The first time I watched "Baby Bao" was in the movie theater, and "Baby Bao" was a screening of "The Incredibles 2". At that time, I didn't know about the existence of Jiaying, and my friends once questioned that I had gone to the wrong place. The two of them compared the movie tickets for a long time, and almost went out to find the movie hall again.
Watching "Baby Bao" in the cinema was not a pleasant experience, because I wanted it to end quickly and I watched "The Incredibles", and the only impression of it was that a woman actually ate her "son". When I watched it again, I realized that I almost missed a good animated short.
"Baby Bao" makes it clear from the very beginning that this is a story that takes place in China. The content of the animation has not yet caught your eye, and the background music full of Chinese style is first heard with the logos of Disney and Pixar; in addition to the music, there are a series of sounds such as the collision of tableware and chopsticks. Then the picture slowly unfolded. It was a set of close-up shots of buns, which completely showed the whole process of buns, which not only showed that this was a Chinese story, but also implied the relevance of buns and stories. The tones are warm tones with relatively high saturation, coupled with the brisk Chinese-style music throughout the whole process, paving the way for the warm direction of the story.
The subtitle design of the title is also very interesting. Mom opened the window and looked out the window. The subtitle appeared in the sky.
When Dad and Mom were eating buns, it was a panorama shot with a fixed lens and a flat angle, and the composition of the picture was very balanced, with Dad on the left, Mom on the right, and a table in the middle. Fixed flat angle and panoramic view, not only here, but also in many scenes in the film (such as showing Bao Baobao and mother's daily activities), which objectively shows the life of a family and the environment in which the characters are located, which also makes the filming. The audience does not have too much emotional color, and looks at this daily story from an objective point of view with a sense of alienation.
There are very few close-up shots of the characters in the movie. One is when the mother bites the bun and Bao Bao makes a sound, the camera turns to a close-up to show her consternation, and after the bun turns into a bun, it turns to the bun. The surprised and caring look of the baby. One is a close-up of Mom's wide-eyed when she sees Bao Jing having sex with a foreign girlfriend and showing her her ring. In a film dominated by mid-panorama, the sudden appearance of close-up shots further makes people feel the mood of the characters at the moment.
When the film shows the contradictions and opposites of the characters, it is mostly expressed in the cool and warm colors. When Mom realized something was wrong with her relationship with Bao Jing, her solution was to cook a big meal. After the meal is ready, mother's color in the dining room is still warm colors composed of yellow and red, while Bao Jing's color at the door of the bedroom is a cool color composed of green wallpaper and blue carpet; mother's side There is light, and Bao Jing is in a shadow. One warm, one cold, one light and one dark, alludes to the contradictions and conflicts between the relationship between the two. After Bao Jing learned to wear sunglasses on a friend's sports car and became a "rock Bao Jing", her mother was alone in the cool light of the TV, eating cooked meals. Although she could not see her mother's expression, the color and light changed. Her mood was conveyed.
Bao Jing wants to marry a foreign girlfriend. When he moved out of the house, the conflict between his mother and Bao Jing reached a climax, and she also ate Bao Jing in a fit of rage. When the mother and Bao Baobao were arguing, the shooting method of the mother was taken upside down, which showed the hugeness of the mother to Bao Jing and the sense of control that made Bao Jing feel oppressed. After her mother realized that she had eaten Baojing, she was plunged into endless sadness and remorse. At this time, the door frame and the wall on the other side form a frame, and the mother is in the center of this frame. Because of the shadows on both sides and the elongated vertical screen space, it gives a sense of peeping, and the color of the position where the mother is is gradually darkened. Black seemed to be pressing on her body, and there was a sense of punishment.
Until Bao Baobao reappears, the mother is in the shadows, and the father is standing outside the door looking at the mother on the bed in the bedroom, forming the front and back scenes, the foreground is the mother who is in self-blame, the background is the worried father, and the background scene The sound of the door opening, hinting at the turning point of the story. A larger shadow of Bao Jing appeared on the wall. After the real relationship between Bao Baobao and his mother eased, as Bao Baobao turned on the lights, the picture gradually began to return to warm colors.
In addition to those mentioned above, this animated film is also quite interesting in the setting of the characters. The son suddenly appeared in the image of a steamed bun, and the mother was surprised to find that her steamed bun had become a sperm, as if to imply the suddenness of a woman's role as a mother. In Chinese context, describing a person as a steamed bun is almost derogatory, referring to cowardice and weakness in character. The son has always been a bun in front of the mother, which also implies the mother's attitude towards the son - excessive protection, extreme desire for control. The son is a small bun, and the mother is a huge human being to the son. It also shows the difference in status, and it is especially obvious when the mother and son are arguing.
Perhaps the large number of flat-angle panoramic shots in the movie are also to express as much as possible, so that people can think about the lives that most of us experience from an objective point of view.
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