Super cute little ants, they can also hide to avoid being hunted~ This is a French cartoon "Insect Story 2 - Backup from afar" with a score of 8.2 on Douban. It has no lines and no performances. .

Although domestic comics such as "Nezha" and "Luo Xiaohei" are in the limelight recently, and the Japanese comic "Detective Conan" is also gaining momentum, sometimes we always have such doubts: these Are popular cartoons really suitable for children to watch? Are all well-produced animations just for adults?

However, a French animation released in August - "Insect Story 2 - Backup from afar" finally gave us a cartoon that is suitable for children and adults to enjoy.

The first "Insect Story" took 5 years of long and elaborate production and cost about 200 million yuan. It not only won 7 heavyweight awards including the Cesar Award for Best Animation, but was also selected by a famous film magazine "Screen International" calls it "a film that truly transcends language." When it was released in China in 2014, even though the cost spent on marketing was zero, many animation directors still came here.

Although I watched "Insect Story 2 - Backup from Afar" with reverence for the first one, I was still afraid that the director would give up if he didn't have enough money. The original intention was to piece together a commercial animation that relies on "feelings" to make money. Fortunately, the level of the story remains the same, and it also uses real shots + CG special effects to create realistic scenes. The cute little insects satisfy all my fantasies about the natural world.

"Watching the movie from the perspective of a child watching ants moving" is probably our biggest expectation for this animation.

A grand adventure in the microscopic world

While stealing sugar cubes from the warehouse, the black ants accidentally encountered their enemy red ants and sent out a signal for help. Ladybug’s father, Brother Lady, came to the rescue. I thought that my son, Xiaoxiao, who was following me secretly, accidentally fell into a courier box full of food and was put on a plane to be transported to a remote tropical island. In order to save his son, Brother Piao followed him on the plane, but when he arrived at the destination, he fell out due to the bumps of the vehicle.

On a strange tropical island, there are unknown dangers everywhere. The helpless Brother Piao encounters a local black ant colony, so he asks the other party to send a signal for help to his companions in France. . Then comes a scene that breaks through the imagination of the movie: black ants use their tentacles to send out signals one after another, from land to seabed, from the Caribbean to China... across thousands of rivers and mountains. The little black ant finally learned about Brother Piao's situation and found the black spider to save him.

Insects dance and carnival in the colorful tropical rainforest, but there are many traps for Xiaoxiao.

He avoided the menacing mosquitoes, defeated the fancy piranha, and escaped the huge mantis, but accidentally fell into the cave and got stuck in the spider web. Although this silly big spider was covered with downy hair and had a pair of big watery eyes, Xiao Di was still frightened and fainted.

Fortunately, Dad, Brother Piao, found Xiao Piao based on the traces he left along the way and rescued him in time. Also rescued were flies, poisonous caterpillars, and another little ladybug. Unfortunately, Xiaolao was poisoned and fainted.

On the other side, the black ants and black spiders who embarked on the journey also experienced ups and downs. After being struck by lightning, their boat fell into the sea and was swallowed by a shark. Fortunately, the clever black spider played loud music, and the shark, who was feeling uncomfortable in his stomach, vomited them out.

The rescued little ladybug in the rainforest brought Brother Lady and his son back to their family base, and rescued Ladybug. After going through many difficulties and dangers, the French friends finally reunited and used the poisonous gas of caterpillars to help the insects in the tropical rainforest prevent humans from deforestation.

At the end, Xiaoxiao is faced with the dilemma of returning to France with her father or staying in the rainforest to protect her lover. In the end, although the father was reluctant to give up, he still encouraged his son to bravely pursue his own life. He and the black ants returned to their small home in France, cuddling up with his wife and children in the heavy snow.

The last Easter egg also shows a scene in Beijing. Is the next step about the insect adventure that takes place in China?

