Ne Zha： This domestic animation is worth blowing.

Every summer, cartoons are naturally indispensable. Since the re-release of Miyazaki Hayao’s Spirited Away, there have been many animations released so far, such as Pet Secret 2, GG Bond’s Unbelievable World, Mobile Suit Gundam NT, Night of Destiny-Goblet 2, etc. Except for Spirited Away, most of them have no splash. However, it can be boldly predicted that after the domestic cartoon Ne Zha is released, it will definitely rewrite the layout of this year’s summer cartoon; Especially in the case that several blockbuster movies have been withdrawn, Ne Zha will do more.

Ne Zha poster. Nezha in the poster is a transformed Nezha, who is usually not so handsome.

Ne Zha has a good production team. The director is jiaozi, born in 1980s. Although he only directed two short films "The Boss’s Woman" and "Hit, Hit a Big Watermelon" before, 40,000 people scored 8.6 points in "Hit, Hit a Big Watermelon". The main producer of the film, Caitiaowu Film, has also produced animation masterpieces such as Big Fish Begonia, Great Protector and Great World before.

On the announcement, Ne Zha also took the point-and-shoot strategy. On July 13th and 14th, it was only a small-scale film, and the word-of-mouth was more than that of Return of the Great Sage. The film quickly launched a larger-scale screening nationwide from July 17th to July 21st, and the good word-of-mouth continued to ferment. Many viewers believe that compared with The Return of the Great Sage and The White Snake: The Origin, Ne Zha has made a fundamental leap from text to audio-visual language.

Is this "rainbow fart"? Frankly speaking, after the trailer was released, many people were generally not optimistic about Ne Zha. There were many bad reviews on the douban, and they vowed to say, "If the bad film is booked, the box office will be forgotten." Because of Nezha’s painting style in the trailer-it’s really "ugly" (of course, it smells good afterwards). Even at the beginning of the film, the blinding modern light design and a strong "Trump" made people think that it was a bad film. But if you stick to it, your prejudice will be broken-and as it happens, this is also a theme of this movie.

Just looking at the forecast and materials, you will find Nezha very "ugly", although you will find him very "cute" after watching the movie.

As a classic figure in China’s ancient legends, Nezha has many film and television images. What kind of Nezha image did Ne Zha portray? Why does Ne Zha represent a step forward in domestic animation?

The Evolution of Nezha’s Image

Attentive viewers will find that from the first Asian animated feature film Princess Iron Fan (1941) born in China to White Snake: The Origin, which received rave reviews in early 2019, the development of Chinese cartoons has always drawn nutrition from ancient myths and legends in China, and "Westward Journey to the Universe", "Godly Universe" and "White Snake Universe" are important creative sources for the development of film and television dramas. This is actually consistent with Disney’s strategy of constantly remaking some classic fairy tales: fairy tales, myths, legends, etc. have a huge audience base, and both continuation and innovation can attract widespread attention.

Nezha is one of the most influential mythological images in China, and also one of the most common images in domestic cartoons. As soon as the prelude of "It’s him, it’s him, it’s him, our friend Nezha Jr." rings, it is estimated that more than half of the post-80s and post-90s will hum.

In 2003, the 52-episode animated film The Legend of Nezha influenced countless post-80s and post-90s. The theme song "Young Hero Little Nezha" has a high degree of nationality.

It is generally believed that Nezha, who is from Indian Buddhism and whose full name in Sanskrit is Naluo Jiupo or Naqijufalo, is the third prince of Vishamun King (it is also said that he is related to Vishamun King between grandparents and grandchildren). Nezha is a dharma protector in Indian Buddhism, belonging to the hag god system. His duty is to assist the Visha King in defending the dharma, eliminating evil and protecting the world. With the introduction of Buddhism into China, the oral legend of Nezha was introduced into China after the Han Dynasty.

The dharma protectors in Buddhism are generally ferocious, in order to highlight their hatred, bravery and strength. The same is true of Nezha, who has three heads and six arms. In Buddhist scriptures, "anger" is often used to describe Nezha’s personality. According to the tripitaka, Nezha’s "White Buddha’s Word" says, "I uphold Buddhism, and I want to capture and bind the wicked or have a bad heart. I guard the king’s ministers and Baiguanliao day and night. For those who kill Daling, we will wait for Nezha to stab them in the eye and heart with a golden staff. If you are a monk or nun, you will be beaten on the head with a diamond rod. "

So, how did Indian Buddhism come to Nezha to become a China figure? Scholars pointed out that Nezha’s image evolved with the evolution of Li Jing. Probably in the Southern Song Dynasty, the famous Li Jing of Sui and Tang Dynasties evolved into the King of Pishamen, and naturally, the son of the King of Pishamen became the son of Li Jing. This also created conditions for the further evolution of Nezha’s image.

