Watching the "villain" in the game are always dissatisfied with being bad guys and entangled, watching Sangilf, Pac-Man, zombies, and Kuba sitting around and spitting bitterness, "Invincible Destruction King" provides a brand new The perspective of nostalgia, awakening us children in the era of red and white machine.
[Nostalgia with games] In
recent years, nostalgia has become more and more intense, and neither the fashion world nor the cultural world has a tendency to dissipate. Therefore, Disney, which has nearly a century of cultural accumulation, has launched an arcade game-themed movie, which is actually very suitable. In fact, when the red and white camera was just popular in the 1980s, Disney had already intended to shoot related films, and officially established the project, and named it "High Score Touchdown". In the 1990s, the name was changed to "Joe Jump" during the discussion. ", but the project is still at the bottom of the box. In the 3D era, animation shooting technology has changed for several eras. This story about the game has only formally taken shape. From being used for scenes to now being used for nostalgia, it is more in line with the appetite of mainstream audiences today. The children accompanied by, Contra, and Super Mario have grown up. They have just reached the nostalgic age and are willing to enter the theater and smile at the big screen with tears of nostalgia for childhood.
Similar to "The Nutcracker" and "Toy Story", "Invincible Destruction King" itself also creates an unknown night game world. In a large game hall, each machine serves its own players who come and go during the day. In the evening, everyone gathered in the lobby through the communication line to communicate with each other and drop in. But even at night, the villain in each game was still squeezed out by everyone, which caused the "Destruction King Ralph" to cross to other games to win medals and seek A publicly recognized story. Although this kind of background setting is not new, it involves many familiar game characters, so there are many eggs-in the "bad guys mutual aid club" at the beginning of the film, we see Sangilf, "Street Fighter", A series of familiar faces in memory such as Dr. Egghead in "Sonic the Hedgehog", Big Demon King Kuba in "Super Mario", zombies in "Death House", and Scythe Monster in "Dungeon Guardian", etc. Circle, in the scene of "Pac-Man", the ghost Clyde presided over everyone's worries about being a villain; Ralph complained to the bartender in the "Bartender" scene, and then looked through the box to find the "Super Mario" Mushrooms, the exclamation mark in "Metal Gear Solid", the panties of a certain "Street Fighter"; "Q Bert" begs for dinner in the game hall, and everyone looks forward to the appearance of Super Mario at the 30th anniversary celebration of "Quick Hand Ash"... even the Candy King opens The password of the background program is "up, down, down, left, right, left, right, BA OK". Who has never used it to bring up 30 lives in Contra?
Compared with these dazzling supporting roles, our protagonists-Ralph, Ash, Captain, and Winnie are all original. "Quick Ash", "Heroic Mission" and "Sweet Sprint" are not real games. . "Kaishou Ashiu" is inspired by the red and white game "Donkey Kong", where there is also a big violent villain destroying the house, climbing to the top of the building, and fighting against good people; "Sweet Sprint" is reminiscent of "Running." "Karting" is a competitive game developed for girls, but the racing game is really an old classic of red and white machines. The role of Winnie is the director’s inspiration after seeing the autobiography of the female star Sarah Swarman, except immediately Constructed the image of Winnie, and directly used Sara Svman to dub the character, giving full play to her exaggerated, sharp and extremely joyful special sound quality; as for the very dazzling "Heroic Mission", of course it is also a regular shooting The adaptation of the game, but the captain was originally envisioned as a man, and later changed to a strong woman, and a romance between Ash and her was arranged. In order to make the three virtual games appear more real and make the entire game world more believable, director Rich Moore therefore decided to "must see the real game characters in it", and the result was out of control.
