Source: @Tencent Comics, World Style Feature

Today, when online animation is just emerging, Chinese TV animation still occupies 99% of the market share, so what is the overall level of this big cake? The development of China's animation industry has always been a matter of concern to everyone, at least on the surface, you can always see such complaints: "How many years have you been vigorously supporting, it looks so naïve!" "It took tens of millions to make such a scum out of the trap!"

One of the mainstream theories is that many animation companies cheat on support funds, outsourcing layer by layer, and in the end, small workshops make up a number of cartoons to fool people. In the end, the money was spent, the works were rotten, and the bamboo basket was empty, which ended up insulting our eyes and hearts and hurting our feelings.

But I can guarantee that few people who say this have actually seen domestic cartoons. Especially from the cartoons of the 90s, it is rare to see the present. They may have seen a more shocking glance on TV, and some even sprayed it after just watching a few screenshots on the Internet, which is really a partial generalization. So what kind of level has domestic TV animation reached? It's hard to say.,Look at who you compare with.,The vertical ratio must have improved.,But the horizontal is not so optimistic.,Because the two major problems faced by domestic animation can't be compared with European, American, Japanese and Korean animation.。 What exactly is the problem? This issue of "World Wind" brings you the secret of the current situation of domestic TV animation.

The first problem: I can't succeed in following the trend

First of all, the first question is the subject matter, so what kind of subject matter is a good theme? The answer is that any subject matter is a good subject. There are countless themes to choose from, imaginative, the more creative the better, and the theme choice of domestic animation is nothing more than two words: follow the trend.

Follow the trend of the first bullet: machine qì people

In recent years, the animation films have mainly focused on three areas, one is the machine, after "Transformers", which was mainly shot by Michael Bay, an American director, became popular, many production companies took a fancy to this theme and immediately started filming; At the same time, toys were launched, hoping to sell toys through animation, just like "Transformers". But they may have forgotten that "Transformers" is too classic, Hasbro is too powerful, and in the end there are only Transformers and those like Transformers in the world, the former is iphone5S, the latter is iphone5c and even Nietzsche Super 5, and buying it can only prove that he can't afford to buy genuine Transformers, which is ridiculed by his friends.

Follow the trend of the second bullet: decent villain battle

The second is the category of "Pleasant Goat", which mainly creates a pair of eternal contradictions, decent, smart, witty and popular, and the villain is obscene, cute and has a low IQ. Classics such as "Cat and Mouse", coupled with various props and gadgets similar to the cat, make each episode a big adventure full of joy and passion. Although it seems reliable, not every villain is cute and charming, and not every decent person seems to be witty rather than open-minded, especially in terms of how to avoid falling into the vulgarity and being criticized by the circular, and not being as boring as an elementary school textbook, it is really a test of the screenwriter's ability. If you grasp this degree well, it is a happy blockbuster for all ages, and parents will watch it with their children, and if you don't grasp it well, it is to teach children to learn badly or children feel bored.

Follow the trend for the third time: I'm here to sell toys

The third is that the toys have been made into cartoons, and the "four-wheel drive boy" that was all the rage in the nineties of the last century and the "four-wheel drive brothers" two cartoons have achieved the four-wheel drive dreams of many teenagers! Once upon a time, I fantasized that my 4WD could turn into a tornado and fly away by shouting nirvana, but in fact, a battery can't go far......

So many years later, domestic manufacturers also followed the model of the four-wheel drive series, making the whole cartoon a super-long toy introduction, the plot is like a pool of stagnant water without waves, a large number of freeze-frame shots, making the original bland story more pale, killing Matt The protagonists say the killer name of the hairy tree gives the spinning top, marbles, and little dinosaurs terrifying destructive power, and once saw a gyroscope summoning a black hole... It's chilling.

Why does "4WD Brothers" make children pester their parents to buy 4WD cars? Because no matter what, "4WD Brothers" can be regarded as a good-looking cartoon, at least every day I still think about going home to watch it; And those gyroscopic cars,I really can't stand it.,After watching an episode, I feel that my intelligence has declined, is it sucked away by that animation?,Just ask this kind of toy in the cartoon that can't stand to watch and damages intelligence.,Someone buys?

The second question: the mention of making money hurts feelings

The second question is the premise of determining these themes - commercialization, which is what the cartoon makes money. Cartoons are first and foremost commodities, and they must have commodity value to be meaningful.

Most of the profits of Japanese and American cartoons are in peripheral products, such as DVDs, soundtracks, licensed toys, accessories, daily necessities... Even theatrical animations and games can be considered derivatives of animation.

