Film director Wes Anderson's films and stop-motion animations have a strong personal style and are full of metaphors (such as the wolf in "Fantastic Mr. Fox" / "Super Mr. Fox"), which can be compared with Wu in this regard. Dee Allen et al.
The last time he made a large number of cartoon puppet animal models, it can be traced back to "Life in the Water" in 2004. Similarly, the models appearing in "Super Mr. Fox" are as dynamic as "Life in the Water", and the actions of the doll models are particularly realistic. For example, after 22 minutes and 35 seconds of the movie, the action of the fox nephew and his classmates playing hockey is very powerful.
In terms of color, Wes is not the first director to favor high saturation and warm colors, nor is he the only one. The degree to which he uses and relies on high saturation is far less paranoid and violent than Jean-Pierre Genet's "Amelie" and Nakajima's "The Life of the Disgusted Matsuko", even weaker than Wong Kar-wai Some. For him, the color design is more of a kind of adjustment, bringing the audience a unique visual impact that is not too strong. In addition to personal preference, Wes's extensive use of strong colors also helps to highlight the drama of the story, that is, the audience can perceive the fictional quality of the story Wes tells through the color, and the "story" of the story. Through this technique, Weiss made it clear that in the process of constructing the story, he incorporated the elements of legend and fantasy, which is consistent with the absurdity of the plot and details.
When it comes to moving the mirror, Wes is a famous symmetry controller. The number of symmetrical compositions in the work is almost unparalleled. The symmetrical lens is like a signature to Wes. Seeing the clean and precise five-to-five picture is like seeing Wes's thin, cold, and temperament. Extraordinary face. It can be said that this is a style, or it can be simply understood as a perfectionist obsessive-compulsive disorder. No matter how you interpret it, the regular and coordinated pictures bring a visual impact that cannot be ignored. Although his pictures are always centered and symmetrical, the camera has been moving forward, whether it is the scene of the rabid dog chasing the father fox that moves like the CS game interface, or the scene of the nephew diving. Weiss finally breaks this balance by creating visual focus, creating a sense of balanced order, and infusing the imaginary with a sense of dynamism.
The dynamic sense of animation is also consistent in sound recording. Unlike the usual way of recording indoors, the director chose to go outside the studio: "We went into the forest, in the attic, in the stable, and we hid in the ground, and there were some great natural things in the recording. Stuff." These actors are almost acting as animals while speaking their lines. There is a magic attached to the sound of the film: even if you close your eyes, you can feel the flow of atmosphere in this scene.
In addition, Wes also likes to shoot objects from above, such as a book, a cake, a plate of newspapers in "Super Mr. Fox", etc., and even an ashtray (as in "Cross Darjeeling"). Again, this may just be Wes's personal preference for still lifes, but what I noticed was more of the refined, polished solemnity created in the shot after zooming in on the details.
The subtle design of each frame in "Super Mr. Fox", and even the texture of the fox's hair being blown in the wind, all show the fact that the biggest effect of Wes's design on the lens is to show that his film is not Shot by hand.
When the fox family and other animals were digging a tunnel to escape, there was a picture. The wall was a landscape painting drawn by mother fox, and it was also a topographic map of father fox. The two blackboards on the upper left were also painted on the wall, although it was difficult to achieve. It's not big, but Wes's little details really like it.
Weiss has placed countless metaphors in his work, including the "wolf" image that will be specifically mentioned later. These subtly wrapped contents by Wes greatly increase the thickness and interest of his works. Compared with purely technical features such as lighting color and shooting composition, Wes's ability to tell complex stories simple without compromising any shreds of complexity is even more admirable.
"Super Mr. Fox," an animated feature film adaptation of a children's story from a British author, is said to be the first storybook Wes read as a child. Wes has accomplished a remarkable feat in this animation, producing an animation that even a child can understand, yet lacks depth and detail. The most interesting thing in the animation is the names of the three villains in the story, which allude to the middle class in English, French and German respectively. In addition, the wolf in the desert at the end of the film is also a meaningful stroke.
In the first half of the film, there is a monologue from the fox father: "Why am I a fox? Not a horse, a beetle or a vulture? I'm speaking from an existential point of view, you know? Who am I? And a fox, If, please forgive my wording, how can it be happy if it doesn't have a chicken in its mouth?" Although he calls himself an existentialist, it is almost paradoxical that in the film, Daddy Fox takes a little bit of essentialism about himself. . He couldn't get rid of the fox's desire to hunt, just as the wolf couldn't get rid of the wolf's nature. Although Father Fox also realizes and establishes his "self" through continuous efforts, this "self" is more determined by the innate wildness, rather than an existence that precedes the essence. Compared with the more free and uncertain state of existentialism, and the "self" that is generated entirely through behavior, the "self" of father fox is more like a return to the nature that has been preset, and his practice, Nature also revolves around "return".
Daddy Fox has been wandering on the road of suppressing or trying to "get back his true nature". He has a stable life, a happy family, but still aspires to be "different." When commenting on the clothes of his brushing son, he also explained to the fox mother: "Maybe, he just wanted to look 'different'." The fox son seemed ordinary and had no features. There is no sense of existence, but he is always called different by his father. In the supermarket at the end of the film, the fox family drinks apple juice, but the fox son drinks grape juice. There are also tons of little details and metaphors in the film that are impossible to count. But it is worth mentioning that on the motorcycle that escaped from the human stronghold, the fox father also gave his son a headgear worthy of the "different". The "superego" displayed by the son in the process of understanding and saving his father and reconciling with his family is also in line with Freud's theory that the source of the "superego" is attributed to the family of origin.
Daddy Fox's swing between inhibition and indulgence reminds me of Freud's metapsychology. Freud believed that the history of man is the history of man's repression. In other words, the history of progress of human civilization is the history of the conquest of the principle of pleasure by the principle of reality (by delaying and suppressing gratification to achieve the greater good that meets the requirements of civilization). However, while Daddy Fox sacrifices the happiness of instant gratification for the safety of his family, the principle of pleasure is still engraved in his genes as an ancient memory. He has a fox-specific desire for destruction (hunting, killing), but as Freud expressed, the destructiveness of the death instinct is not for itself, but to relieve tension. Under the circumstance that the pleasure-only principle cannot be satisfied in time, and the tension brought about by repression is too great, Father Fox retreats to destruction and death. Eros and death are like electrons flowing in different directions, but their flow actually relieves the potential difference between "the pain that life must go through" and the "instinct to escape pain." Therefore, Daddy Fox always seems to be doing some dangerous and destructive things, destroying the property of the farmers regardless of the cost, but he does get the pleasure of releasing tension from it.
In the film, it is repeatedly emphasized that the father fox has "wolf fear". The wolf is a loner, pack animal, and this paradox of attributes is like the one that papa fox has encountered in his life. He must protect his family, but beyond his moral obligations, he cannot escape his fox nature. Father Fox's fear actually comes from the "wolf"'s freedom and unrestrainedness, and the reminder of his unfulfilled "nature" also comes from the demonstration of the necessity of repression: a wolf or a fox may enjoy being alone. life, but they are also burdened with obligations to other individuals (other wolves in the wolf pack, the family of the father fox), and they cannot enjoy themselves in time. So it can be said that this is a cruel and painful reminder of the inherent laws of life.
But maybe there is still moving, the moving that Fox Dad wrapped in tears is more existential than his "self": the tension that cannot be completely relieved, and the contradiction inherent in life, the principle of pleasure and the principle of reality Underneath, life is still full of faith and strength to break free from the cage. This is the original touching of the tragic background of life and its muscle texture, and it is also the purest touching.
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