Before the story takes shape and the film is officially produced, the most troublesome part of the main creator is how to reasonably appear in various scenes of the real game characters, how more interesting, and even more exciting. They made a long list, but at that time Did not consider whether they can use these characters, fortunately for Disney and Nintendo, a pair of good friends, copyright issues are not a big issue. As the script took shape, Disney also began to negotiate copyright licenses with game copyright holders (mostly Nintendo). The "Super Mario" brothers did not appear in the movie in the end, which is a great pity for fans of nostalgic games. The official response of the producer was that they did not find a suitable plot for them, but the outside world has always been Nintendo’s There are rumors that the main character’s licensing fee has been costly, and the director naturally denies it. He explained that it was just a joke made by John C. Riley in the comic show and was distorted. Nevertheless, a total of 188 large and small game characters appeared in the "Invincible Destruction King" movie, giving us a feast of nostalgia. There are still beads like Dr. Wily in "Rockman" originally in the movie. Yes, but it was cut off in the end. The movie’s most secret tribute to the gaming era takes place in the image of the game hall owner-his black and white striped shirt comes from the most exposed photo of Twin Galaxies chairman Walter Dai. As for the Twin Galaxies industry Players who are familiar with the game industry probably know the identity of the big boss-it is called "the official scoreboard of the electronic entertainment industry since 1981", which records almost all e-sports rankings in the world.
In the early stage of film production, the director also considered keeping all the characters in the original pixel image. For example, the protagonist Ralph is an 8-bit pixel character, but later felt that it was not vivid enough. We can also imagine a fuzzy color block character, even diagonally. If you can’t, how can you move freely and be likable in a 3D movie? However, there are indeed many 8-bit pixel competitive images in the movie, which can evoke feelings when used for embellishment, but in the eyes of producer Clark Spencer, this is also the most interesting part of the movie: "We are in a cause Work in a world-class studio with innovation and excellence in art. Therefore, it is necessary to tell those talents who are using their lives to create the most sophisticated and complex animations. Kuaishou Axiu and Destruction King are a video game of the 1980s, so they must be as much as possible. Simple design and production, what a headache!” A group of animators adhering to the top and complex professionalism, but in the CG environment to make a group of 8-bit pixel pictures, trying to make the simplest The villain moves up and down according to the grid. Thinking about it, people can't help but laugh. "Rough" and "retro" have cost them a lot of effort, and the complexity has become a real innovation in this era of flying CG. Compared with the rough 8-bit pixel style of "Kaishou Ashiu", the modern "Hero Mission" is a surreal dark world, which is the most perfect and spectacular part of the movie's 3D style. The "Sweet Sprint" that occupies most of the film's time is a sweet world with a Japanese cartoon style. It is also the focus of the studio. In order to present the "Sweet Sprint" world, the visual team was sent to observe the German Cologne candy. As well as the snack food exhibition, the "See's Candy" chocolate factory in San Francisco, USA, and many other related industries, I also met many food photographers in close proximity to study the whole process of the birth of food. Therefore, the movie pays homage to childhood, in addition to a lot of real games, there are also a lot of real candies. For example, the names of the two doughnut policemen Wynnchel and Duncan are derived from the two large doughnut chain stores in the United States "Winchell's Donut House" and " Dunkin' Donuts".
Moreover, unlike the traditional dubbing method of ordinary cartoons, each actor records his own part separately. The dubbing of "Invincible Destruction King" allows the actors to concentrate in a recording studio at the same time, so it can achieve precision and high Emotions, many super-standard improvisations, are also the result of actors working together with each other.
With the release of the movie, Disney also took advantage of the heat, first launched the flash game "Kaishou Ashiu", and then officially launched the Nintendo Wii, 3DS and DS versions by the company’s interactive department and the US Activision. The content is also an extension of the movie’s plot. You can freely choose to play as "Destruction King Ralph" or "Quick Hand Ash", because both destruction and repair are a test. The two games "Sweet Sprint" and "Hero Mission" will also be launched one after another, and correspondingly, iPhone, iPod, iPad and Android versions will be added.