Through two famous fantasy novels of Ming Dynasty, The Journey to the West and Romance of the Gods, Nezha was gradually shaped and deeply rooted in people’s hearts. In The Journey to the West, Nezha has been included in the Taoist immortal system. He has changed from a Buddhist god to the son of the heavenly commander of the Taoist Jade Emperor, King Tota, and is also an important god of war of the Jade Emperor. Nezha’s image in the novel is, "The little boy was born with a strange appearance and was very lean. The whole thing is: the jade face is as charming as a full moon, and the square mouth of the lips shows silver teeth. The eyes are bright and the beads are violent, and the forehead is wide and the hair is bun. Embroidery with dancing wind and colorful flames, brocade robe reflecting the sun and releasing golden flowers. Ring tapestry burning climbing mirror, Baojia Huihui lining combat boots. How magnificent it is to be quiet, and to protect Nezha for three days. " Here, Nezha is a lovely but angry child.

Li Jing and Nezha in the 86 edition of The Journey to the West, Nezha hand-held Gankun circle.

In the Romance of Gods, Nezha was further "Taoist". He is the spiritual bead of the Taoist founder Yuan Shi Tian Zun, reincarnated as the son of Li Men in Chentangguan, and helped Jiang Ziya destroy the Shang Dynasty and prosper the Zhou Dynasty in the next life. Nezha’s temperament became more and more "angry", he ignored authority, was unrestrained, and had a strong rebellious spirit. He called the Dragon King an "old loach", killed Li Gen, and drew the tendons of Ao Bing. Nezha is still with his parents because of filial piety. After the incarnation of lotus, his image is "two lotus flowers are now incarnated, and Lingzhu II is out of the dust. Portable purple flame snake spear treasure; Step on jinxia hot wheels. The leopard skin is safe in the world; The people are blessed in the red brocade. The sages of the past dynasties are the first, and the historians have written a thousand years. " He became the demon-subduer and the god of water-saving in the system.

After that, Nezha’s artistic image generally followed the setting of The Journey to the West and The Romance of the Gods. Whether Nezha played a supporting role, such as the cartoon "Make a scene in Heaven", The Journey to the West in 1986, or Nezha became the protagonist, such as the cartoon "What a scene" and "The Legend of Nezha", Nezha was mainly a child/teenager with a "angry" personality or cute and daring.

Nezha in the 1979 edition of What’s the Sea?

Nezha in Lotus Lantern Prequel is probably the cutest version of Nezha in the live-action version.

As for Nezha’s famous story of cutting meat and boning bones, there are also different interpretations, or as recorded in the novel The Journey to the West, "His father, the King of Heaven, was afraid of future troubles and wanted to kill Nezha" (resisting feudal patriarchy), or as recorded in The Romance of Gods, "One man acts as one man, and I kill Ao Bing, so I should pay for my life, and there is no reason why I have children to implicate my parents" (expressing filial piety and embodying the heroic spirit of self-sacrifice).

"the magic boy came to the world"

The cartoon Ne Zha is more influenced by the novel Romance of the Gods, but it only draws lessons from the basic relationship between characters, and the specific plot and personality of the characters have been greatly changed, with a high originality index.

The origin of the story is that the aura of heaven and earth gave birth to a "mixed bead" with great energy, and the mixed bead was refined into "spirit bead" and "magic pill" by the Buddha at the beginning, and the "spirit bead" was reincarnated as a human being, which was of great use; The "magic pill" will give birth to the devil, which is a disaster for the world. The Buddha of the Yuan Dynasty started the curse of Armageddon. Three years later, the thunder will come and destroy the magic pill. Real Taiyi, a disciple of the Buddha at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, was ordered to entrust the spirit bead to Nezha, the son of Li Jing in Chentangguan.

However, by mistake, Lingzhu and Magic Pill were switched, and Nezha, who was supposed to be the hero of Lingzhu, became the devil in troubled times … This created two strong suspense: Nezha, who was supposed to be the reincarnation of Lingzhu, became the reincarnation of Magic Pill. What should he do? Three years later, it was doomed by lightning. Can Nezha overcome fate?

