Lu Zhuhu has seen a question: How rebellious is the national strength of US imperialism? One of the highlighted answers at the bottom is:

When our country was still engaged in the arduous War of Resistance Against Japan, the people of the United States imperialism had already begun to watch "Cat and Mouse......

That's right, it's Tom and Jerry......

Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are even earlier......

Many people have been amazed: It is really not a cover to say that US imperialism is 50 years ahead of us!

But if you think about it, this answer seems to be so debatable, because you think it's great that the American imperialist people saw cartoons in those years, but during the War of Resistance Against Japan, our people could also see their own domestic animated feature films, and even the Japanese people under militarist rule also watched our cartoons!

Because before the advent of computer animation technology, every frame of animation was completely done by hand, and a 10-minute program needed to draw about 7,000 to 10,000 pictures, so it consumed a lot of labor, and most of the early cartoons were short films of about 10 minutes, as was the case with Mickey Mouse Donald Duck in the United States, and the same was true for witty animation in the early twenties and thirties in China.

The increase in duration means an infinite rise in costs and a huge pressure on a long production cycle, which is a great test of an animation manufacturer's technology and financial thickness, so in the early days, except for Disney and other big factories in the United States, no one dared to try animated feature films around the world. It wasn't until the end of the 30s that Hollywood began to rely on its strength to create large-scale feature animated films, and in 1938 launched the million-dollar animated film "Snow White", which was as long as an ordinary feature film. After the film was released, it became popular all over the world, greatly influencing the people of that era and even the children of later generations - there is no doubt that it is the version of "Snow White" that you watched when you were a child.

the world's first animated feature film, "Snow White" by the United States;

the world's second animated feature film, "Gulliver's Travels" by the United States;

the world's third animated feature film, "Pinocchio" by American imperialism;

The fourth large-scale animated art film after that, the American imperialists-

Ah no, this is the "Iron Fan Princess" of the Chinese Wan Brothers! (Judging from the production time, it is two or three years later than Snow White, and the other two are the same period.) ）

In other words, "Iron Fan Princess" was not only the first Chinese animated feature film, but also the first long-form animation in Asia at that time, and the second country in the world besides the United States to produce large-scale feature-length animation!

Although the 1941 production of "Iron Fan Princess" chose the story of Monkey King borrowing a banana fan in "Journey to the West" as the prototype, many of the content in many films is not low (there is even a banana fan, which blows a woman into a naked child's inappropriate picture, sweat and ...... The film uses the concretization of Sun Wukong, the Bull Demon King, and the Burning Sky Fire of the Flaming Mountain to reflect the fighting between China and Japan, and uses the image of Sun Wukong's struggle to express the fighting spirit of resisting aggression and calling on the whole people to resist the war!

Whether it is the picture, soundtrack, or Chinese expression, this movie can be called a masterpiece under that kind of conditions at that time, even if he dislikes the accent of the voice actor during the Republic of China, the black and white picture - but that is also the limitation of the times, look at the second Journey to the West theme animation directed by Wan Laiming again after gathering heroes in New China 20 years later, "Havoc in Heaven", you can imagine what kind of height the Wan brothers can raise the animation art to with full support. Even today, it can be said that the Havoc in the 60s is still the palace-level masterpiece with the largest investment, the most sophisticated production, the highest artistic achievement and the greatest influence in the world produced by my country!

Ye Gongzi has musical talent and capital in his family, if he can help the Wan brothers who are about to set sail and leave a name for themselves in future generations - I am afraid it will be of great benefit to both parties!

It's just that at this time, the American emperor's "Snow White" has not yet been released, Ye Gongzi doesn't know the amazing charm and super ability to harvest the box office in this form of animated feature films, thinking that cartoons are just pastimes and entertainment, and naturally feels that Lu Zhuhu is ridiculing him: according to his ability, he can only fool children, right......

Even Liuyang, even Ye Gongzi, who grew up in Europe, thinks so, and ordinary people are naturally even worse, Lu Zhuhu has to sigh, it is really remarkable that a character like the Wan brothers in China can have such foresight and wisdom!

