I’m sorry about the level of writers. Art？ What are the elements of the rise of the country？

Special feature of 1905 film network　After 11 days of release, the box office broke 300 million yuan, which was the same as the previous "New God List: Nezha". It continued to maintain the same level in the box office market, but it did not achieve a huge breakthrough.

In 2015, the horn of "the rise of the country" was blown. Four years later, it ushered in a landmark year, and the box office exceeded 5 billion. The summer dark horse "White Snake: Origin" also revitalized the light-chasing animation.

After 2019, from "White Snake 2: The Green Snake Robbed" to "The List of New Gods: Yang Jian", these domestic animated films adapted from myths have not replicated miracles, and they have become animated explosions with both box office and word of mouth.

Guo Man’s production technology has been upgraded and improved, and his visual effects have become more and more sophisticated, but his peak works are hard to find. The most pointed out by most viewers is still the script problem.

The New List of Gods: Yang Jian: A Perspective on the Shortcomings of Guo Man’s Story

According to the professional edition of Lighthouse, among the hot words mentioned in the online comments of "New God List: Yang Jian", "Good Special Effects" ranks first, and words such as "Beautiful Picture", "Good Picture", "Special Effects" and "Yang Jian Handsome" are on the list, which all reflect the audience’s affirmation and praise for the exquisite special effects of this film. However, "the plot is not good" and "the plot is average" also occupy the forefront of overall comments and negative comments.

In the popular comments of Douban, "The screenwriter kneels and kowtows to the artists" and "Three stars are sorry for the special effects, and four stars are sorry for the plot" won super-high praise.

The script of light-chasing animation needs continuous polishing. "New God List: Yang Jian" does reflect some long-standing story creation problems in light-chasing animation and even domestic animated films.

Although Yang Jian’s role modeling is handsome, his core is a person with unclear motives.

After Aquilaria saved his mother, his mother died with the phantom, just like Yang Jian’s mother’s fate. Why didn’t Yang Jian tell Aquilaria before? Yang Jian released the mysterious birds only for the sake of all things, but whether the mysterious birds are good or evil, how can we know that the world will be peaceful? Yang Jian’s logic of these behaviors is not clear enough.

Yang Jian and New Gods: Nezha Reborn’s Li Yunxiang and Xiaoqing in White Snake 2: The Green Snake Robbed belong to this kind of protagonist: they always lead the audience into a new world, new conflicts and new contexts like "tour guides", and they always wake up before a climax war, but in fact, they all lack a relatively large arc of growth, and they are passive acceptance figures.

For example, Li Yunxiang in New Gods: Nezha Reborn is faced with the problem of how to become Nezha. Why can violent Nezha obey Li Yunxiang, and why can they become one? The film has been immersed in the action war between Li Yunxiang and the Dragon King of the East China Sea. In the slogan "Don’t want to accept your fate, fight for this life", there is a lack of more details to explain it.

Instrumentalization and facial makeup of supporting roles are also common problems that need to be solved in creation. For example, "White Snake 2: The Green Snake Robbed" sets that people who enter Shura City are unwilling and have not lifted their obsession, but the obsession of many characters has not been explained clearly.

What is the purpose of Shen Gongbao’s help to Aquilaria sinensis in The List of New Gods: Yang Jian? What is his goal of revenge? Without further explanation. Yang Jian’s roaring dog and fellow silver hunters are also single functional roles, but unfortunately they have not created a plump image.

Just like the spectacle visual scene of the continuous superposition of movies, new events, new plots and new characters in the plays are constantly adding, which leads to a bit of bloated information, and some subtraction is still needed to "slim down".

Compared with Ne Zha’s precise design of punchline, teardrop, budding point and burning point, The List of New Gods: Yang Jian lacks enough points to fully promote the audience’s emotions. This lack of expression positioning is also a common problem of most domestic animations.

"What my mother wants to protect is that everything is endless." Yang Jian made a choice between saving the whole world and safeguarding the interests of authoritarian groups. Similarly, in the animated Legend of Deification released in 2020, Jiang Ziya also encountered the contradiction of "how to save people without saving one person".

The new list of gods: Yang Jian didn’t throw out the theme until the climax, and it was too late for many viewers to quickly understand and recognize the core concept of the film output. Legend of Deification was entangled in Jiang Ziya’s inner difficulties all the time, which unbalanced the expression of genre and art, mass and self.

Both films touch on the position choice of the collective and the individual, which is a metaphorical topic related to reality, but they fail to establish enough real, moving and effective emotional relationships between Yang Jian and his mother, and between Jiang Ziya and Xiao Jiu. Compared with Ne Zha’s construction of the family conflict between Nezha and his father, the emotional rendering power of these two films is not enough, so it is difficult for the audience to empathize generally.

