John UM
On December 21, 1937, the first color animated feature film “Snow White” was released in the United States. This animation cost a lot of money, making Disney’s debts high and the effect is surprisingly good. It has enabled Disney to break away from huge debts and also created Disney’s century-long cinema hegemony. However, in this piece of joy, there are several discordant voices refuting and questioning
A lot of suspicions come from Disney’s competitors. Because in the era of “Snow White”, no animation company dared to make such an animated feature film. It is too sophisticated and too expensive to burn. It is almost like a vast project. In this process, every dedicated original painter has tried his best – what are they like? Worker? Anyway, it’s not an artist. Other studios who use animation as an art to run are dismissive of Disney
However, a great man said well, “The people love it, you don’t like it, how old are you?” Disney succeeded, and it brought the exquisite masterpieces to the audience one after another, and put animated films. Since then, it has become an animated film industry, and has trained generations of employees. The Disney model sweeps the low-productivity artist model into the garbage of history
Time turned and came to Japan in the 1950s. After the war, Japan was full of waste, Disney’s blockbuster mode, and Toei also wanted to learn. However, the cost of Disney’s model is too big, no one can imitate it
Of course, let’s take a look at the fact that the number of new programs that can be produced in each quarter in Japan is staggering, and sometimes the number of new programs in a quarter can be as high as 40. This scale is not necessarily the Disney tradition of “concentrating power to do big things.” So how did Japan build its animation industry? There was a man who appeared on the opposite side of Toei, and he called the handcuffs
When Tezuka Osamu made the animation of “Astro Boy”, it lowered the salary of the employees, and adopted the “limited animation” – that is, the mode of “can not draw the number of sheets without painting”, the upfront cost It was reduced to the lowest level and was brought to the candy company at the time as a sponsor. The animation made in this way is simply a broken animation in Toei. However, the huge gap in the field of TV animation at the time was waiting for the handcuffs to fill. “Astro Boy” was fired once, and the joint candy sale was promoted. Since then, the “limited animation” plus “sponsor” model has been established
But Japan is not a big place. There seems to be a big gap between this model and “40 animations in a quarter.” How is this gap filled?
In 1995, Da Yue Jun Lun made an animation to GAINAX, which is the famous “Evangelion”. Takino Hideo handed over the script of the six words. However, at this time, there was a problem. This animation, which was going to burn a lot of money, could not find a company that was willing to invest, so Da Yue Jun Lun had an idea – not as good as Let a number of companies participate in this animation to form a production committee. Everyone is spending money together to make money. Isn’t it beautiful? In this way, the first “animation committee” in history was born. Daeue Junlun has found a variety of companies, including long-form companies, TV stations, toy companies… Anyway, the companies around the company are looking for them
After the “New Evangelion” fire, these companies all earned a lot of money, and since then the “Animation Production Committee” has also entered the history of animation. As long as an animation can be fired, the company that sponsored it can earn its profits according to the agreement. An animation can be related to many companies. One person is not hungry, which is why today’s Japanese animation is so productive. The reason
From a materialistic point of view, from Disney’s animation industry model, to the sponsor of the Tezuka Osamu + limited animation mode, to the animation production committee, the essence is the interaction of productivity and production relations. Productivity always moves and develops in a certain production relationship. When it develops to a certain stage, it has a contradiction with the production relationship. The original production relationship changes from the form of productivity development to the development of productivity, and revolutionary changes will occur. The new production relationship that adapts to the development of productivity replaces the old production relationship. Perhaps, the problem of cheap Japanese painters and the loss of the ability to make large-scale animated films caused by the Tezuka Osamu mode will actually make Tezuka Osaru regret himself; Takino Hideo also believes that the production committee mode limits the creative freedom of the animators. However, since the contradiction has not yet reached the level of the outbreak, these two models are not yet outdated
The reason why I suddenly think of this topic is because in the past few days, another article of the ACG Institute published an opinion that the main reason for the domestic animation “sit-up” is not as good as the lack of a deep core, in culture. There is a lack of major competitiveness at the level, and I think this view has yet to be added. Because that article only criticizes the inertia of Guoman’s creative people at the ideological level, and does not pay attention to the need for innovation in the country’s production relations. Nowadays, Guo Man is not only difficult to produce an earth-shattering work, but also like the Dongying in the same year, relying on capital to post money, and wanting this road to work, we also come up with a handcuffs to control insects or Da Yuejun. Such a reformer can do it
(“White Snake”, Toei, 1958)