesthetic realm, which is refreshing. It is a pioneering work in the history of animation and its achievements have attracted worldwide attention.
196 1 to 1964, the large-scale animated film "make trouble in heaven" (the first and second episodes) is one of the main works of this period and has a wide influence in the world. The story in the mythical novel The Journey to the West is vividly reproduced on the movie screen, with rich imagination. Plastic arts and animation skills have reached a high level. Princess Peacock is a large-scale puppet movie, with vivid story and spectacular scenes, which shows the beautiful myths in Dai areas of China. The superb skills of the film mark the maturity of the puppet movie art, and The Golden Conch is the most outstanding paper-cut work in this period. It has played the role of carving art and made this ancient folk tradition colorful. "Golden Dream" is a cartoon style, satirizing a group of greedy rich people with rough lines and exaggerated images, and it is also a new form. In addition, koi fish jumps over Longmen, who sings best, Jigong cricket, Grand Medal, ginseng doll, mindless and unhappy, waiting for tomorrow, ice crisis, Red Army Bridge, midnight cock crow, miss grassland hero and so on. , are made in this period. 1960 The movie "Smart Duck" is a new origami work full of children's interest and has become a new member of the art film family.
In order to introduce the achievements of China's fine arts films, the "Fine Arts Film Exhibition" was held on 1960, which was shown in eight major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, and had a wide influence. 1960 was exhibited in Hong Kong and gained a great reputation overseas. During the ten-year catastrophe of the Cultural Revolution (1966- 1976), art films were severely damaged, which greatly affected the progress of this cause.
1977 resumed creative production. Since then, art films have entered a new period of prosperity. During the eight years from the end of the Cultural Revolution to 1984, more than 100 films were made. New achievements have been made in subject matter, artistic form and production skills. Due to the opening-up policy and the expansion of foreign exchanges, the international influence of China's fine arts films is expanding day by day.
1979 The Noisy Sea, filmed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of New China, is a wide-screen animated feature film, which is known as "colorful, elegant and imaginative" and is very popular abroad. With its strong and gorgeous expressive force, it once again shines with the brilliance of national style. The Story of Two Generations of Love (Zhi Jin) of the puppet show is also an excellent film, with exaggerated modeling and humorous language, which vividly depicts a legendary figure of Xinjiang Uygur, and later developed into a multi-episode series. The cartoon "Three Monks" is a wonderful work. Although it is short in length and profound in meaning, it not only inherits the traditional art form, but also absorbs foreign modern expression techniques, which is a new attempt to develop national style. The cartoon Snow Child embodies a noble spirit. The ink animation "Deer Bell" expresses love, and both films are well received. Newspaper clippings in this period are rich and colorful in artistic form. Mr. Nan Guo showed the artistic style and simple style of Han Dynasty. The Monkey Fishing for the Moon makes newspaper clippings look like velvet and creates a new form. Using this form, the paper-cut "Snakes and Clams Struggle" in ink painting style was filmed, with beautiful form, humorous content and delicate and vivid movements, which enriched the artistic style of paper-cutting. "Firepot" combines decorative modeling and national art features in one furnace, with novel style. In the same period, there were two peacocks, a night gallery, foxes hunting hunters, good cats Mimi, fools buying shoes, black chickens, ducklings, ginseng fruits and naughty golden monkeys. If I were Song Wu, butterfly spring and gobbledygook.
With the system reform, the Shanghai Animation Film Studio changed its leadership in June 1984+00, with middle-aged director Yan Dingxian as the director and special guard as the consultant. Art film creation continues to advance with the pace of reform. In the past two or three years, a number of excellent films have been completed, such as the large-scale cartoon "Golden Monkey Magic", which depicts the touching image of the Monkey King, the Monkey King, with full emotions; Some abstract painting techniques and modern music are injected into the traditional national style, which has made a useful exploration for the development of national art. The cartoon "A Clip to Save the Deer" is elegant and lyrical, with the quaint style of Dunhuang murals. The newspaper clipping "Grass Man" is made in the form of imitating China's meticulous flower-and-bird painting, with a unique style. The cartoon "Goddess of mending the sky" shows people's imagination of ancient times with a concise and summarized image, and its artistic form is innovative. Besides, pillow grabbing, Talepool, water deer, cleaning, nets, stealing donkeys, witches, crocodiles and little girls all have their own characteristics. In recent years, the focus of creation is to develop a series of art films. Add thirteen episodes of newspaper clippings "Hulu Brothers" to show an absurd and interesting folk story. The thirteen-episode cartoon "The Adventures of the Sloppy King" is an imaginative fairy tale. Strange Mongolian Horse is a six-episode cartoon adapted from the drama of British writer Han Suying, which shows the homesickness of a wild horse and is permeated with international friendship. Escape from the Devil is a puppet series, which combines stage puppet art with film techniques and shows the huge scene of the story of Romance of the Gods. There are still some films in the works.
