"Dear Basketball": Oscar belongs to Kobe, but also we miss you

You did not leave, you just changed a place to continue playing basketball. @奈奈姐

On January 26, 2020, a tragedy occurred that shocked the world. The former NBA legend Kobe Bryant passed away in a helicopter crash at the age of 41. Many friends wake up from their sleep and still don't want to believe that this is true, and some netizens can't help but shed tears when finishing Kobe's photos. Yes, this big boy who loves basketball, Kobe, has been with so many people in his youth, how can people accept his sudden departure.

"Dear Basketball" is an animated short film written and dubbed by Kobe himself. It was inspired by a letter published by Kobe on The player&x60;s Tribune website on November 19, 2015, titled "Dear Basketball" (Dear basketball). In this letter, Bryant announced that he is about to retire after playing the 2015 and 2016 seasons. The letter also stated that he fell in love with basketball since he was six years old. He devoted his mind, body, soul and spirit to basketball without reservation. Although he wanted to continue playing, he couldn’t keep up with his body and was as firm as him. , And knew it was time to say goodbye. Thank you basketball for giving him a dream, and sincerely grateful for everything they gave to each other during this journey. This letter caused a huge response, because it was not only Kobe’s retirement declaration, but also expressed their love for basketball for those who love basketball, and also expressed their aspirations for all those who pursue their dreams.

"Dear Basketball", an animated short film directed by Glen Keane, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 23, 2017. The length is only 5 minutes and 22 seconds. Its plot is very simple. It tells a 6-year-old boy Kobe's love of basketball and his struggle and ultimate success on the basketball road. The main purpose of the original production was to play it at the home court of the Lakers where the Kobe Jersey retirement ceremony was held. However, he won the Best Animated Short Film at the 90th Academy Awards and the Best Animated Short Film at the 45th Animated Annie Award, with a Douban score of 8.0.

"Dear Basketball" won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film Award. It is very controversial. Many people think that this is just the result of Kobe’s celebrity effect and even some political factors, and this animated short film itself failed. To meet the Oscar requirements is a bit of a misnomer. However, I feel that although this film appears to be the performance of Kobe’s basketball career and dreams, it also contains a kind of inspirational belief in people’s dreams. The rough but smooth hand-painted lines show the difference of this film. Differences and subtleties. In this article, I will analyze why this movie won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film from four aspects: the love letter Kobe wrote to basketball, the animation method, the legendary production team, and the moral behind the movie.

01 "Dear Basketball" is a love letter written by Kobe Bryant to basketball. I love you and will never change

1. I love you since I was 6 years old and I am willing to dedicate my life to you

believe that even if you don’t like sports, Don't know basketball, but you will also know Kobe as a basketball superstar. His life can be said to have been accompanied and integrated with basketball. Kobe, who has fallen in love with basketball since the age of 6, has proved this with more than 30 years of time and practical actions. Basketball belongs to him, and he also belongs to basketball.

At the beginning of the film, we saw 6-year-old Kobe roll his father’s stockings into a basketball, fantasizing about shooting a winning goal on the court. From that moment on, he fell in love deeply. basketball. When he was growing up, every shot, every victory, every scrimmage, every scoring was he was responding to the call of basketball, and every game in return made Kobe feel basketball. Meaning in his life.

2, I use my results to repay your love

Kobe Bryant, a former American professional basketball player, nicknamed "Black Mamba", he played for his entire NBA career (1996-2016) NBA Los Angeles Lakers, is the son of former NBA player Joe Bryant. In 2007, ESPNSports reporters voted for the greatest shooting guard in history. As a result, Kobe ranked second only to Jordan. Kobe is a prolific scorer. He averaged 25 points per game in his career. He also had 5.2 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.4 steals. He was the first in NBA history to score 30,000 points and 6,000 assists. The player is also considered to be one of the most comprehensive players in the NBA.

On April 13, 2013, Bryant ruptured the Achilles tendon during the game, but he still insisted on finishing two free throws before leaving the field for treatment. Due to physical discomfort, the Lakers vs. Jazz on April 13, 2016 became Kobe's retirement game. In this game, Kobe led the team to a reverse victory and scored 60 points. Kobe used his actions and achievements to draw a successful end to his basketball career and also expressed his love for basketball.

