Editor's note: It has been 20 years since the cartoon series "Big Ears Tutu" was aired. Since the third day of the Lunar New Year, Tutu, who is kind-hearted, energetic, loves to eat snacks, loves to think wildly, and has a pair of ears that attract wind and can move his ears, has returned to the classic channel to celebrate the New Year with TV viewers across the country.
weird pictures, where did the prototype come from? Why the image of attracting wind ears? After 20 years of continuous creation, why are Tutu’s stories loved by generations of children? What surprises will Big Ears Tutu bring to the audience in the future?
Let’s take a look at Su Da, the art director of Shanghai Art Film Studio Co., Ltd. and the director of “Big Ears Tutu”, who shares his experience in raising a baby from the perspective of Tutu’s mother.
2024 is the 20th anniversary of the premiere of the cartoon series "Big Ears Tutu" on CCTV. Time flies, my son Su Chang, the prototype of Tutu, will graduate from graduate school this year. Tutu in the animation is still the greedy, ignorant and warm innocent little boy, touching the children's joys, sorrows and joys and accompanying them as they grow. . Thanks to the love of viewers, big and small, nearly 200 episodes of "Big Ears Tutu" have repeatedly won the first place in the ratings of CCTV Children's Channel and the four major children's satellite TVs when it was broadcast on the TV station. The number of views on the Internet exceeded 4 billion. Covering nearly 300 million viewing users. The animated films "Big Ears Tutu: Food Rhapsody" and "Big Ears Tutu: Tyrannosaurus Rex in Action" were also released one after another, and were screened in theaters across the country and launched on video platforms, winning the favor of Tutu fans.
This is how the image of Tutu was born
When I first started creating "Big Ear Tutu", my son was about the same age as Tutu. When my son was growing up, I recorded some interesting things that often happened and wisecracks that made adults laugh. Every time I read those children's words, I still laugh out loud. So I came up with the idea of using my son as a prototype to create a childlike life in reality. Through the introduction of Sister Xiaohe, the host of Shanghai's "Happy Jumping" column, I met Teacher Dingdang, the planner and screenwriter of their crew. The two of us hit it off immediately, and "Big Ear Tutu" began to take shape.
Many interesting things in the script really happened to my son. For example, one episode in which Tutu participates in "Happy Jump" is based on the real experience of his son. Another example is "Tutu Gets Goat Sore", which is also the story of his son. Of course, it is more about recreating the interesting things happening to the children around me.
With the source of the story, there must also be a styling design. I asked outside designers to try out several styles, but none of them were suitable. In addition, there was a lack of incubation funds at the time, so I asked my father to help me design a series of images of Big Ear Tutu. Because his son had an ear for wind when he was young, he painted Hu Tuhua with big ears. In fact, his father, Su Tae-hee, was a famous children's painter (now called an illustrator) as early as the 1980s and 1990s. He has drawn illustrations and comic strips with unique folk characteristics and rich color of the times for major children's magazines across the country. In the early 1990s, the director of Shanghai Art Film Studio approached my father and asked him to serve as the art designer for "Cube Mansion" and the puppet film "Little Goose and the Red House".
The summer when I first stepped through the door of the American Film Studio, I got the admission notice for the animation major of the Fine Arts Department of the Beijing Film Academy. Before going to Beijing to go to school, my father took me to explore the mysteries of fine art film creation. From then on, I formed an indissoluble bond with this animation holy land. My university teachers Qian Yunda (director of "The Legend of the Book of Heaven", "The Adventures of the Sloppy King" and "Little Sisters of the Heroic Grassland"), Pu Jiaxiang (who participated in "The Proud General" ”, “Havoc in Heaven”, “Nezha in the Sea” and other film creations) all come from Meiying Studio. After I started working, I was fortunate enough to become an employee of Meiying Studio, and I even got the new name of Tutu Mama on my creative journey.
This cartoon was created by three generations of a family. After years of hard work, it has not only gained the love of children and parents, but also attracted the attention of more adult audiences who miss their innocent childhood. It has also been recognized by industry experts.The cartoon series "Big Ear Tutu" won the 11th Five-One Project for Spiritual Civilization Construction, the Best Animation TV Film Award at the First Animation Award of the Chinese Culture and Art Government Award, the National Television Starlight Award, the Golden Eagle Award, the Magnolia Award, etc. With 26 important honors, Tutu animation film won the 31st China Golden Rooster Award for Best Art Film, the 14th China Animation Golden Dragon Award Bronze Award, China International Comic Expo Dynamic Golden Sheep Excellence Award and other honors.