In the era of "reform and opening up", the creation of China fine arts films will be more prosperous. The prosperity of art needs a large number of professionals. Art film is a special art. At the beginning of the founding of New China, it was still in its infancy, and there were only a handful of such talents. Therefore, cultivating talents is the key to the development of art films. After more than 30 years of continuous training, it has gradually formed a professional team in the fields of art and technology. The establishment of this team, in addition to self-study at work, most professionals come from art colleges. Animators, the main creative force, have emerged a large number of outstanding talents after many special trainings, and become the backbone of the fine arts film industry in China today.
Looking back on the process of training animation talents, it can be roughly divided into three stages. The first stage was in the early 1950s. 1950, Qian Jiajun, Fan Jingxiang and other animators once set up animation courses in Suzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and enrolled two students successively. This course was merged into Beijing Film Academy during the adjustment of national colleges and universities in 1952, graduated in 1953, and was suspended. Most teachers and students work in "Meiying", which adds an important new force to art films. In the second stage, in the early 1960s, 1959 established the "Shanghai Film Academy" and the Animation Institute, with Qian Jiajun as the director and Zhang Songlin as the deputy director, to train animators with college education. A total of two graduates were trained and graduated in 196 1 and 1963 respectively. 1963 The school was closed, and these professionals enriched the creative team of Meiying.
Due to the interference of the "Cultural Revolution", the work of cultivating talents has been interrupted for more than ten years, and there has been a situation in which the green and yellow are not connected. Therefore, the third stage is to cultivate various forms of animation talents after ten years of turmoil. First, we supported Beijing Film Academy to set up animation courses, sent professional teachers to teach many times, and trained a group of high-level animators. Secondly, in cooperation with Shanghai Huashan Middle School, an intermediate animation vocational class has been opened, and three classes have been enrolled and more than 60 animators have been trained. Thirdly, animation training courses and animation design training courses were held in the factory, and a group of young creators were trained by learning by doing. Through the above three ways, in the 1980s, a large number of animation talents were growing sturdily.
Today, the cultivation of fine arts film talents, especially advanced animation education, will continue to develop. A new generation of animation artists will appear among them. China's animation industry started very early, far surpassing Japan in the early stage, but after the 1970s, Japanese animation flourished and eventually surpassed China, becoming the present situation.
The following is a comparison of the development of animation between China and China according to the period, and the main line is divided according to the animation period of. The development of animation in China is not divided into periods, which are divided according to historical periods as follows:
Early exploration period-from China's own animation creation in the 1920s to the establishment of 1949 New China.
The period of vigorous development-from the founding of the People's Republic to the Cultural Revolution1965-from 1966 to 1977.
Slow development period-from 1978 to 1998
Exploration period-from 1999 to now, the development of Japanese animation is divided according to the original period (see the article "History of Japanese Animation Development");
In the pre-war period-from 19 17, Japan had animation to 1945, and Japan was defeated.
Post-war exploration period-from Japan's defeat to 1974.
Theme Determination Period-Space Warship Performance from 1974 to 1982.
The Breakthrough Period of Painting Skills —— From 1982 "Fortress of Time and Space" to 1987.
Route differentiation period (mature period)-from 1987 to present.
1. China animation before the founding of the People's Republic of China-early exploration period.
The animation industry in China developed very early. In the 1920s, China's animation pioneers Wan Brothers (Wan Jiazong (Wan Laiming), Wan (Wan Guchan), Wan Jiajie (Wan) and Wan () began to study animation production. They produced China's first Studio Noisy, 1935, and China's first audio animation was completed. 194 1 year, influenced by the American animation Snow White, the first large-scale animation Princess Iron Fan in China was produced. In the world movie history, it is the fourth large-scale animation after Snow White, Lilliput and Pinocchio in the United States, which indicates that the animation level of China is close to the world leading level at that time.
During this period, Japan was in the pre-war period, and the level of animation production was still relatively low. Moreover, due to the influence of militarism, the production of its battle scenes has also developed to a certain extent.
However, during this period, some foreign animations were introduced to Japan, and Princess Iron Fan of China was among them. Osamu Tezuka, the god of Japanese comics, was deeply shocked after reading it. 2. The early days of the People's Republic of China-a period of vigorous development (from the founding of the People's Republic to 1965)
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the animation industry in China has developed very rapidly, with not only many works, but also many high-quality products. From an animation of 1950 to the 1960s, more than ten animations came out every year, among which, it is particularly worth mentioning that 196 1964' s Make a scene in Heaven can be said to be the pinnacle of domestic animation at that time, from characters, movements, pictures,
During this period, China also began to try to use different animation methods, boldly using the traditional art form of China. 1947, China produced the first puppet animation "The Emperor's Dream"; 1958 filmed the first paper-cut animation "Pig Eight Rings Eat Watermelon"; 1960 completed the first ink animation "Little Tadpole Looking for Mom"; 1962, the first origami animation "A Chinese Cabbage". With the addition of new animation forms, the animation industry in China has reached a peak.
