But at the moment, I don't want to blast the movie; on the contrary, I want to praise it. It was poorly made, but nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be; in fact, it far exceeded my expectations. It's not ironic, I think that even if you start from a low point, if you surpass your former self every time, you will always improve in the long run.
One of the realities we have to understand is that the Hollywood industrial system is very mature. In terms of technology, in terms of the basic quality of the people who work there, it's hard to compete with that in the short term. What we can do is more in the storyline, the value of the connotation on the effort. So, "no effort, no mistakes" is really not a critical statement, but an appropriate evaluation. And this sentence will be a long time, the goal of domestic animation efforts. Anyone can say big words, it is true that the heart is higher than the sky, but the important thing is to be down-to-earth. So, according to this goal, we first need to understand, foreign films have what merit, relatively, I have what over.
First of all, merit is a higher level of concept and value guidance. Han Han said in the movie "Afterlife", which is now in theaters, that only children talk about right and wrong, while the adult world only talks about pros and cons. Let's not talk about whether this sentence itself can stand up to scrutiny, but it has been proved in domestic animation. In Maleonn, good is good, evil is evil, and good eventually triumphs over evil. It's a solid theme, but it's also one of unparalleled mediocrity.
What is "Frozen" about? It was no longer a fairy tale about a prince and Cinderella. It's about a girl getting to know herself, seeing herself clearly, finding her self-confidence, integrating into society, and realizing her personal value in staying true to herself. But it's so much more than that, and even from the non-human character "Snow White," you can get a sense of it.
What is "Mad Men" about? It's really about more than just the Caveman story. It's about eternal hope, something that is ****ing universal to all humans. What do we do when the world we live in is about to be destroyed, when our culture and values are facing collapse? They chose to find hope in despair, to stand up strongly from the ruins and welcome a better tomorrow....... China had a generation of literati who were so y mired in the quagmire of ruins that they could not get out of it, and foreign countries gave the answer with an animation. It's not standing still, I prefer to think of it as lifting weights. I would like to think of it as lifting the weight of the mountains. Stand taller to see farther. But first, you have to lift your head, otherwise how to climb the peak.
And our Ma Liang? What a right and wrong, what a righteousness. But is the real society like that? The only absolute in the real world is that there are no absolutes. So, "Ma Liang" has no merits. But it has no faults either - at least the view of right and wrong in this movie is harmless. And what about previous Chinese animation? A major sticking point is that they can only be shown to children, and some of them can't even be watched by children. Television version of the "Pleasant and gray wolf" many of the bridge by netizens enthusiastically spit over, even if we can not deny, full of cultural chaff is a certainty, violence is full of them, selfishness ranks second, as for the other noise can not be said.
What about "Ma Liang"? The movie begins with the stunning appearance of Ma Liang: running faster than a horse, flying higher than a bird, traversing the forest without pressure, comparable to Tarzan of the Apes. I couldn't help but laugh, lamenting that it was "too ridiculous", but I couldn't hide my love for it. Foreign countries will also have such "superpower" scenes, such as "Legend of Bravery", but there is a background padding. The "Maleonn" is abrupt, but not annoying, to use a very popular expression now called "full of positive energy".
What does it teach children? Love of nature, and nature as one; love of animals, to protect it from the bad guys; love of art, we must overcome the difficulties to realize the ideal. This is really remarkable. And in order to protect their homes, fighting against the power of evil from a relative point of view, can also be said to be not too much of a problem.
Secondly, the credit goes to the excellent character design and wonderful plot design, while the characters of the previous domestic animation often can't stand up to scrutiny, and the plot is full of holes. Movie is a "one plus one is greater than two" art, but we even "equal to two" are not good.
In both Frozen and Flintstones, there is a trend toward multiple protagonists. This isn't caused by each character being heavy and not having a first lead, it's caused by the fact that each character is designed to stand out. You could argue that Malang is a single protagonist story, but The Lion King is also a single protagonist with an impressive villain who is not a face. Whereas in "Maleonn", Maleonn tends to be uniformly flat, even though he also has sidekicks and antagonists. It's fine for kids, but it's really boring for adults.
And the plot design, "Ma Liang" in everything is "soldiers to block the water to cover the earth", the other side of the move, I come to demolish the move, there is no more powerful plot. What is a powerful plot? A powerful plot is the one in Frozen where Queen Anna walks alone in the snowy mountains and sings to find herself. A powerful plot is the girl in "Mad Men" who defies her father and tries to climb a rock to see a wider world. Yes, this is what is often satirized by critics these days as "sentimentality". But I would say, without sentiment, what is art?
Ma Liang's design has no merit, but it has no faults either. At least the plot has ups and downs, not a flat river. Malang has been disappointed, lost, and finally found the direction, so that every child also more or less feel the ups and downs of the world, but not too much sadness and negative energy.
And in terms of character design, the village chief's character is the most colorful of them all, and I believe that no one who has seen it will object. And the character of the little yellow emperor is also quite personalized sense of joy, these are with some "merit" of the beginning, deserve to be applauded. In terms of styling, I can feel that the designers are trying to make the characters look more personalized and distinctive. For example, the little girl next to Maleonn is extremely cute. Although Ma Liang's look always reminds me of the famous singer Liu Huan's youthful appearance, the overall look of the film's styling design is highly unified - extremely "cute and adorable" trend. If you decide to make a movie for kids, you have to make it watchable for kids, and "Ma Liang" does that very well.
Thirdly, the work is impeccably detailed, and there's a lot of room for improvement in the production of Ma Liang. Not to talk about the purely technical aspects, just want to say something like split-screen design, animation soundtrack and other creative aspects.
According to common sense, 3D animation is concerned with the visual experience of vertical space, but "Malang" in many shots is up and down type of flat space, and never a two places. This kind of split-screen design is bold and has the momentum of a newborn calf, but the gap between ideal and reality is always full of gaps.
Inside the efforts to run to the art world, there is never a lack of eagerness, but eagerness can only make us farther away from the art, long wandering outside the door of the temple. Imitation is not shameful, 100% imitation is impossible, people are not machines, in the imitation of the invisible will be recreated, so, slowly, do not rush. One step at a time may seem awkward, but it is often the fastest way to get to your destination.
And music, too, is where we're lacking. Hollywood has song-and-dance movies, but looking at Chinese-language movies as a whole, music has never been our strong suit. Chinese animation, as part of Chinese-language cinema, is naturally heavily influenced by it. In foreign animation, music is the most indispensable, from the early years of The Lion King to Frozen. But what about us? It always seems to be more than enough. This time "Malang" still did not escape this fate, still no credit, no big breakthrough, but also by no means at fault.
First of all, the musical sense has been there, which group of rats square dance bridge, let a person's eyes. The Chinese people are a multi-talented people, and many ethnic minorities are extremely good at music and dance. However, for a long time, our movies have not reflected this aspect, and in animation, it is even more difficult to say. In any case, "Malang" is an artistic awakening in this regard. It may be forgotten, but it will never be reviled; it's not much better, but it's definitely not disgraceful.
In summary, "Ma Liang" is a movie that doesn't ask for credit, but it doesn't ask for blame. But I'm sure that wasn't the creator's intention. I see a lot of good seeds, and I hope that the spark of that seed will start a fire. I hope that one day, the flame can become a bright force, leading domestic animation and even domestic movies to find a way forward, creating a better tomorrow for Chinese movies.