The changes and changes in Tutu over the past 20 years
can be selected into the newly launched classic revisiting channel, and will be broadcast as one of the first batch of classic animations together with "Havoc in Heaven" and "Little Tadpole Looking for Mom", "Big Ear Tutu" All the creators are extremely proud and grateful! Although the creative process spans more than 20 years, Tutu still maintains high market awareness and strong development momentum. We believe this has a lot to do with the constant changes and changes that everyone has insisted on over the past 20 years.
First of all, the creative concept of inheriting and promoting traditional Chinese culture remains unchanged. The story of "Big Ear Tutu" is the epitome of the Chinese modernization process, and the actual creation is inseparable from the soil of China's traditional culture and folk culture. In terms of art design, we take rooted modernity as the creative concept and design figures with different shapes but unified styles, emphasizing the form of clumsiness admired in Chinese folk art, that is, wisdom can be seen in clumsiness, interest can be found in clumsiness, inheritance and harmony Innovate the cultural core of the Chinese animation school, promote the aesthetic taste of the Chinese nation, and let children be influenced by Chinese culture from an early age. In terms of dubbing, we pursue life-like and Chinese characteristics, and use voice performances to supplement and enhance the picture. The creative team hopes that "Big Ears Tutu" will be a down-to-earth reality-themed animation, and hopes to create new expressions in the new era under the nourishment of the artistic source of Meiying.
The second is that the core theme of the children's perspective remains unchanged. The animation content of "Big Ear Tutu" is humorous and humorous, focusing on children's spiritual growth, family harmony, and the harmonious development of society and the times. We believe that if we put down our adult pretensions and look up through the eyes of children, we can see an unexpectedly vast world. Children's innocence and unrestrainedness make this world more interesting, more wonderful, and more colorful than the world that adults are familiar with. We have always tried to explore and show the humorous and pure inner world of children, which makes our animations not only loved by children, but also memorable and enlightening for adults.
The third is how to seek change while remaining unchanged. In addition to the unchanged core concept, Tutu is also constantly seeking innovation and change in its creation. Over the past 20 years, "Big Ear Tutu" has always paid attention to the reactions of all walks of life to the works, so as to continuously enrich the story content and expand the expression carrier with the changes of the times and the development of the market. While completing five series of cartoons with a total of 130 episodes, the 60-episode three-dimensional early childhood education series "Tutu's Wisdom Kingdom Mathematics Series" was launched in 2013 and 2014, giving full play to the characteristics of entertaining and entertaining in terms of content and exploring technology in terms of content. The expression of three-dimensional animation.
In 2017, the first animated film "Big Ear Tutu: Food Rhapsody" took 5 years to produce. While continuing the consistent scatter-point perspective animation style, the film takes individuals and families as the starting point for creative themes, showing hot social issues about food safety, expanding the depth of realistic themes and linkage with social development; in the animation presentation The graphics, music, special effects, etc. have been comprehensively upgraded, nearly 300 characters and more than 200 scene design drawings have been designed, and a Shanghainese version has also been released. In 2021, the second animated film "Big Ears Tutu: Tyrannosaurus Rex in Action" continues the creative direction of observing reality, focusing on the issues of elderly care and companionship for lonely elderly people, deeply embodying the positive values of everyone giving love and warming the big family, There were laughter, tears and touching, using innocent childlike innocence to awaken attention and care for the elderly, showing the children's selfless love and sense of responsibility. In the future, Tutu's series will continue to be created. The script creation of the third animated film "Big Ear Tutu's Dream Return to Red Cliff" has been completed. We hope that colleagues who like Tutu will give us more support and help so that it can be born as soon as possible.
In my eyes, cartoons have never been a child's play, but a long-term career that carries a sense of responsibility for the future development of a generation. A lot of the initial education a person receives comes from the cartoons he or she watches. Cartoons are responsible for enlightening the values of life and guiding aesthetics. Therefore, high-quality cartoons must not only convey China's excellent traditional culture, but also absorb excellent cultures and technologies from various countries, and also reflect high-grade aesthetic choices. Only with this kind of awareness can we go far in this field. Although this road is not easy, with this enthusiasm, courage and sense of responsibility, we are willing to continue to explore, try and break through the boundaries between tradition and modernity, and create more works full of innocence and fun for children and adults. , nourishing and warming people's hearts.
(The author is the art director of Shanghai Art Film Studio Co., Ltd.)
The cartoon series "Big Ear Tutu" won the 11th Five-One Project for Spiritual Civilization Construction, the Best Animation TV Film Award at the First Animation Award of the Chinese Culture and Art Government Award, the National Television Starlight Award, the Golden Eagle Award, the Magnolia Award, etc. With 26 important honors, Tutu animation film won the 31st China Golden Rooster Award for Best Art Film, the 14th China Animation Golden Dragon Award Bronze Award, China International Comic Expo Dynamic Golden Sheep Excellence Award and other honors.