After the success of "Snow White", these early Chinese film factory capitalists were not as good as ghosts, and thought that this thing was very interesting, and they also came up with the idea of making large-scale animation. Xinhua United Pictures Company set up a special "cartoon department" and hired Wan Gu Chan, one of the pioneers of Chinese animation, as the director, and decided to shoot the large-scale cartoon "Iron Fan Princess". Co-directed by Wan Laiming and Wan Gu Chan.

At that time, it was still very difficult to do such a huge project, not to mention that Shanghai had already fallen. During the difficult years of the Anti-Japanese War, the Wan brothers mobilized more than 100 staff members to participate in the production and drew countless manuscripts, but after the film entered the critical period of production, there was a shortage of funds, which almost caused the production work to die and almost miscarried halfway. Thanks to the investment of the Shanghai consortium "Shangyuan Silver Company", it was finally completed. It took a year and a half to finalize the draft in September 1941, resulting in a version that is still visible today at 1 hour and 20 minutes and 9,700 feet in film.

The film was screened simultaneously in three theaters in Shanghai at the end of 1941, and received overwhelming acclaim, even surpassing all live-action feature films at the time.

Later, it was released in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, and it was hard to find tickets everywhere I went. After that, the Wan brothers and the film company originally planned to take advantage of the victory to pursue the filming and sequel "Havoc in the Heavenly Palace", but the Japanese army brazenly entered the concession, and the cartoon department of the producer Xinhua Company was forced to withdraw, delaying the animation creation passion of an entire generation of Chinese, until after the founding of New China, he invited Wan Liming back from Hong Kong, and he and Tang Cheng co-directed at the Shanghai Art Studio to make up for the shortcomings of that year and reach the peak of art.

The original intention of the creation of "Iron Fan Princess" was to call for "anti-Japanese", and later the untimely death of "Havoc in Heaven" was also due to the high-pressure rule of the Japanese army - the result is very interesting, this film is very popular in Japan, even far beyond China, pointing out the direction for several generations of Japanese animators -

Basically, not long after the release of the film, the news of the film's success reached Japan, so in 1942, "Iron Fan Princess" was introduced to Japanese theaters, becoming the third Chinese film to be released in Japan, and it was a box office success - and also achieved the fifth best result at the box office in the first half of 1942.

In later generations, Japan's animation industry was naturally very developed, and at its peak, it was on a par with the United States imperialism, and it divided the world, but at this time, Japan's animation culture was still quite ignorant, although there were also pioneers in the production of animation, but under the mature technology and artistic expression of American imperialist animation, there was no room for resistance. The Japanese also criticize their own animation for its monotonous movements, dull expressions, and inexplicable plots. Japanese animators could only begin to blindly imitate American animation, which attracted criticism of "tangible and godless", and gradually became completely eroded by American animation and fell into confusion. As the war deepened, the supply of film was limited, and the already weak animation production could not be filmed. When they were embattled, they ushered in the so-called "Shina Reflection" - a guiding light for them.

Although they are peers and have learned the experience and technology of the United States, these Chinese bigwigs will play a lot, and many of the ingenious ideas are very national style, which is refreshing.

In addition to borrowing many elements from American cartoons, they also boldly absorbed elements of classical Chinese painting, so that the style of Chinese landscape painting was successfully brought to the screen. For example, although it is a black and white picture, it uses the technique of Chinese ink coloring, and the detailed gray background picture with different shades adds a "three-dimensional effect". The small movements of the characters and the natural and smooth "vulgar language" in the dubbing convey the unique sense of humor of the Chinese. Even if it is not possible to make a full-color animation due to technical limitations, Chinese has a ghost idea - the Wan brothers tried to block the lens with red cellophane during the film screening, so that the flaming mountain in the film emits red light, creating the effect of color animation in the black and white cartoon......

Why aren't these called the Japanese animators who completely follow the United States behind the East Shi Xiaofeng are eye-opening!