[Counter-attack Pixar]
During the filming, a small character in "Invincible Destruction King" was designed to look like John Lasseter, but was not included in the movie in the end. John Lasseter, the famous Pixar leader, used "Toy Story", "Bugs" and "Cars Story" to establish half of Pixar's world. Now he is also the CEO of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios. This time I also served as the producer of "Invincible Destruction King". If his image appears in the movie again, 80% of the audience will be more inclined: "Invincible Destruction King" is a Pixar work, right?
To be honest, the elements of this film are too "Pixar". The scene of the "bad guys" in the opening circle of mutual aid associations, the behavior of setting up easter eggs everywhere, and the world setting of the game series are simply Pixar's consistent housekeeping skills. Speaking of the original movie concept, the director once mentioned that “the characters in video games have no free will. Sad reminder. You are assigned to do one job, and you can only do this job—but what if you don’t like it?” So Ralph was tired of being a "bad guy" for 30 years and wanted to use the medal to rectify his name. "System Vulnerability", Winnie wants to stand up and prove herself, and the monster in "Monster Company" who specializes in scaring children accidentally brings the little girl back to the monster world, triggering a series of warmth, and even the elderly in "Flying House" will realize their dreams. , There is a sense of similarity in the same way—innovation, rebellion, love and courage bred from the same rebellion, are the values of Pixar in the same line. On the other hand, Pixar’s new work "Legend of Bravery" this year is very "Disney"-the tribal princess has a naughty and capable personality, and cannot withstand the queen’s and mother’s requirements of being a "princess fan." The potion that came to change unexpectedly turned my mother into a bear. In the process of searching for the antidote, the mother and daughter gradually understood each other and finally reached a tender reconciliation...Traditional and even outdated fairy tale materials are everywhere, compared to The grass-roots characters in the past also had to seek dreams, from the bottom of the sea to the universe, who would have thought that Pixar today would tell the story of the princess and the prince?
Pixar’s acquisition by Disney was only a matter of 2006. At that time, the two teams were relatively independent and did not interfere with each other’s creative space. Therefore, they have maintained their own styles for several years. "Flying House Tour" is the product of the merger and acquisition, which makes people vaguely feel that with Disney directly behind Pixar, the texture of the work is more calm and atmospheric. After all, when Jobs acquired the Pixar studio, he still counted on them to develop graphic design specials. Software and hardware, unfortunately, I have been unable to open the market, so I made a few animated short films with my own products to attract business. I did not expect this "side business" to become bigger. A "Toy Story" won US$350 million worldwide, and Jobs also I have to admit that I was blind to this group of people back then. After being officially acquired by Disney, Pixar was no longer satisfied with "little cleverness", and began to engage in "big production" ambitions slowly emerged. For example, in 2009, "Flying House Travels" became Pixar's first 3D animation and also occupied Disney's production. The first 3D animation title, corresponding to the Disney Animation Studio’s own production of "the last 2D hand-drawn animation" "Princess and the Frog", the two studios of the same company, one is responsible for innovation, the other is responsible for conservative, the division of labor is very clear. And this year, "Invincible Destruction King" and "Brave" have come to a super big reversal. Disney began to innovate, the main card is nostalgic after 80, assaulting the adult animation market, Pixar is turning to tradition, making "Brave" a job The first early-age animation in the history of the room is a bit confusing.
After all, John Lasseter is now the dual leader of the two studios, so occasionally letting the two groups mix and match can also play a role in merging the fan camp. After all, this year Disney also launched "Beauty and the Beast 3D." Tim Burton's "Frankenstein" are all things that are on the old road. In the new film plan announced by Pixar, one is to imagine if the dinosaurs did not encounter "Good Dinosaurs" of the extinct world, one is about the inner consciousness and emotions of the girl’s brain, and the other is about the Mexican Day of the Dead. It sounds quite exciting. Disney is going back to film the sequel of "Winnie the Pooh", occasionally 80% of the two teams who got on the wrong line still have to get back on track.
(Originally published in "Digital Design" December 2012)
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