Special feature of 1905 film network This year’s Oscar draw is just around the corner, and everyone has their own different guesses about where each "little golden statuette" will end up. The author, who pays special attention to this category of animated films, has awarded the award of "Best animated feature film" to Disney’s family in advance. After all, looking back at the performance of the film in the global film market this year and the whole award season, it can indeed be regarded as the most favorable contender for this honor.
With two weighty trophies, the Golden Globe Award and the Anne Award, Zootopia is only one step away from the highest honor. For Disney, what the company and the team are waiting for may just be another fame and fortune after waiting for the film, but from the aspect of animated film creation, this result is likely to bring more far-reaching influence: Oscar for best animated feature film halo+cumulative global box office breakthrough of 1 billion US dollars, can Zootopia’s total victory (temporarily or hypothetically) lead "all ages" to become the mainstream of industry creation?
All ages: the sense of picture entertainment satisfies children’s plot metaphor and pleases adults.
No matter looking back at the winners since the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film was established in 2001, or comparing the other four films that were shortlisted at the same time, almost no works can compare with Zootopia’s completion in story "all-age" development, even though its protagonists are a rabbit and a fox.
When children are amused by the various animal images in the film, adults are caught in the plot of anti-family fun routines. This kind of fun is hard to give to several other well-made nominated films (and even more than a dozen award-winning works in the past) On the overseas film rating website "Rotten Tomatoes", Zootopia got a comprehensive evaluation of "thoughtful, informative and all-encompassing, close to the present, and entertaining to meet the needs of young audiences."
Looking at a similar website in China again, the comments written by fans around Zootopia are even more brain-opening. From a group of animals, some people saw the racial discrimination and feminist movement in American society, some people read the commercial marketing theory and sociological metaphors, and some people even discussed the connection between "Animal City" and Trump’s presidency again nearly a year after the film was released.
As a professional practitioner in the animation industry, director Lu Hengyu also said when chatting with the author about Zootopia: "If we want to take care of the whole age, we are really convinced of Disney. Children look at childlike fun, and adults can see some social problems. Just like onions, you can find what you want to see, no matter what your age. In comparison, many non-Disney works will inevitably have a heavy director’s personal color. "
At present, most domestic animations are still in the initial stage of family fun.
Zootopia’s global box office has reached an astonishing $1 billion. When it was introduced to the Mainland, the box office also broke through the 1.5 billion mark, ranking ninth in the film history list. According to Zhu Yuqing, editor-in-chief of China Animation Film Development Report, the film has reached a very high level in the aspect of full age.
"All ages, in fact, it is the highest standard for animated films. In the story and production, its requirements are particularly high. For example, in the design of each character in Zootopia, it should take into account the concepts and needs of different groups of people and different age groups. Just like the image of sloth lightning, children think it is super cute, but adults will pay attention to the final reversal of the car and show a smile. " Zhu Yuqing believes that Hollywood mainstream animation production companies are very good at all-age creation, which brings a lot of inspiration to domestic creators and should be the direction of our future efforts and learning.
It is a pity that such achievements are hard for domestic animation to catch up with. Although such explosions were born in 2015, this kind of success with great contingency is difficult to be easily copied.
"At present, most domestic animated films are still in the initial stage of’ all-age’, which is a kind of family fun for young people. Children like it and adults don’t hate it. For example, "Bears haunt" is already our very high standard at present. " Zhu Yuqing believes that this is the ceiling faced by the domestic animation industry and the embodiment of the limitations of the creators’ thinking. Compared with Zootopia, it is almost impossible to impress the adult audience with the stories of Bears and Pleasant Goat, and it is even more unimaginable to let these works go abroad and be released in North America and Europe.
In the future, the age boundaries of the audience may become more and more blurred.
Different from the above-mentioned "Family Fun" domestic animated films, which failed to pursue "full age", Lu Hengyu’s previous creations all had a clear target audience: "The target audience of big movies is young people, and so is" Soul Street ". Of course, we try to broaden this age group, but we will not compromise the core content of the film itself for the sake of broadening. "
From the point of view of the first-line animation creator, he thinks that making works with a clear target audience is easy to attract criticism, but it is relatively more energy-saving. As long as you regard yourself as an audience and ask yourself what kind of movies you want to see, you can get the answer. The works of "all ages" should take more effort and take into account the preferences of audiences outside of themselves. This can not be done by hard work alone, but also requires the creator to have rich life experience and creative experience.
Lu Hengyu also revealed that he is very happy to try to create in an "all-age" direction. At present, Snow Child, which he collaborated with Shanghai Animation Film Studio and the lithography era, is a work of this style: "But this kind of creation can be completed not by the director’s personal experience, but by teamwork."
In view of the conjecture that "all-age" animation will become the mainstream style in the industry for a period of time to come, Lu Hengyu also put forward his own more advanced idea: "It is a bit outdated that we still divide the movie audience by" age ". In the past, information channels were divided by age, but now, with a PAD, a mobile phone and a computer, a 3-year-old child can access exactly the same information as an 80-year-old grandfather. Under such conditions, the difference between’ age’ will become more and more blurred, and people will define themselves more by their’ interests’. Now we like to use 70,80,90 to divide and define people, which may not work in the future. "
The 89th Academy Awards Ceremony will be held at 8: 00 am on February 27th, Beijing time, and 1905 Movie Network will broadcast live video for everyone, so please pay attention.
