In July of this summer, the domestic animation "Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes into the World" became popular. On July 30, 20 years ago, there was also a domestic animation that burst into popularity. This was the animation film "The Lotus Lantern" adapted by Shanghai Art Film Studio based on traditional Chinese myths. As my country's first commercial film animation, "Bao Lian Lan" achieved considerable box office achievements that year, and also attracted a new generation of loyal fans to the US Film Studio.
"Baolian Lantern" poster
uncle and nephew fate
There are two famous stories in Chinese myths about smashing the mountain to save the mother. The core is the behavior of feudal elders violently suppressing the free love of juniors. The first is Erlang Shen Yang Jian to rescue Yao Ji from Taoshan, and the second is Chen Xiang to rescue Yang Chan from Huashan. The two stories are not only similar in plot, but the two protagonists Yang Jian and Chenxiang are still relatives. They are uncles and nephews, and Yang Jian is Chenxiang's uncle. Two stories have been passed down so far, and the story of Chenxiang splitting the mountain to save his mother is relatively popular. The Huayue Goddess Chapter of Dai Junfu of the Tang Dynasty is the common origin of the two stories. It is said that the third daughter of Huayue lived with the scholar and gave birth to children.
Huashan Chenxiang Pishan Rescue Mother.
The original version of "Baolian Lantern" is passed down in the lost Yuan drama "Prince Agarwood Chopping Huashan". The story tells that Liu Xiang went to Beijing to take the exam in the Han Dynasty, passing by the Huashan Temple, writing poems to joking about the temple god Huayue Sanniang. Sanniang became angry after seeing the poem, and wanted to kill it. The Jade Emperor sent Taibai Jinxing to dissuade Sanniang and told them that they were destined to be married. So Sanniang seduced her with affection that night. Three days later, the two separated, and Sanniang first explained his identity to Liu Xiang. Liu Xiang gave Sanniang a piece of agarwood and asked him to name it after giving birth to a male and a half daughter. The name "Agarwood" is actually related to sex between men and women. It is the name of a traditional Chinese medicine, and it is said that it can improve vitality and aphrodisiac, and cure the coldness of men. After that, Sanniang was arrested and Chen Xiang saved his mother.
agarwood
can be seen, in the original version, the Jade Emperor and Taibai Jinxing are good people, and the only one who is not good is his brother Yang Jian. The plot and the names of the characters in "Baolian Lantern" we are familiar with did not become what we see now until the Ming Dynasty. The Jade Emperor became the uncle of the Three Madonna of Mount Huashan, Yang Chan, and appeared as a feudal conservative parent. His nephew, Yang Jian, was just a thug who executed orders. Later generations of dramas, storytelling, and storytelling "Baolian Lantern" plots were only established in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.
The story of the "Baolian Lantern" circulating today is roughly as follows: The Three Madonna Yang Chan (also known as Our Lady of Huashan) fell in love with the scholar Liu Yanchang, took the Baolian Lantern and gave birth to his son Chenxiang. Yang Chan used the Baolian Lantern several times to get rid of his brother Erlang Shen Yang Jian, who maintained the rules of the sky. The Baolian Lantern is a treasure made by Nuwa's replenishment of the sky and the finest moon. The Baolian Lantern is nine inches high, and the whole body is white, like ice and snow. When the Baolian is in full bloom, it has the power to shake the world and reverse the universe. Yang Jian, who lost to the Baolian Lantern, could only force Yang Chan to surrender the Baolian Lantern by grabbing Xiao Chenxiang. Yang Chan, who lost the Baolian Lantern, lost to his brother and was crushed under the Huashan Mountain. When Agarwood became an adult, he merged with the Baolian Lantern, defeated Yang Jian and rescued his mother.