Although he was reincarnated as a magic pill, Nezha was not born with great magic, and he was as innocent as a blank sheet of paper, but prejudice destroyed him. There is also a scene in the movie: Nezha, who ran from home to the street for the first time, wanted to play shuttlecock with a little sister, but when people found him, they shouted in horror and several friends threw things at him. They thought that Nezha was a magic boy.

The people are full of prejudice against Nezha and are very resistant.

Nezha was ostracized, discriminated, hated and hurt by everyone. Even with his family, he just wanted to isolate him. Excavate asked that Nezha should not be allowed to leave the house; Even though his mother dotes on him, she can only sigh helplessly, "Maybe this is her life."

Nezha’s parents also chose to "accept their fate."

Is this really fate? Nezha was unhappy, dissatisfied and unhappy, but the heavy shackles of fate-or, more precisely, the exclusion of all the people around him-trapped him firmly. His choice was: OK, since you think I am a monster, I will honestly be a monster. He is mischievous, broken pots and broken falls, doing evil and causing trouble. From time to time, I have to go out and make trouble, so that Chen Tangguan can make trouble.

Therefore, when Nezha appeared, he gave the impression that he was a Xiong Haizi and a little devil. It is no wonder that the image created by the film looks ugly: short, with severe dark circles under his eyes, frustrated, and always pretending to be cool when walking.

Ne Zha’s script structure is a typical "three-act structure" in Hollywood, and the audience can completely predict the ending of the story: Nezha, who was regarded as a magic boy at first, will definitely become a prodigy to save all beings after several twists and turns (there are not many spoilers here). He shouted, "It’s up to me to say whether it’s a magic or a fairy", "My life is up to me" and "If my fate is unfair, I will fight him to the end". What magic pills are reincarnated as magic children and what can’t escape lightning in three years? Fuck you!

Nezha doesn’t believe in life.

If the film is just like this, maybe you won’t notice anything special about Nezha. After all, the themes of breaking the binary opposition between good and evil, resisting fate, and making my own destiny are not uncommon in Nezha-related film and television dramas, and the theme of many chicken soup movies is precisely this.

What’s so special about Nezha?

An unprecedented Nezha.

I think that Nezha in Ne Zha is unprecedented because the writers and directors have injected a tragic core into him-you think he is hot, fried and cool, but he is lonely, fragile and helpless inside; You think this is a winner’s story, but it is also a story of "ordinary people" and "losers". "Angry" Nezha has a soft heart like ordinary people.

It is not difficult for the audience to see the shadow of Stephen Chow’s comedy from Ne Zha, and director jiaozi once said that he is a fan of Stephen Chow. Not only are there some comic images (like a bearded rough man with a girlish voice in the movie), but also some comic scenes (funny shit and urine). More importantly, the image of Nezha also continues the core of Stephen Chow’s comedy-comedy is tragedy. Borrowing a summary of Stephen Chow’s films by film critic Mei Xuefeng, "At the core of Zhou Xingchi’s films, at the core of that tragedy, a lonely man lives in his heart with a simple child, who is ignored by the secular world and silently and ridiculously adheres to his ideals."

Many expressions of Nezha in the film are reminiscent of many movie images of Stephen Chow. Maybe there is some reference in animation modeling?

Just like Nezha in the movie sang, "I am a little monster, carefree and free, killing people without blinking, eating people without salt." Is he really free and easy? He is desperate for approval, desperate for it. So when he finally got his first friend, Ao Bing, he was extremely happy and cherished (Nezha and Ao Bing kicked shuttlecock at the seaside, and they all had the appreciate each other feeling of "I raised you" in king of comedy); So when Li Jing tricked him into being the reincarnation of Lingzhu, he immediately devoted himself to doing good, killing demons and removing demons …

Nezha and Ao Bing should have a batch of CP powder.

Just like the little people in Stephen Chow’s movies, they have a humble dream; But once the cold world rejected their dreams, they also chose to trample on themselves while the world trampled on them. So Nezha said, if you think I’m a monster, I’ll be a monster. His self-indulgence seems to abuse the people in Chentangguan, and it is also self-abuse.