What other creative breakthroughs are needed for the rise of the country?

"New God List: Yang Jian" reveals the shortcomings of many domestic animated films in terms of plays. From a macro point of view, the current animation market is in a dilemma of excessive development of China myths.

Among the films that have been officially announced and approved in the past two years, the Monkey King IP’s new animated films include The King of the Mixed World: The Rise of the Great Sage, I am not the Great Sage, The Flame Mountain of the Monkey King, The True and False Monkey King of Journey to the West, etc. Nezha IP’s new animation films are also available.

Some of these projects were produced earlier or at the same time as Ne Zha’s Return of the Great Sage to the Journey to the West, and some were imitated later. After these two explosive films came out, New Gods: Nezha Reborn and other similar themes were released one after another, and the audience gradually became tired of the animation created around the Monkey King and Nezha, so the future of these new films was uncertain.

Although there are constant calls for the adaptation of animation to the Monkey King and Nezha, the audience still has strong expectations for the sequel to the two explosions.

Of course, Guo Man can’t confine his theme to two mythical figures, the Monkey King and Nezha. The two head animation companies, Light and Light-Chasing Animation, are also aware of this, and both have laid out a more grand China myth universe.

Since 2020, Raylight has put on record films such as Hong Haier’s Rushing out of the Flame Mountain, Erlang God, the rebirth of a native grandson, and Lei Zhenzi. In the ending egg of Legend of Deification, it is predicted that Lei Zhenzi, Yang Jian and Huang Tianhua will appear in the future, and Jiang Ziya 2 is also in preparation.

At the 12th Beijing International Film Festival Film Power Forum, the chairman of Light Media recently revealed that the company has combed all the myths and legends in China, initially established a story world view, which will be composed of 30 to 50 animated films, and reconstructed the myth history of China.

On the other hand, the light-chasing animation continues to develop the new list of gods. Although there are no new mythical figures at the end of the "New List of Gods: Yang Jian", it links New Gods: Nezha Reborn and predicts the trend of the series of stories; For example, Sunac is also preparing "Young Lei Zhenzi" in the future, and the screenwriter will play the script.

The mythical IP animation has greatly increased. Are immortals enough? If Guo Man really wants to rise, he must not only adapt classic myths, but also constantly expand the subject range of animated films and look for novel materials with local characteristics in China.

After the "New Legend" and "New God List" series, the light-chasing animation will start the "New Culture" series focusing on Li Bai’s story.Based on the ancient book Shan Hai JingBig fish begoniaIs operating.Big Fish Begonia II. The latest creationGoodbye monster in the classics of mountains and seasIn the future, Sunac will launch the "Exploration Record of Chang ‘an" with fantastic historical themes. The Dart Man, which is adapted from the martial arts, is also imminent.

The excavation of traditional culture has become the main trend of the development of the country. Despite the controversy caused by the role image after its release, its expression of combining the cultural heritage theme of folk traditional skill lion dance with the social phenomenon of left-behind children in rural areas and urban development has been well received, and "China Youth Universe" will be launched in the future.

Combining the visual elements of traditional culture with realistic critical issues, it is reported that the creation of the director’s new work also continues this line.

China’s traditional culture provides a steady stream of materials and nutrition for domestic animated films. The core value can’t ignore the reality. Only by closely linking the essence of traditional culture with the current reality can we create new advantages and vitality.

Ma Hua, a professor at the Animation Institute of Beijing Film Academy, pointed out at the cultural salon of "The Present Situation and Future of China Animation Films" in the 29th University Film Festival that since its birth during the Anti-Japanese War, China animation films have formed a fine tradition of satirizing the present and connecting with the times. If the current animated films want to "break the circle", they should echo social topics and pain points and understand the spiritual values needed by society.

In the narrative mode, from "The List of New Gods: Yang Jian", Guo Man mostly adopts the anti-treason narrative of losers, and it seems that only by telling such stories can there be a box office market. In the future, Guo Man’s creation should seek innovation and change, and try to break through this set of roads.

In the form of expression, more technical experiments can be done. For example, the black wind tunnel of White Snake 2: The Green Snake Snatches Up and the Tai Chi pictures of The New God List: Yang Jian are presented with specially rendered ink and wash styles, which are different from the whole painting style, and aesthetic exploration is made on the art style.

The director’s new film "Deep Sea" realizes the "three-dimensional" of China’s ink painting for the first time, and it takes two years to develop the "particle ink animation". Whether "Deep Sea" can once again push "the rise of the country" to a new level and create a new era, the outside world has high hopes.

The rise of China’s animated films can’t rely solely on the achievements of one or two explosions, nor can it only be average. Need plateau, but also need peak!