However, the familiar version of Wu Chengen's "Journey to the West" is not agarwood to save his mother, but Yang Jian to save his mother. In the sixth round, Sun Wukong ridiculed Yang Jian: "I remember that the Jade Emperor's sister Sifan was in the lower realm, and she cooperated with Yang Jun and gave birth to a man who used the axe to split Taoshan. Was it you?" The version is still the Yang Jian version. Interestingly, before "Journey to the West", there was the book "Qingyuan Miaodao Revealing the True Monarch-Ding Zhenren Protecting the Country, Blessing the People, Loyalty and Filial Piety Erlang Baoju" in the 34th year of Jiajing (1555). The Baojuan tells about the Linfan golden boy Yang Tianyou and the fairy Yunhua privately get married and give birth to Yang Erlang. After the incident was discovered, it was Sun Wukong who pressed Yunhua on the Taihang Mountain in the name of Queen Mother. After Yang Erlang grew up, he split the mountain to save his mother, but instead pressed Monkey King under the mountain; it was not until Tang Seng took the scriptures that Monkey King was released. It can be seen that Yang Jian is also a filial son who saved his mother. Because of this, the CCTV version of "The Baolian Lantern" and "The Preamble of the Baolian Lantern", Yang Jian was portrayed as a kind-hearted immortal who is extremely just and bears humiliation.
was the uncle Yang Jian who rescued his mother from the mountain. Since the 1980s, with the transformation of the business system and the impact of foreign animation, my country's animation has ushered in a difficult period. The production of cartoons is declining, and the entire industry lacks confidence, and it is almost on the verge of crisis. Since the 1990s, Disney commercial animation films such as "The Lion King" and "Mulan" have brought great shock to Chinese audiencesAt the same time, it also earned a huge amount of box office, and brought a great sense of crisis to the animation industry in my country. "Baolian Lantern" is the product of this unprecedented sense of crisis. It is my country's first commercialized animation film, and it is also the animation film with the largest investment in the history of Shanghai Art Film Studio.
"Bao Lian Lan" is about 80 minutes long, directed by Chang Guangxi, animator of "Nezha Nao Sea", film director Wu Yigong as art director, and composer Jin Fuzai as music director. This animation is the first animated film after "Golden Monkeys Falling Down" in 1984. The film has 50 characters, 2,000 backgrounds, more than 2,000 shots, and more than 150,000 animation frames. It lasted for 4 years, with a total of more than 300 staff participating and a total investment of 12 million yuan. Twenty years ago, just in terms of investment scale, it could be described as a grand system.
"The Baolian Lantern" opening title
"The Baolian Lantern" firstly brings a sense of shock to the audience, which is the powerful cast of voice actors. When the audience is watching a movie, they feel like they have known each other when they hear the voice of the characters. The female protagonist is Tranquility in adulthood; the Three Madonna is Xu Fan; the cold and ruthless God of Erlang is Jiang Wen; Chen Peisi's master of Chenxiang defeats the Buddha and Sun Wukong is voiced by Chen Peisi. Cui Jie, Liang Tianfen, Ma Jingwu, Lei Kesheng, Ding Jiali, Zhu Shimao and other famous actors also joined the dubbing crew and dubbed many supporting roles. On the
dubbing cast list, the star-studded
"Baolian Lantern" character modeling is still the traditional Chinese painting style of the Chinese animation school. At the beginning of the movie, the footage of Chenxiang and her mother boating has a strong charm of Chinese painting. The figures are also very exquisite, the most classic is Yang Jian's face, almost painted after Jiang Wen. The image of Monkey King is the same as the Monkey King in "Havoc in Heaven" and "Golden Monkey Falling Down from the Demon". There is also a small monkey transformed into a stone pillar in the play. The salute to Monkey King is the old stem of the stone monkey.