Domestic TV animation -- basically can't survive without support

And what about domestic animation? The disc is dead. Other peripheral industries are lagging behind, not to mention the quantity of peripheral products, in terms of quality, students who are interested can go to the stalls at the entrance of the local primary school, stationery stores to take a look at those domestic animation peripheral stationery toys, that time! One by one, they are either crooked in their mouths, slanted in their eyes, suspicious of cerebral thrombosis, or they are in their eyes and limbs, and they are bald with trisomy 21 and their limbs are hypertrophied. Our children are healthy, except for the parents who have been forced by their children for more than half a month just to buy a clean and don't care about what kind of disease the animals on the pencil case are, who will buy this kind of stationery that is not active, lively, vivid and cute?

It's just that the stationery that prints a picture is like this, not to mention the toys, it looks like a voodoo doll from a distance, and children won't have nightmares when they buy this and go home to sleep?

You said that the quality of the periphery, the price is so expensive... Directly on par with Europe, the United States and Japan. Come on! People set that price because their income is at that level. Let's take Japan as an example, a 200 yuan figure removes the high freight cost of shipping back to Japan and back (because it is all processed in China), customs duties... How much do you think is left? Are we stupid? If you make something of inferior quality, set a similar price, who will buy it? Is there also an international postage fee for domestic products to be shipped over and shipped back?

Well, even if the quality and price are solved, you can't solve the piracy problem. If the work is popular enough, the copycats that the author and the maker can't get a penny for overnight will spring up like mushrooms after a rain, it's like crazy whack-a-mole, and the tired zuò recipe can't be finished.

Derivative games have to die, and even ordinary games lose more and earn less, let alone derived. Basically all the profitable channels are blocked, and only the big movies are left. So after the success of the "Pleasant Goat" movie, the bosses thought of a new trick - why not make a movie? Fool the child to pull the adult to see how good, a child is three tickets, ten is thirty, a hundred is three hundred... I guess I'm so excited when I think of this! So no matter what cartoon I want to make money from a movie, and then forget about those long stories over the years, even "Sheriff Black Cat", "Hulu Brothers", and "Havoc in Heaven" have even been reinvented, but the result can be imagined, there are always a few people who make money, and most of them have disappeared from people's memories in the countless gimmicks before the release and countless scolding streets after the release...

What does domestic animation really need

The quality is not as scummy as you think

After talking about the problem, let's talk about the quality of the domestic animation itself. In fact, it has been several years since we vigorously supported the animation industry, and any industry is mixed, and there are those who make a fortune and leave with some dreams. As far as the overall level is concerned,That's definitely improved.,Those who miss the old animation such as "Big Head Son Little Head Dad", "Shuke Beta" and other people, you go back to those animations to watch again, and then look at the current domestic animation, you will understand that in fact, the old animation you miss has been beautified countless times in the depths of your brain, and what you miss is just the carefree time when you were a child, not the animation itself.

The level of production back then is not the same as now, how many grades have been upgraded by hardware alone, we don't talk about the past, let's just say that the current animation production level is not the same, we take "Pleasant Goat" as the dividing line, and the same as Pleasant Goat can be regarded as qualified. This is not because of how superb the production level of "Pleasant Goat" is, but because it really makes money, not by selling gimmicks and opening checks, nor under the guise of saving the domestic animation industry, it is a product that has really succeeded from a commercial point of view. If you can't make money worse than him, it may be a problem to make zuò, but in fact, many domestic animations are much better than Pleasant Goat's zuò, and they are more attentive.

In the past few years, the routine of domestic animation was like this: spend a lot of money to build momentum, invite various stars to dub, and then use a small amount of money to make zuò, so that many animations dare to be staged on TV like a joke. This situation lasted for three or four years, and after that, there were indeed a number of relatively mature animations that were much better than the previous ones. For example, "Elf Century", "The Legend of the Magic Bean", "Go Boy", "Chinese Kid", "Little Qingtian Situ Gong", "Star Travel" and the famous "Qin Shi Mingyue". But as far as I know, except for "Qin Shi Mingyue", the other parts are no longer there.

The reason why it didn't go on was nothing else, it was not to make money. Many people have questions, why did they not continue to do it well? Because they can't do it anymore. Imagine a stone, carved by the devil and become an artistic treasure, people have admired its exquisiteness, but it is limited to this, it is just a stone there, when the stone is auctioned to bring value to the sculptor, the stone is meaningful, the sculptor will carve the second piece; Otherwise, it is just a waste of life on a stone, and in the end, you will either waste your life or change careers to other industries in order to make ends meet. Eventually, no one would carve anymore, and the business would be gone.