The changes and changes in Tutu over the past 20 years
can be selected into the newly launched classic revisiting channel, and will be broadcast as one of the first batch of classic animations together with "Havoc in Heaven" and "Little Tadpole Looking for Mom", "Big Ear Tutu" All the creators are extremely proud and grateful! Although the creative process spans more than 20 years, Tutu still maintains high market awareness and strong development momentum. We believe this has a lot to do with the constant changes and changes that everyone has insisted on over the past 20 years.
First of all, the creative concept of inheriting and promoting traditional Chinese culture remains unchanged. The story of "Big Ear Tutu" is the epitome of the Chinese modernization process, and the actual creation is inseparable from the soil of China's traditional culture and folk culture. In terms of art design, we take rooted modernity as the creative concept and design figures with different shapes but unified styles, emphasizing the form of clumsiness admired in Chinese folk art, that is, wisdom can be seen in clumsiness, interest can be found in clumsiness, inheritance and harmony Innovate the cultural core of the Chinese animation school, promote the aesthetic taste of the Chinese nation, and let children be influenced by Chinese culture from an early age. In terms of dubbing, we pursue life-like and Chinese characteristics, and use voice performances to supplement and enhance the picture. The creative team hopes that "Big Ears Tutu" will be a down-to-earth reality-themed animation, and hopes to create new expressions in the new era under the nourishment of the artistic source of Meiying.
The second is that the core theme of the children's perspective remains unchanged. The animation content of "Big Ear Tutu" is humorous and humorous, focusing on children's spiritual growth, family harmony, and the harmonious development of society and the times. We believe that if we put down our adult pretensions and look up through the eyes of children, we can see an unexpectedly vast world. Children's innocence and unrestrainedness make this world more interesting, more wonderful, and more colorful than the world that adults are familiar with. We have always tried to explore and show the humorous and pure inner world of children, which makes our animations not only loved by children, but also memorable and enlightening for adults.
The third is how to seek change while remaining unchanged. In addition to the unchanged core concept, Tutu is also constantly seeking innovation and change in its creation. Over the past 20 years, "Big Ear Tutu" has always paid attention to the reactions of all walks of life to the works, so as to continuously enrich the story content and expand the expression carrier with the changes of the times and the development of the market. While completing five series of cartoons with a total of 130 episodes, the 60-episode three-dimensional early childhood education series "Tutu's Wisdom Kingdom Mathematics Series" was launched in 2013 and 2014, giving full play to the characteristics of entertaining and entertaining in terms of content and exploring technology in terms of content. The expression of three-dimensional animation.
In 2017, the first animated film "Big Ear Tutu: Food Rhapsody" took 5 years to produce. While continuing the consistent scatter-point perspective animation style, the film takes individuals and families as the starting point for creative themes, showing hot social issues about food safety, expanding the depth of realistic themes and linkage with social development; in the animation presentation The graphics, music, special effects, etc. have been comprehensively upgraded, nearly 300 characters and more than 200 scene design drawings have been designed, and a Shanghainese version has also been released. In 2021, the second animated film "Big Ears Tutu: Tyrannosaurus Rex in Action" continues the creative direction of observing reality, focusing on the issues of elderly care and companionship for lonely elderly people, deeply embodying the positive values of everyone giving love and warming the big family, There were laughter, tears and touching, using innocent childlike innocence to awaken attention and care for the elderly, showing the children's selfless love and sense of responsibility. In the future, Tutu's series will continue to be created. The script creation of the third animated film "Big Ear Tutu's Dream Return to Red Cliff" has been completed. We hope that colleagues who like Tutu will give us more support and help so that it can be born as soon as possible.
In my eyes, cartoons have never been a child's play, but a long-term career that carries a sense of responsibility for the future development of a generation. A lot of the initial education a person receives comes from the cartoons he or she watches. Cartoons are responsible for enlightening the values of life and guiding aesthetics. Therefore, high-quality cartoons must not only convey China's excellent traditional culture, but also absorb excellent cultures and technologies from various countries, and also reflect high-grade aesthetic choices. Only with this kind of awareness can we go far in this field. Although this road is not easy, with this enthusiasm, courage and sense of responsibility, we are willing to continue to explore, try and break through the boundaries between tradition and modernity, and create more works full of innocence and fun for children and adults. , nourishing and warming people's hearts.
(The author is the art director of Shanghai Art Film Studio Co., Ltd.)