Erlang Shen Yang Jian
defeated the Buddha Sun Wukong
However, the animation practitioners at that time began to believe that Chinese animation should re-enter the world, not adhere to the national style, and introduce other cultural elements. As a result, "Baolian Lantern" began to absorb the style of Disney animation. The contrast between light and shadow was very strong, giving the 2D picture a three-dimensional effect. The face of a person will also change with the brightness of the light. The movie also has a strong Disney flavor. The Three Madonnas and Agarwood in the center of the poster have a clear contrast between their lines and their three-dimensional sense. The Erlangshen cloak on the top of the poster is as wide as the poster, almost a vicious black eagle coming to the sky. These are not traditional Chinese school animation styles. The characters of
all have shadows. The
movie also draws on another major feature of Disney animation and Japanese animation, that is, carefully crafted animation songs. Good animation songs can not only add a lot of color to the animation itself, but also bring great commercial profits. The three theme songs and episodes of the movie are "365 Days of Thinking of You", "Heaven and Earth in My Heart", and "Love is One Word"; the theme song's singing lineup can be described as luxurious. The singers of the three songs are all popular singers. They are Coco Li, Huan Liu and Xinzhe Zhang. A movie focused on heavyweight singers in the Chinese music scene, not to mention unique in the history of Chinese animation, even in the history of Chinese film.
"Bao Lian Lan" soundtrack CD cover
thin plot
Compared with luxurious cast and singer lineup, "Bao Lian Lan" has obvious shortcomings. The first is a bunch of low-level errors. Since it is a love story, the address between the man and the woman should be a nickname; and Liu Yanchang actually called his wife's celestial name "The Three Madonna", isn't this creating a gap between the immortal and the common. Yang Chan's name never appeared from beginning to end, only the celestial name "Three Mothers"; the same was true for Yang Jian, even his old opponent, Sun Wukong, called "Erlang Shen" instead of his name.
The biggest shortcoming of the Three Madonnas
"Baolian Lantern" is that the plot is thin, and individual sections are even very unreasonable. After Erlang's third eye destroyed the residences of the Three Madonna and Liu Yanchang, the plot immediately jumped to the scene where the 7-year-old Chenxiang was rowing with his mother. Whether Liu Yanchang is dead or alive has not been explained. Then the Mother and Child of the Three Madonnas were discovered, and the Three Madonnas were crushed on Mount Hua, and Chenxiang escaped from the heaven with the help of Kamei. After more than an hour, the plot is about the plain story of Chenxiang's mother-hunting road, and the ending battle is less than ten minutes.
Chinese painting style mother and child rafting screen
"Baolian Lantern"The second major drawback is that it imitates foreign animation too much. American and Japanese cartoons always like the protagonist to bring a small animal or mascot to follow him, such as the horse and bird Kaul in "The Extraordinary Princess Shiri", the puppy Nubo and the kitten in "Flower Fairy" Keto. Affected by it, Agarwood also brought a small stone monkey. The little stone monkey runs through the whole drama, but it is useless to promote the plot. Another character arrangement is more abrupt. The heroine Aimei is actually a dark-skinned African, the daughter of an African chief. This setting also has nothing to do with the plot, it is purely for internationalization and internationalization. What is also unbelievable is that the African tribe where Ai Mei belongs to dance is actually the Oriental Moon Festival dance.
Xiao Chenxiang and Little Stone Monkey
heroine Gamei
In short, "Baolian Lantern" is an animated film with obvious advantages and disadvantages. In terms of commercial success, it is very successful. In 1999, 3 million people walked into the cinema to watch "Bao Lian Lan", and got a box office of 29 million yuan, while the total box office that year was only 810 million yuan. In terms of influence, it is also very successful. Chinese audiences finally understand that the audience of cartoons is not just children, but all age groups. The most attractive part of the movie back then was the many original soundtracks and theme songs. The three theme songs spread all over the streets.
However, after the "Baolian Lantern", Chinese animation films are silent again. We once thought that "Bao Lian Lan" would be the beginning of the rise of Chinese animation film again, but we did not expect it to be the afterglow of Chinese school animation. After this, the animation film of the Chinese animation school style never appeared. As a traditional animation fan, I hope that with the success of domestic animation films in recent years, more people can pay attention to Chinese animation, so that the traditional Chinese school of animation can rise again. The wick is immortal, but the country is still there.
The Baolian Lantern doll released in 1999