The establishment of a mature industrial chain is still the core

In fact, a mature industrial chain is a life-saving medicine that can really save an industry, and domestic animation can only be developed by improving the overall quality and the joint improvement of subsequent derivative products. Otherwise, it will always be a small outsourcing expert, a small expert in short films, even if there may be a few works that can be called masterpieces, it will not be able to change the status of the entire industry, even if it is a five-meter giant and tens of thousands of dwarfs below one meter average, the giant himself may also be a dwarf, and what is needed now is 10 million meters four.

In the past few years, the animation industry was hot when there were indeed various bubbles, and there may be a lot of irrational investment into the animation industry in the early stage of national policy incentives. We can see that although some people with dreams have left because of the problem of food and clothing, more than not, those cheating subsidy companies have closed down one after another, and finally the whole industry is slowly rationalizing after a short period of loss, which is a happy thing.

What we need to know is that those who fight for their ideals are still working hard regardless of gains and losses, but no one can guarantee how long they will be able to fight for that ideal in their hearts, after all, they are also mortal beings, and they have to face the pressure of the whole world as they grow older. Maybe it's the parents who urge marriage, maybe it's the mother-in-law who is forced to buy a house, maybe it's the girlfriend's monthly money for cosmetics and perfumes, or even nothing.

When they despair,Domestic animation really won't get better,What they need is not mercy and charity,They need a normal and healthy environment,When a good work appears, they can get the same amount of material rewards,This requires the efforts of both sides,Not only the painstaking efforts of the creators,But also the support of the audience,Spiritual and material support。 Especially the latter, stop all those abuses and humiliations, you are sure that you have really seen the garbage in your mouth before you draw conclusions, your arrogance and indifference will not seem to you to be cool, but a kind of ignorance.

The content is the last word

Domestic animation can also be regarded as having a long history and rich experience, and a large number of classic works can hardly hide commercial defects, in fact, we recall that Chinese animation has never been much worse than Japan and South Korea at the technical level (the too powerful Disney DreamWorks is not comparable), but it has been in the teaching people to be good, open the positioning of children's early education of intelligence, and it has been greatly improved today, and the emergence of more and more all-age animations makes us seem to see a little light, but the cottage is still rooted in the bones.

An animation is not just drawn, but more about the screenwriter, the ability to plan is reflected, we are too short of excellent screenwriters and planning, many screenwriters and planners just read a lot of animation comics, and feel that they can knead together multiple animations in their minds to form a shocking crying ghosts and gods, magnificent waves, rigorous structure, outstanding ability, wonderful fights, rich feelings, suspenseful masterpieces, but I found that I couldn't even tell a complete story. There are even a lot of gods who don't care what the plot is, as long as I have a grand world view, thousands of years of love and hatred at every turn, the super expansion of several galaxies and dimensions, the special skills to the level, invincible, the beginning of the universe, in the use of gold, wood, water, fire, earth, light and dark natural phenomena as effects, followed by a variety of dragons, wolves, lions, tigers, eagles as posture movements, and finally add the slashing and rupture wave to make the end, revealing a Hong Kong martial arts film in the mid-90s video hall. After reading it, you feel that the original art and dubbing are really not easy, and how uncomfortable it is when such a stupid thing is done!

Many people attribute the lack of a good script to too many restrictions, as if dancing with handcuffs and shackles, always like a prisoner, can it be said that there is nothing else to shine in addition to pornography, gambling and drugs? Animation is not a Hollywood B-grade movie, plasma and dirty words fly together, and it is not a must-kill animation that satisfies a certain otaku, you have to show your flesh, and screenwriting and planning also require a long period of learning. Soldiers are bearing, and they will be in a nest, no matter how good the original animation is, it can't defend against a scumbag screenwriter's destruction of an animation, please those screenwriters and planners strengthen their abilities, improve their knowledge level more, first convince themselves, and then convince the audience. Is it appropriate for you to deceive the audience with a work that you can't even fool yourself? Is it possible to make things up just for children? Children may not have as much social experience as adults, but the gap between their mental level and adults is not too big!

All in all, domestic TV animation is progressing, and it is progressing step by step in the direction of health and stability, although it may be a little bigger in the first few steps, and the next few steps are like a quail, but as time goes by, it will eventually return to normal.

epilogue

Cartoons are first and foremost entertainment, and secondly education, and today's TV animations tend to forget about that. What philosophical metaphysics can you see from the animation, that's your own high understanding, most of the animation's responsibilities are still entertainment-oriented, too profound content and too didactic form are not suitable for work and study after relaxation. What we need more is to watch light-hearted cartoons to relieve stress after a tiring day. If at this time, what you can see is domestic goods, then of course it is better!