"Do you know what Los Angeles looks like at four o'clock in the morning?" This is an inspirational quote Kobe talks about for people. Even after retiring for two years, Kobe still maintains the habit of getting up at 4 in the morning to practice. He loves basketball, but it's not just talking about it. He uses his actual actions to express his love.

No one can casually succeed, nor can Kobe. Behind the brilliance is not only the persistence of dreams, but also the unremitting efforts. This kind of tenacity is the most moving and inspirational thing in Kobe's bones. This "Dear Basketball" is also a summary of his basketball career. At this sad time, this film has also become Kobe's swan song. Seeing it, I can't help but heartache, and a generation of superstars has fallen.

02 The hand-drawn animation expression technique is the purest art in Kobe's heart, and it is also the highlight of this movie.

In fact, there are many ways of expressing cartoons, and the pursuit of extreme computer technology and fine graphics in animation short films today Compared with the exquisite character modeling, bright and colorful clothes, gorgeous background of Disney cartoons, and even the characters and animals in the movie, every hair and every pore can show all the details. But "Dear Basketball" does the opposite. It uses hand-drawn sketches to show the work. This short film is created by pencil sketching, with rough lines, bold brushstrokes, and distinctive features. It uses the simplest lines to show the best. Pure love, simple and direct, but touching people's hearts.

Kobe has his own understanding of the persistence of this shooting method. The reason why he insisted on making this film in a hand-painted style is because he thinks hand-painting is the purest art. And "Dear Basketball" expresses the purest love for basketball, showing the purest dream of Kobe's life, so dreams cannot take shortcuts, they must be stacked step by step, just like hand-painted. The scenes of

appearing in the film seem to be messy hand-painted drafts, including the hand-painted drafts shown by director Glen Keane in a later interview. Those lines like drafts show that Kobe is chasing his dreams. There are successes and failures, laughter and pain, which embodies a perfect and imperfect contrast, which is connected together through smooth lines to form a power display.

is the same as Kobe’s comment on this form of expression: “It’s very important to present by hand, because the essence of this movie is to construct a dream. You can’t skip the steps, you have to build it slowly, so this movie It must have such characteristics, perfect, imperfect, smooth lines, and the film must be able to show that feeling."

"Dear Basketball" perfectly demonstrates Kobe’s hope for this film, with the most seemingly Direct, primitive, simple, and crude animation expression methods convey to the audience the most simple dreams, down-to-earth persistence and struggle, which is also one of the main reasons for it to win the Oscar, express the purest in the most suitable way ideal.

03 Behind the classics is the perfect cooperation between the legendary partners, which is an indispensable and important factor for the success of this film.

1. The refinement in the details of the painting is the guarantee of the success of the work, drawn by the worst basketball players.The best basketball short film

"Dear Basketball" director Glen Keane is a famous American animator, writer and illustrator. Participated in the character production and creation of several classic Walt Disney animated feature films such as "The Little Mermaid", "Aladdin", "Beauty and the Beast", "Tarzan" and "Tangled". Won the 1992 Annie Award for Best Animated Character Award and the 2007 Winser McKay Award for Lifetime Contribution.

Glen Keane himself doesn’t know basketball. He faced a lot of challenges to turn Kobe’s every move into animation. He called "Dear Basketball" the "hardest animated short film" of all his works. , Every frame of the animation is a black and white sketch, except for it is filled with a little purple and gold. Purple gold represents the Lakers.

has a 5-second shot in this animation. This short 5-second shot requires 180 hand-drawn sketches. Because he didn't understand basketball, Keane carefully studied Kobe's movements from the beginning, drawing and observing every frame of action. By observing this frame after frame, Keane discovered how incredible Kobe's movements were, and he could even forcefully change direction in mid-air. Kobe has more stringent requirements on the details of the movie. He requires the posters in the animation to be exactly the same as the posters hung at home when he was a child, and every shot cannot be fictionalized. To show the scene of rolling his father’s socks and rolling the socks into a basketball when he was a child, Kobe really used the prepared socks to show the real scene at that time. After the video was taken, he started painting to ensure the true restoration.

is precisely this kind of strict requirements for painting details, which ensures that although the film is in the form of cartoons, it gives people a sense of authenticity. Don’t watch this film only have a short 5 minutes, but it takes time. It took 8 months to build. Keane jokingly said to Kobe: "You have found the worst basketball player to paint you." However, it was this "worst basketball player" who drew the best basketball short film and moved countless audiences.