At the same time, the Japanese animation industry is also developing, which was in the post-war exploration period. Japan's animation industry is developing through continuous exploration. Most importantly, Osamu Tezuka started his animation career.
1960, Osamu Tezuka established "Insect Production Company" to make animation. Later, Astro Boy was released in 1963, which was the first full-length TV animation in Japan. 1965, Japan's first set of color TV animation "Forest Emperor" was released. This can actually be said to be the beginning of Japanese animation industry, and then Japanese animation began its unstoppable progress.
During this period, China's animation development is still ahead of Japanese. Although Japan has a long animation like Astro Boy 1963, China has a large-scale animation "Make a scene in Heaven", which is not lost to Japan. Moreover, the application of animation in China's traditional art is not comparable to that in Japan. But one of the costs of making animation with traditional art is that it needs more time and energy, which may be one of the reasons why there was no long animation at that time; Another reason is that TV was not popular in China at that time, so animation was mainly played in cinemas, so there was no long series of animation at this time. 3. China Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1977).
When it comes to the history of China, an unavoidable problem is the Cultural Revolution.
During the Cultural Revolution, the animation industry in China was obviously influenced. 1966- 197 1 In the past six years, no cartoon has been made! In the following years, the situation seemed to improve, but during the period of 1972- 1977, only 2-4 cartoons were released every year.
Sadly, the good situation of China animation industry is gone forever. During this period, the animation industry in China almost stagnated for more than ten years!
On the other hand, the Japanese animation industry is in the late stage of exploration and the early stage of theme determination. Driven by Osamu Tezuka, the animation industry is in a good situation.
During this period, a group of animation talents such as Takada Hiroshi, Miyazaki Hayao and Leiji Matsumoto appeared. With their efforts, Japanese animation products continued. Moreover, in the process of continuous development, Japanese animation industry began to try to expand the scope of themes used in animation creation, resulting in the all-encompassing situation of Japanese animation now. It can be said that this period is a very critical period in the history of Japanese animation industry, and it is also the development of this period that laid the unshakable position of Japanese animation now.
Compared with China and Japan, this period is really difficult. If there were no Cultural Revolution in China, no one could say what the animation industry would be like now. However, history is like this and cannot be changed. 4. China's post-reform and opening-up period-slow development period (1978 to 1998).
With the reform and opening up, China animation has finally taken a heavy step, but the lag brought by the Cultural Revolution cannot be changed.
During this period, the development of animation in China no longer had the strong verve at the beginning of the People's Republic of China. Although the output of animation began to recover, there were still many animations produced every year, but the pioneering spirit of that year was gone. This is manifested in many aspects: first, we no longer explore new animation forms, but now we see several traditional art animations when the People's Republic of China was founded; Second, perhaps because of the high cost, ink animation is almost no longer done, and only one is done in 20 years; Third, there is no breakthrough in the selection of animation materials because of the deep-rooted concept that "cartoons are for children to watch"; Fourth, during the Cultural Revolution, many animation talents were lost in China, but they could not be found immediately in the early days of reform and opening up. etc
Of course, there are still some fine works in this period, such as the Wonders of Heaven in 1983, the Gourd Brothers in 1986- 1987, and the Black Cat of the Sheriff in1984/987, 65438+. China people's concept that cartoons are for children has never been abandoned, which makes these cartoons inappropriate even for junior high school students.
With the continuous introduction of foreign animation, China's animation industry finally realized its own shortcomings and began various explorations and attempts.
65438-0999 domestic large-scale animation "Lotus Lantern" is one of the attempts, absorbing foreign production methods and experience, combining with China traditional myths and legends;
65438-0999 domestic large-scale long animation The Journey to the West is also one of the attempts;
The 52-episode animated film I'm Crazy for Singing, the 52-episode animated film Pigeon Island, and the 199 100-episode animated film Legend of the Gods are also attempts of China animation industry. Among them, "I am a singer" was launched this year (200 1), and it made China's own animation works by imitating the Japanese animation "Basketball Flying Man". Although the work itself does not seem to be well received, the trial form is still very good. The other two works don't have much relevant information at present, so I don't know their specific situation.
China animation industry has finally started its own exploration and attempt. I hope that in the near future, we can enjoy China's own wonderful animation works.