Relaxed and unique film form

Different from Hollywood animations that anthropomorphize animal characters to the extreme, this French animation handles animal anthropomorphism in a way that is as realistic and realistic as possible. To put it simply, animals have not evolved human hands and feet. They rely on their own limbs to make movements. Their rich expressions are only conveyed through their cute big eyes. The only language is the chirping of insects to communicate with each other. After the real scenes were shot, CG effects were added to the production of insects, making the whole picture harmonious, vivid and full of immersion.

Director Thomas Champo said: "Our goal is to achieve a delicate balance between the two, both based on the true characteristics of the documentary and the relative simplicity of the design."

< p> In terms of story, "Insect Story 2" still continues the small world vision of the first film, but the narrative pattern is more grand and the plot is richer and more fulfilling. Although there are no lines, it does not prevent the bugs from being surprised when they find food. He opened his eyes wide and sang a song in the stormy waves. After the disaster, he was reborn and looked at his beloved with tears in his eyes. A few actions allow us to feel their changing emotions, and the entire plot is perfectly interpreted.

Movies are an art. The most important thing is to convey the emotions of the story through pictures and body language. In this world of insects, there is no need for human language. This kind of French classical style The narrative style stirs up all our imaginations about the small world that we have not noticed.

The growth, farewell, separation and courage contained in it are the director's gift to his daughter, and are also suitable for parents and children to watch together.

Children see wonder, adults see innocence

When you were little, did you lie on the ground and count the dots on the backs of ladybugs? Watch the snail slowly dragging its shell up the tree, secretly place a small grain of sugar next to the ant nest, and imagine their surprise after eating...

There is a question that has attracted millions of questions on Zhihu , is "What are the differences after becoming parents after 1990s"? Gao Zan's answer is as follows:

I will take him to tread water on rainy days

Snowball fights in winter

Chasing fireflies barefoot on the ground in summer

Pick oranges with your own hands in autumn

Escape and travel together when you are upset...

We used to be full of curiosity about everything in the world, and we would carefully observe the big and small things around us. The world, feel the breathing and heartbeat of everything around you. When we grow up, in order to adapt to the rules of the adult world, we build grids for ourselves, follow the straight and straight path, and isolate the scenery and curiosity.

Growth and childishness should not ebb and flow. The adult world should be pure once in a while, and only by unloading the baggage can we start on a better footing.

Nowadays, many children walk on roads paved with asphalt and concrete. The tallest buildings around them are high-rise buildings. The sound of sirens drowns out the chirping of cicadas, and even when they look up, they cannot see the stars. Life is getting better and better, but we are getting further and further away from nature. This movie allows us adults to share our childhood with our children, without having to rack our brains to explain the truth to them like watching mainstream movies. Quietly listen to the chirping of ants and ladybugs, and experience the wonder of that small world, one big and one small.

Busy life is a serious matter, and watching ants move is also a serious matter!

When this movie was released, it bumped into "The Fast and the Furious" and the popular "Nezha". In addition, there was no publicity, so the box office was slightly bleak. But this is an animation that is truly suitable for children's perspective. It does not have too many ups and downs in the plot, and it also eliminates obscure metaphors. The real-life shots of humans, forests and little ladybugs are so exquisite that they are perfectly integrated with real-life animation technology, plus some imagination-breaking imagination, such as ants using their tentacles to send telegraphs, black spiders using balloons to control wooden boats to fly, etc., for children. They restored an unimaginable world of onlookers, and subtly allowed them to understand the importance of family, love, and unity.

If I have to pick something wrong, it would be the translation that has been complained about since the first film. It uses the title of "General Mobilization" but has nothing to do with the actual content. It is a misinterpretation. The core of the entire movie.

Some people may also question: It is clear that we want to restore a real insect world to the greatest extent, so why should we assign decent and villainous roles to ants and ladybugs, and also give them various human emotions? ? I think movies are moderately anthropomorphic, a kind of artistic processing, and they must be linked to "human beings" when entering the cinema. And just putting ourselves in the shoes of insects and using their simple organs to observe the world does not mean "elevating" them into human beings and putting them into our minds hypocritically.