His abuse and self-abuse reflect the coldness of the world, just as the dragon king said in the movie, "People’s prejudices are like a giant mountain, no matter how hard you try, you can’t move them." Or more profoundly, the cruelty comes from the hands of Yuan Shi Tian Zun, who represents the feudal authority-the focus of "being born as a demon, so what" is not the burning of "so what", but what makes you think that some people are "born as a demon"? Assuming that Nezha and Ao Bing didn’t save the people in Chentangguan, are they doomed to be demons and be spurned in prejudice?

"Born to be a demon, so what?" focuses on the first half or the second half, which means completely different.

Nezha in Ne Zha has a self-protection skill acquired in cruelty-each of us has developed this skill: pretending not to care, pretending to be free and easy, pretending to be indifferent, pretending to be unsociable, pretending to be a bad person … At the moment of life and death in the movie, Nezha told his family that today is my birthday party, and none of you are allowed to cry. This is a moment of tears. But this moment also reflects to some extent that Nezha is still habitually protecting himself in his heart: What if you don’t cry when I leave? Therefore, he can only "strike first" and make everyone stop crying.

The burning of Ne Zha’s "My life is up to me" will impress many people, but if we go deep into it, it hides another narrative: how a person who has been abandoned by the world’s indifference and is extremely eager to identify with himself carefully guards his inner innocence and how to humbly please and live in prejudice. This may be even more worrying.

This film is not a simple "mourning" that can be summarized. Behind the hippie smile, it has real cruelty and pain.

Learn the domestic animation of "telling stories"

Over the past few years, The Return of the Great Sage, The Big Fish Begonia and The White Snake: The Origin have all gained a lot of praise, but they also criticized the voice, mainly focusing on: the story is too weak.

In fact, domestic animation had a glorious moment. After the Shanghai Animation Film Studio was formally established in 1957, it opened the golden decade of domestic animation. There is even a saying of "China Animation School" in the world animation circle, which refers to "a batch of animation works with distinctive China characteristics that originated in 1950s, matured in 1960s and harvested in 1970s and 1980s". The most classic in the history of animation in China, Make a scene in Heaven, was also born at this stage.

After the twists and turns in 1970s and the short revival in 1980s, Chinese cartoons fell into a long recession after 1990s, and the domestic animation market was basically monopolized by Japanese cartoons and Hollywood cartoons. Until recent years, domestic cartoons slowly rose, with several excellent cartoons almost every year. However, compared with Japanese or Hollywood cartoons, domestic cartoons still have a big gap. The technical gap has been continuously eliminated, and the core gap still lies in the ability to "tell stories".

The story, first of all, is reflected in the most basic, you have to have a beginning and an end, be fluent, have content and stand up. Although Ne Zha continues the legend of Nezha, his originality is extremely high, which not only reshapes the relationship between Nezha and Li Jing, Ao Bing and others, but also makes the images of Li Jing, Ao Bing and Shen Gongbao full, three-dimensional and moving as never before. Ao Bing and Shen Gongbao are the other side of Nezha, but they face different cruel choices. Aobing and Li Jing in the movie should be able to circle a large number of fans.

Secondly, it is the level of imagination. The media form of animation determines that it can contain imagination to the maximum extent, not worrying about not being able to present imagination, but worrying that you have no imagination and make animation technology useless. Many details in Ne Zha, such as the shuttlecock, the map of mountains and rivers, and the three-dimensional pinball, such as the action design and visual presentation during fighting, can make the audience fully feel the flying and gorgeous imagination.

The movie animation design is exquisite and amazing.

The level of storytelling ability is ultimately reflected in the level of values. A good story is both universal and advanced. Just like the cartoon "Where is the Sea?", it was amazing. Under the background of that time, how shocking was it to cut the flesh and bone and return it to the father?

At present, the core competitiveness of Hollywood cartoons is that they are too good at telling stories. The audience of cartoons is suitable for all ages, and its stories can be eaten by all ages. Children see one meaning, while adults can see another meaning. For example, in Zootopia, the whimsical animal world can bring joy to children. At the same time, the film’s mapping of politics and power makes adults relish it.

Generally speaking, the storytelling ability of domestic cartoons is still relatively weak, either too young, or too much emphasis on the so-called "adult orientation" and lack of balance. In this context, Ne Zha may be regarded as a small step forward in domestic animation, which tells a story that is not difficult to understand, but also tells a story with depth.

"People’s prejudices are like a giant mountain, no matter how hard you try, you can’t move it." People also have many prejudices about domestic animation. Ne Zha will "move" the huge mountain of prejudice, which deserves our support by buying tickets.

[Specially published by Shanghai Literature and Art Review Special Fund]