2, even a short film requires exquisite music to be complete and excellent.

Although the time is short, the soundtrack of "Dear Basketball" makes people feel unforgettable, comfortable soundtrack, not overwhelming, perfect Fits the picture and Kobe's voice.

The musician and producer of this film is John Williams, a famous Hollywood soundtrack master, who has worked on "Schindler's List", "Saving Private Ryan", "Star Wars Series", "Jurassic Park" "," "Jaws", "Superman", "Harry Potter" many classic film soundtracks, a total of 49 Oscar nominations (including 5 best song nominations and 44 best soundtrack nominations), 5 awards, 18 nominations for Grammy Awards, 4 Golden Globe Awards, 7 British Academy Awards.

As a well-known musician, John Williams, like Keane, has never watched a professional basketball game and doesn't know much about basketball. But after he heard the "Dear Basketball" monologue read by Kobe, he was moved by Kobe and immediately interrupted the work of writing the soundtrack for "Star Wars" and quickly devoted himself to the work of the "Dear Basketball" soundtrack. He completed the soundtrack of "Dear Basketball" in only two weeks, and this is the first time he has scored a traditional animation film. But it is precisely because of his joining in the production that this animation has a perfect soundtrack and infused the soul of music into "Dear Basketball". Without him, there would be no Oscar for this movie.

It can be said that Gran Keane does not understand basketball, so he can study every movement of Kobe on the basketball court to the extreme and draw unparalleled effects. Coupled with the classic soundtrack of John Williams and Kobe's strict and meticulous requirements, the perfect cooperation of the three has created this classic swan song.

04 Only by understanding the meaning behind the movie, you can truly understand this movie, not forgetting the original intention, all the way

1, this is a movie that will grow up with you, and people of different ages will see that they are different From the age of 6 to adulthood, a short film condenses Kobe's insights

His entire basketball career. But this kind of growth will make people of different ages see different feelings.

2, never forget the original intention, along the way, Kobe has "dear basketball", what we have can belong to our "dear everything"

"dear basketball" short film can impress people, not Because it tells the glorious career of the legendary star Kobe, or to promote his great achievements to the fans, but in such a way to remind every audience what their dreams and original intentions are, and we are for ourselves What did the dream pay for?

"Dear Basketball" shows Kobe's love for basketball. Kobe has a basketball dream to accompany him since he was 6 years old, and he is willing to work hard for it. What about us? Looking back at our 6 years old, is there a dear dream to accompany us? Dear writing, dear drawing, dear engineer, etc. Just as the director Keane arranged the scenes of Kobe, a young man and a young man, to appear at the same time in the movie, precisely to express this. For Keane, his dream since he was a child is to become an animator, and he is also working hard for his beloved anime. Is the "Kobe" in this short film not himself?

is not just a short film about basketball, but also reminds the audience in this way. In fact, like Kobe, we also have a 6-year-old self who is full of ideals. Through hardship, many people have lost their original dreams and lost in the road of life. What we have to do now is to find the 6-year-old ourselves, the dream of 6-year-old, let it accompany us, and work hard with it, even if we cannot become Kobe, but we can enjoy ourselves as Kobe without reservation. Pursue the happiness of your dreams.

If you want to paint, you may not be a great painter, but now we can also pick up the pen and regain our childhood dreams and immerse ourselves in the joy of pursuing painting. I want to write, and regain the hope of childhood, and start to write about our own world, even if it is impossible to become a world craftsman in the literary world, but when we act, we enjoy the joy of pursuing dreams. This is not this book. Is the real purpose of the film?

Summary:

For this short film, many people think that there is nothing but feelings. Although the emotions are real, there are no bright spots. But I understood Kobe’s inner world from the smooth and rough lines. His love for basketball is just the simplest persistence and pursuit. Like these lines, they are simple but beautiful. The picture that made up Kobe today. Just never thought that this short film became Kobe's swan song, Kobe did not leave, just changed a place to play, I hope you continue to bloom your glory on the basketball court in heaven.