long text. Serious spoilers! Enter carefully!
In 2016, "Finding Nemo" 2 produced by Pixar, the "golden sign" in the animation industry, was released. And "Piper Sandpiper" is the pre-roll of this long animation. In just 6 minutes, he won the Best Animated Short Film at the 89th Academy Awards.
This story is very simple. It tells about a cute little sandpiper (a kind of seabird) who, with the encouragement of mother sandpiper and friends, grows from dependence to independence.
How can such a simple and ordinary little story win the Oscar?
The two most-voted words online are "cute" and "healing".
Is the little sandpiper cute? Of course cute, but there are too many cute pet images.
Does the story heal? Of course it's cured, but it doesn't seem like there is a shortage of cured movies, right?
In my opinion, in addition to the intuitive cuteness, warmth and lightness of this story, more importantly, it reveals the profound educational meaning of children's growth.
There are two roles that play the most important role in a child's development.
One is family affection: "60 points mom".
One is friendship: "friendship with peers".
01
The first Easter egg in a child's life: 60 points mother.
What is a "60-point mom"?
This term comes from the theory of "good enough mother" by British psychology master Winnicott.
What's the meaning?
Good enough mother means neither being a "perfect mother" who meets all the needs of the child, nor being a "bad mother" who doesn't care about the child at all. A good enough mother should see the needs of their children, help those they are unable to fulfill, and encourage and guide them to fulfill the needs that they can strive to fulfill. Therefore, not 100 points, nor 30 points, the domestic translation is "60 points mother".
In this short film, the little sandpiper appears as a cute little cute image. A large group of sandpipers on the beach are chasing after you for food. Only the little sandpiper is alone in the grass by the beach and refuses to come out. Not only did the little sandpiper not come out, it closed its eyes, raised its neck, and opened its small mouth, waiting for its mother to feed.
But Mother Sandpiper was not satisfied with this little bit.
Mother Sandpiper did three things.
The first thing is that the mother snipe ignored the little snipe's request to "open your mouth for food". The mother snipe held the food she found on the beach - a kind of seashell, and called the little snipe to eat it in the distance. 60 minutes mother is luring the child out of the nest.
Little Sandpiper refused. It just refuses to come out of the nest. Maybe, it just doesn't have the courage to get out of the house.
So Mother Sandpiper went on to do the second thing.
The mother snipe put down the food, ran back to the nest, and pushed the little snipe out with her wings.
In 60 minutes, the mother pushed the child with practical actions and walked from home to the outside world.
This time, the little sandpiper ran happily all the way, and finally reached the beach and joined the group of sandpipers.
However, the little sandpiper's old problem has been committed again. It closed its eyes, raised its neck, and opened its small mouth skillfully in another set of movements, waiting for its mother to feed.
No way, the sandpiper mother had to do a third thing.
The mother snipe saw its need, but did not meet it. In front of the little sandpiper, the mother snipe gave a complete set of predation demonstrations, and then ate the delicious food in one bite. After eating, the mother sandpiper pushed the little sandpiper again with her wings.
Under the demonstration and encouragement of 60 points mother, the little sandpiper imitated her mother and finally succeeded in foraging for the first time. It rolls happily on the beach while enjoying the food.
It can be said that this is a very complete set of textbook-like action demonstrations that encourage children to be independent.
Words of encouragement - action push - action demonstration - action push again.
60 mother, not all.
60 points mother, let the child learn to be independent.
This is the end of the first half of this short film.
02
The second easter egg on the way of children's growth: peer interaction
Why is peer interaction so important?
In early childhood, there is no doubt that parents have the greatest influence on their children. But with age, the parental influence index tends to decrease, while the influence of peer interaction increases and eventually surpasses that of parents.
Parents are the enlightenment mentors who lead their children into the world, and the source of their identity confirmation and sense of belonging.
But at puberty, children begin to break away from their parents and say goodbye to their first identity, and seek a second identity confirmation in their lives among their peers. Only by completing this step can children become their true self and know who they are? What kind of person do you want to be?
Back to the short film, the story begins to move into the second part.
While the little sandpipers were happily enjoying their food, the sandpipers fled and evacuated from the beach one after another. The mother snipe called to the little snipe as she withdrew. However, the inexperienced little sandpiper was left alone. It watched the huge waves roll in, and the whole person was stunned...
The camera returns to the little sandpiper again. The little sandpiper is a small dumb bird that shivered in the grass and did not dare to come out. So the mother snipe started the continuous action of the opening scene again.
But this time, it doesn't seem to work.
The little sandpiper was pushed out of the nest, saw a huge wave in the distance, and was so frightened that it hurriedly plunged into the grass next to it.
Little Sandpiper has a psychological shadow. The term in psychology is called "learned helplessness".
American psychologist Seligman made a classic experiment with dogs in 1967. At first he kept the dog in a cage and gave the dog an electric shock whenever the buzzer sounded. The dogs were kept in the cage and tried to streak around, but they couldn't get out, and only suffered electric shocks. After many experiments, when the buzzer sounded, the cage was opened first and then the dogs were given electric shocks. But this time the dog not only did not escape, but fell to the ground and began to moan and tremble before the electric shock appeared.
Having tried but still failed, such an experience makes people desperate to try again when faced with a similar situation again. This is learned helplessness.
The little sandpiper is afraid of the waves, and the lack of courage with learned helplessness is more lethal than the lack of courage that has never been tried.
Obviously, at this moment, the encouragement of the 60-point mother has failed.
At this time, the orange-red little hermit crab appeared. Let's call it Little Red.
Xiaohong tapped the little sandpiper on the mouth with its big pliers, encouraging it to go to the beach together. Little Sandpiper refused with action.
Little Sandpiper watched Little Red slowly crawling towards the beach. Suddenly, a big wave came, and Xiaohong was submerged in the boundless sea water.
The little sandpiper's eyes widened instantly, completely forgetting the fear of sea water. In order to save Xiaohong, its courage came back. It quickly rushed to the place where Xiaohong disappeared just now. By the time it arrived, the sea had receded, and Xiaohong was exposed with a relaxed and contented look. Little Sandpiper breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, there was a huge wave. The little sandpiper was about to run, when it saw Xiaohong quickly digging a hole in the sand with pliers and burying himself in the sand. Under Xiaohong's demonstration, the little sandpiper got the new skills at the speed of light, and also used his claws to open a hole, burying himself in the beach before the huge waves came.
In the few seconds when it was swallowed by the waves, under the guidance of Xiaohong, Little Sandpiper bravely opened his eyes and saw the underwater scenery that he had never experienced before. In the clear blue water, those delicious shells ran out of the beach and sucked the sea water to their heart's content.
The tide receded. The little sandpiper appeared in its original form. Sandpipers return to the beach.
The snipe group is still the snipe group, but the little snipe is no longer the former little snipe.
It found its new identity: the only surfing sandpiper in the colony.
It happily ran and twirled on the beach, foraging so much that it stunned the whole sandpiper colony.
When the waves hit again, there was only one bird, the little sandpiper, spinning freely and enjoying itself in the waves.
"60 Points Mom" gave Little Sandpiper family affection, love and independence, and home will always be a safe and warm harbor.
"Friendship" gave the little sandpiper friendship, courage and freedom, and galloped out of a new world.
These are the two Easter eggs and blessings this Oscar-best short film sends to children.
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