The influential children’s literature work "The Big Monster in the Forbidden City" recently met the audience in the form of cartoons. Fresh audio-visual presentation makes children’s understanding of traditional culture more intuitive and interesting.
Author: Ye Xiao
There was a change in the imperial garden, and Li Xiaoyu, an 11-year-old girl, broke into the fantasy world hidden in the Forbidden City under the guidance of the newly found gem.
In this fantasy world, all the animals and immortals on the eaves, railings and murals in the Forbidden City are "alive", and Li Xiaoyu’s fantasy adventure begins in the Forbidden City.
On July 30th, the animated film "The Secret of the Big Monster Cave in the Forbidden City" jointly produced by Penguin Film, Force Animation and Kaizhile was launched in Tencent Video.
The Secret of the Light Gem in the Cave of the Big Monster in the Forbidden City is adapted from the novel of the same name. The original work has a wide influence in children’s literature and won many awards. It was selected by the relevant departments to recommend 100 excellent publications to young people all over the country. Being animated this time is an important step for this IP in film and television.
What "monsters" will children encounter on their adventure in the vast Forbidden City? How much imagination does the square inch bring to the creator?
Real people +CG, innovative animation expression
When Li Xiaoyu broke into the world of god beast, the little actor turned into a cartoon image, and the surrounding scene had a sense of history in an instant.
One hall and one eaves, one flower and one tree in the Forbidden City are lifelike; The image of the god beast is cute or handsome. At this time, the barrage message from the audience floated from time to time, "exquisite modeling, fantastic story".
The production mode of "real person +CG" is a new trend of international animation production. The Secret of the Light Gem in the Cave of the Big Monster in the Forbidden City adopts this mode, which makes the story have a stronger sense of substitution. In terms of art design, it not only retains the appearance characteristics of the original scene, but also blends into the fantasy sense of the world of beasts; In story presentation, the characteristics of live-action dramas and cartoons are organically combined to bring a new impression of "truth and illusion" to young audiences.
At the same time, in the animation part, "The Secret of the Big Monster Cave in the Forbidden City" flexibly switches between two-dimensional and three-dimensional, and enriches the expression content with multiple presentation forms. Stylistically, Chinese painting and other national elements are included, and the freehand brushwork of ink painting makes the picture more oriental.
This way of presentation is also helpful in narrative-with the help of Li Xiaoyu, Chef Huang recalls his grandfather’s teaching of cooking skills when he was a child, and God of War Tianma recalls his initial intention to protect Tianyi City … These fragments in the form of traditional Chinese painting make the story vividly distinguish between the present and the memories.
Under the exquisite "packaging", the image created by the film is also quite innovative. From the current broadcast content, on the basis of the original work, The Secret of the Light Gem in the Cave of the Big Monster in the Forbidden City has strengthened the psychological characteristics of children in audio-visual presentation.
Pear flower, a palace cat, is a "person-made" who wears a needle and leads a thread. She claims to be a reporter of the Forbidden City, and her personality is humorous and her actions are often hilarious. Phoenix, the god beast, as one of the "elders" in the world of god beasts, will also secretly chase dramas in his spare time. The setting of "contrast" makes children closer to traditional culture. In addition, the spine beasts such as arrogance, kissing beast, mocking wind and Tianma also have their own personality characteristics. With the promotion of the guarding task, the stories that happened on different beasts have aroused the curiosity of small audiences more and more … Close to children’s cognitive characteristics and grasp children’s psychological characteristics, The Secret of the Big Monster’s Cave in the Forbidden City is full of childlike innocence and fun.
Teaching through fun and spreading traditional culture.
In the first episode of "The Secret of the Big Monster Cave in the Forbidden City", Li Xiaoyu’s drama club went to the Forbidden City to rehearse. One of the students asked "Why do you want to rehearse in the Forbidden City on a hot day?" Another student replied "This is an immersive drama performance."
Immersion is also the atmosphere created by this cartoon, which is more conducive to the small audience to understand traditional culture. Tianyimen, Imperial Garden, Broken Hongqiao, Eighteen Huai … The production team selected many landscapes of the Forbidden City for design, which not only showed the style of the Forbidden City, but also facilitated the children’s audience to immerse themselves in it.
As an important representative of Chinese traditional culture, the Forbidden City undoubtedly has a lot of room to tell.
Not only the statue of the ridgeback on the glazed tile, but also the flowers and trees in the Forbidden City all contain the value for children to understand deeply. For this reason, The Secret of the Light Gem in the Cave of the Big Monster in the Forbidden City skillfully runs through these traditional cultures, such as the rehearsal of the drama club, which leads to the story of sealing a cypress tree as a shade when Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River.
To tell children about traditional culture, we should pay attention to the details and explain it in simple terms.
At the end of the 10-minute feature film, the production team set up a "Pear Blossom Classroom" at the end of the film to popularize the knowledge points involved in the episode: the appearance difference between "Tianma" and "Hippo" in the Twelve Ridges beast, and how to find the image of the Twelve Zodiacs in Duixiu Mountain …
While popularizing traditional culture, The Secret of the Big Monster Cave in the Forbidden City also conveys positive value to children through stories.
In the "God beast world", the kissing beast said that Li Xiaoyu can often be seen; Back to reality, Li Xiaoyu suddenly realized when he saw the statue of the kissing beast again, and then said, "Don’t talk nonsense again.". Stories and characters establish a connection between reality and fantasy, and also describe the two-way guardian of god beast and human beings, which is the basic narrative logic of the story, and the guardian and inheritance are the humanistic significance contained in it.
On the other hand, in Li Xiaoyu’s fantasy adventure journey, such as kissing the beast as a brother and Yang Yongle, a teenager who is also a teacher and friend, all give the friendship power to dispel negative emotions with goodwill and faith. From this perspective, the film is also a story of the growth of young girls.
And what changes have taken place in the growth? This is also constantly presented with the development of the story. Li Xiaoyu, who had a slight inferiority complex, also realized nourishment in the process of helping the god beast, and bravely expressed his views to the teacher in drama class. With traditional culture as the cultivation, children’s new vitality and creativity are stimulated, and cartoons encourage children to learn courage, responsibility and love through entertaining.
Let the imagination fly, but it fits children’s psychology. The Secret of the Light Gem in the Cave of the Big Monster in the Forbidden City is an interesting and innovative expression with wonderful visual effects and ingenious links, which moistens things and silently exports traditional culture to small audiences. While emphasizing the dissemination of knowledge, the film also strengthens personal feelings, so that the positive value conveyed can subtly cultivate children’s hearts.
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