Special feature of 1905 film network If Nezha becomes a modern person, do you want to see it?The "Oscar in Animation" French Angxi International Animation Film Festival was held online on June 15th, local time, and it was the only China animated film shortlisted for the "WIP(Work in Progress)" unit.Immediately unveil the veil and expose it to make a promotional film.
This 8-minute promotional feature consists of two parts: the interview introduction of the creative team and the test segment. From the first shot of the clip, the audience has doubts — — Did you put the wrong film? Is this Nezha?
There are no hot wheels, Twill, Gankun Circle and Firepoint Gun, and there is no ancient myth color similar to that in the movie. There is not a line in the whole clip, mainly two modern young brothers racing wildly in the city streets with a dark and windy month.
This is just a clip in production, and the Nezha version of the picture really makes the audience feel confused. What kind of "rebirth" is it going to accomplish?
Rub the heat of Nezha? It started four years ago.
"This is a movie that may open the superhero universe in China."directorEvonneIn the special edition, it is said that they hope to use Nezha as a starting point to launch a brand-new deity universe and world view, and show the audience a different young version of deity story.
According to the official profile, The New Goddess: The Rebirth of Nezha will be a 110-minute 3D animation, which tells the story of what happened after making trouble in the sea and mysteriously disappeared. After 3,000 years, he was reborn as an ordinary person in Li Yunxiang and embarked on a road to become a real hero.
The film was successfully put on record in 2019, and the synopsis of the story reads:Donghai city, a coastal city, is short of fresh water due to perennial lack of rain. Li Yunxiang, a young man who loves motorcycles, was attacked by super powers after his car collided with the rich boy of the water supply group, which aroused the mysterious power of sleeping in his body — — Nezha. Waiting for Li Yunxiang, in addition to the vendetta from the old enemy, there is a bigger conspiracy … …
Li Yunxiang, a motorcycle boy, fights the rich second generation of water supply group. The fragments exposed at present are quite consistent with the above story outline.
In the ending of the movie Ne Zha, Nezha and Ao Bing, the red and blue "Ao Bing CP", both destroyed the flesh and left the soul. If the sequel "Nezha 2" retains "Ao Bing CP", the story development will also be inseparable from the concept of "rebirth".
Some netizens put the duet in the clip of Rebirth of Nezha against Nezha VS Ao Bing, which was reborn year-on-year, and some netizens who didn’t know the truth questioned: Is this Rebirth of Nezha a hot movie?
In 2019, Ne Zha swept the box office, and finally surpassed it with a score of 5 billion, becoming the second box office in the history of China movies. The "Nezha" explosion set off a "cosmic craze", and the light media also gained momentum to combine animated films and Phoenix to create a "trilogy of China myths".
Since then, some projects have deliberately "touched porcelain" with the trilogy of Nezha and China, deliberately misleading the audience.
It is the poster slogan of "Newly Created by Ne Zha Production Team", which is one of the representatives, which makes many people mistakenly think that it is a new work of China myth series animation. Light Media, Striped House and other production companies jointly issued a statement to refute rumors, clarifying that it has nothing to do with this "Erlang God movie".
"The New Goddess: The Rebirth of Nezha" was created by the original team of light-chasing animation, and the production schedule is also presented in detail in the special edition:
At the end of 2016: story concept discussion, previous literature collection.
October 2017: Visual exploration began, and the synchronization of visual exploration and story Key Moment began to advance.
June 2018: Began to explore the photography style.
September 19, 2018: The first edition of the storyboard was screened in its entirety.
February 28, 2019: The project kick-off meeting officially entered the mid-term production.
May 14th, 2019: The first building model generated by computer program was officially passed.
End of April 2020: Mid-term production progress: CG production is 95% completed; Post-production progress: The dubbing of the actors is completed, and the sound and soundtrack are completed by 75%.
Ne Zha started preparations in 2014, and it took two years to polish the script before making it. It was not until 2019 that the public became familiar with this project.However, "The New Goddess: The Rebirth of Nezha" is from discussing the story concept in 2016 to basically completing CG production and dubbing music work, which lasted for four years. From the timeline, there is basically no problem of fried rice or rubbing heat.
However, "Nezha" was on fire once last year, with Zhuyu in the lead, and now there is another "Nezha" IP movie. How can we achieve a breakthrough?
Alita+Final Fantasy … Too many shadows!
Punk is the innovation of Nezha Rebirth.In addition to the urban background of China, there are face of china figures and China special clothes.eastsquareIn addition to the elements, the exposure clips are full of punk elements.
According to the master, from the big world view to the small details of the art scene, the film is building punk spirit and style:Taking the coastal cities of China in the 1920s and 1930s as real-life reference, this paper combines the styles of industrial punk, wasteland punk, Cyberpunk and decorative art, and also refers to various punk visual materials such as obstacle course, abandoned factory, underground racing atmosphere, locomotive installation and abandoned water tower.