Although Lu Zhuhu instigated Ye Gongzi to make movie music for "Iron Fan Princess", the soundtrack of "Iron Fan Princess" itself is also good. At that time, the soundtrack was praised by Japanese critics. After watching American animation for thirty or forty years, such as Cat and Mouse, Donald Duck, etc., you know that the "protagonists" in it often "don't speak", but replace jazz, which even made people at that time think that animated movies have to be accompanied by jazz. But the Chinese are biased, and the background music is regarded as a different expression technique from American animation, a completely different Chinese style, which is especially obvious in the later "Havoc in the Heavenly Palace", and the opera-style and gong-drum soundtrack has become an eternal classic. The composer of "Iron Fan Princess" is Lu Zhongren, the founding president of Xinghai Conservatory of Music, who is considered by the industry to be the composer who may have created the most Chinese film music. He has not graduated from the music department of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts.

Ye Gongzi is also a young man, and he recognizes his music's high appeal Lu Zhuhu, and he must be particularly brilliant at the climax of the movie, if he and Mr. Lu Zhongren can cooperate, they may be able to continue to improve the expressiveness of the movie.

In short, Japanese critics at the time seized every angle they could cut into and praised the film without hesitation. If professionals are like this, how can ordinary Japanese people not be fascinated by it! Among them, there is a 14-year-old middle school student, who was greatly touched after watching the film, and strengthened his original dream of animation and comics, gave up his career as a doctor and became a cartoonist.

This is Osamu Tezuka, known as Japan's greatest manga artist, and his masterpieces "Astro Boy" (Japan's first TV anime), "Three-Eyed Prodigy" and "Fire Bird".

In some domestic sayings that are used to touting China, it seems that Tezuka was not interested in anime in the first place, and ran to draw manga the next day after watching Princess Iron Fan...... The origins of the Japanese anime industry all came from China......

This is naturally a gold sticker for himself, but the film does have a great impact on Tezuka. Because the Japanese government at this time implemented the "national policy of filming" and restricted the import of overseas films, animation was also among them, and Disney feature animations such as "Snow White" and "Pinocchio" were not released in Japan until after the war. And the quality of the finished film of "Iron Fan Princess" is higher than that of the dull Japanese animation at this time, and there is no problem.

Osamu Tezuka himself later said: People who watched China's first full-length cartoon with contemptuous eyes were stunned to see that this movie was so interesting and luxurious...... I also had a chance to get a copy of the movie......

Later, Osamu Tezuka came to China to visit Wan Laiming, and left each other with drawings of Monkey King and Astro Boy, and made it clear in the afterword of his posthumous work "My Monkey King" that the work was created with reference to "Iron Fan Princess".

Lu Zhuhu is very clear about the idea of "my ancestors have also been broad" of the Ah Q mentality of the Chinese people, and he also knows that in the era of planned economy, such as "Big Trouble in the Heavenly Palace", "Nezha in the Sea", and "Little Tadpole Looking for Mother", the "huge production" was produced regardless of cost, time, labor, and efficiency (the production cost of "Big Trouble in the Heavenly Palace" in 60 years exceeded 1 million yuan, and at that time a Chinese may not earn 5 yuan a month), and the subsidy to animation factories was canceled after "Hulu Brothers", After asking for self-financing, Chinese animation exposed its true colors and declined rapidly - perhaps Chinese animation has never prospered in the true sense.

However, in this era when he was born, he could be so excellent and beautiful when he came out, which could not help but make him extremely moved and proud in his heart.

But the problem is that Ye Gongzi didn't grow up watching "Sheriff Black Cat" and "Strange Tales from the Book of Heaven", not only does he have no feelings for Guoman, but he doesn't even think that cartoons are anything great! Chinese animation was born in the 20s, the initiator is the Wan brothers four, at first just as a novelty, the first work was only made into a typewriter advertisement, last year (1935) Wan brothers launched China's first sound cartoon "Camel Dance", Ye Gongzi has seen it, that is, to tell a funny story in Aesop's fables, it is completely burlesque, no connotation, and it may not be able to sell for money - he doesn't think his music has any future with this kind of funny stuff. Lack of interest, in order to show respect, a few perfunctory words of Lu Zhuhu, and I was about to say goodbye-

Lu Zhuhu was anxious, he really felt that although Ye Gongzi was high, his music was really good, you said that now the national government does not let you make strange noises, your "god and demon music" will not be used, and you will not need it after ten or twenty years...... What's more, although this is an animated film, both artistry and value are so high that they don't know where you got "Pansi Cave" and "The Great War of Money Leopard" in Europe!

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