Some netizens joked that the clip of "Nezha Rebirth" is a new car preview of "QQ Speed", but look carefully:Dark and deep street scenes, flashing neon lights, huge and expanding modern urban buildings and backward and dilapidated slums, cold and heavy locomotives and other mechanical objects, red and blue tones … these are the iconic scenes of punk aesthetics, especially Cyberpunk’s aesthetic style.
These scenes are also easily reminiscent of Cyberpunk-style movies, animations and games such as The Age of War and Final Fantasy.
For another example, the upgraded slow motion, visual exaggeration and deformation in the chase clip, which strengthens the tension, is like recreating the "bullet time" in the movie.
In character design, the appearance of Li Yunxiang, the protagonist, combines the classical image of Nezha in the sea, the Buddha statue in ancient China painting and the modern star modeling.
The heroine’s face at the beginning of the clip is not only like "Alita", but also is said to have mechanical elements on her body, which is very similar to the mechanical prosthesis in Alita.
The core of Cyberpunk culture is "the combination of low-end life and high technology", which is dystopian and conveys the positive and just side. Although the specific story of The Rebirth of Nezha has not been made public, the story concept obviously has the core spirit of "Cyberpunk".
In the official poster released before, the lotus seat with metallic texture was in front, and the teenagers on the lotus seat were dressed in armor, which seemed to be reborn from the fire. Behind it was the semi-hidden image of Nezha, showing the mysterious taste of the fusion of ancient myths and modern science fiction.
At the end of the clip, Li Yunxiang’s body is wrapped in flames, and Nezha, who has superhuman powers, appears behind him. Director Evonne explained that this is a concept called "Yuan Shen" that they added under the new deity system.
This concept is not original.In the Japanese classic anime "JOJO’s Wonderful Adventure", there is a skill called "body double attack", which is a condensation of spiritual energy in the body stand is widely circulated among comic fans. In the countrySoul-killingStreet "There is also a similar concept of "guardian spirit".
Only from a fragment, we can see the imprint of many movies, comics and games, and with the established impression of some "Nezha fans", it is difficult to accept the mixed style of classical and modern painting for a while, which makes Nezha Rebirth fall into criticism.
Will Nezha, who is racing, overturn?
"This short film is a test film of Nezha Rebirth, which was finished before the release of White Snake. This time, unlike the past, we broke through the shackles of technology in four years to integrate art and aesthetics. " Director Evonne said when forwarding the clip online.
The previous work "White Snake: Origin" created a box office success of 450 million yuan in 2019, with a Douban score of 7.9, both box office and word of mouth, and also gained a group of loyal fans. As Nezha Rebirth was created by the original team, many fans said they could continue to wait and see and reserve their opinions.
After three failures, the light-chasing animation finally fought a beautiful turnaround with White Snake: The Origin, and found a route to explore and adapt the ancient legends of China.
"White Snake: The Origin" abandons the classic story "The Legend of the White Snake" and starts a new stove to talk about the history of the White Snake and Xu Xian 500 years ago, opening up space; "Rebirth of Nezha" also puts aside the shackles of "What makes the sea" and tells the history of rebirth after 3000 years in another way.
No matter whether the quality performance works this time, the light-chasing animation still insists on this creative road.There are some problems in White Snake: The Origin, such as unnatural movements of characters, stiff facial expressions and lack of delicacy, which can still be seen in the fragments of Nezha Rebirth.
Even if this is only a test clip, the audience’s feedback reminds the main creator to pay more attention to the feature film and polish the production details of the character modeling.
Ne Zha, like The Rebirth of Nezha, suffered a lot of controversy when he first released the preview. When Nezha appeared with two dark circles under his eyes, many viewers couldn’t accept such a subversive image, and didn’t change their attitude until the film was released. It was "really fragrant".
Therefore, it is still too early to evaluate it only by the test clips of Nezha Rebirth.
In addition, Nezha Rebirth visually highlights punk elements, which may be insignificant in the field of western films, but this style has just started for domestic films.
Before The Wandering Earth introduced the elements of industrial punk and Cyberpunk, Zhang Yimou’s new work also highlighted the neon effect in photography, creating a "Cyberpunk" style of visual aesthetics.
There are only a handful of domestic animated films with punk style. Combining oriental classics with western punk, Nezha Rebirth is the first time.
The producer of The Rebirth of Nezha said: "The story of Nezha has accompanied us from generation to generation to this day. The reason why it lasts for a long time is that every generation of us has interpreted this story. We can use the latest technology and the voice of our generation to tell the new Nezha story and pass it on to young people in the future. "
"Life has reincarnation, and Nirvana will fight again". What kind of fate will "New Gods: Nezha Rebirth" usher in? Everything can’t be seen until the film is completed and released.
