Although Hollywood leads the world in terms of animation technology, "Animal Story" proves that Europe not only relies on artistic animation such as "Waltz with Balshes" and "Crazy Date in the Beautiful City", but also has a similar position with Hollywood in the field of commercial animation. Teach superior and inferior strength. The scenes and characters in this film are very rich, the animal hair is very delicate, and there are no obvious flaws in the animation technology, not only the magnificent landscape of Antarctic icebergs, Australian wilderness, Pacific islands and African grasslands, but also meerkats , elephants, lions, roosters, turtles, polar bears, more than ten main characters and more other animal characters, it should be the work with the largest number of animals in the history of animation, and it is called "Animal Story" worthy of the name. However, the originality of the animal character image design is somewhat low, and it is greatly influenced by the classic characters of Hollywood animation, especially the lion, giraffe and mongoose on the poster, just like they just came out of "Madagascar".
The gap between "Animal Story" and Hollywood's top commercial animation is still mainly reflected in the design of stories and characters, starting from "Toy Story" and "Shrek", to "Food Story", "Robot Wall-E", "Flying" in recent years. "A Journey Around the House" and "How to Train Your Dragon", Hollywood animation blockbusters are rare in terms of story and character creativity, combining the story and character creativity with long-lasting connotations, touching heartstrings, smooth rhythm, and frequent highlights. The current entertainment is highly integrated, and no one can match it. Those films exemplified above are typical representatives. And "Animal Story" compared with these films, the gaps and omissions have emerged. First of all, the story of this film does not look new, it is basically equivalent to the combination of "Madagascar" and "Jungle Counterattack". Secondly, there are also problems in the structure of the story. Hollywood animation pays attention to flat and straightforward narratives, quickly entering the main storyline, and firmly grasping the audience with fascinating stories, while this film uses parallel narratives at the beginning, and at the same time explains the experiences of four groups of animals in different locations. These plots It's not very useful other than making the main characters appear on the stage, and the east and west are a bit scattered, so that the audience can't find the focus of the story. It was not easy for these animals to meet on the African grasslands. When we went to find water together, half of the film time had passed. At this time, the main storyline was really unfolded, and the appeal of the story was naturally greatly reduced. Although the film emphasizes the theme of environmental protection and animals come from all corners of the world, in the follow-up plot, it only tells about the water crisis in the African savannah, and does not expand the crisis elements to the world, emphasizing the environmental threats faced by animals around the world, so the ending is arranged. The animals landed in New York and came to the United Nations headquarters to talk to humans, making the narrative feel stiff and deliberate. In addition, the film does not have many ideas in terms of story creativity, and there are obvious loopholes in the plot arrangement. The plot of the animals breaking into the human resort on the dam was supposed to be the most brilliant episode, but there was neither the thrilling chase that is common in Hollywood nor the bursting jokes. After some tossing, it felt unremarkable. At the end of the paragraph where the animals gather at the dam to regain the water source, how to fight against humans and destroy the dam, the editor and director obviously couldn't think of any unexpected and exquisite design, so that the human pet monkey suddenly turned against the water and attacked the villain hunter, lacking enough foreshadowing , people can't understand why this pet monkey's previous scene is still showing that he will not betray humans, why the latter scene is on the side of animals and is an enemy of humans. The design of blowing up the dam is even more outrageous. The bomb that the hunter accidentally hit and dropped into the dam did not explode at first. It was enough to make people wonder. In the dam, the precision is unparalleled Is there anything worse than knocking off the fuse of a bomb, causing a big explosion to destroy the dam? !
There are also problems in the character design of this film. Although there are as many as a dozen animal protagonists with a "general mobilization" momentum, it can be seen that the director wants to enrich the film elements through different animals. At the same time, it carries family elements, allowing the old turtle couple to convey their meaningful love, letting the Australian skunk and the French rooster make fun, using the lion's past to strengthen its old and new grievances with hunters, etc., but the fragmentation also leads to each character. They are relatively monotonous, and even if they have a distinct personality, they are not outstanding enough. Mongoose should be the number one protagonist of the film, but due to his relatively bland personality, the audience may only remember his golf stunts after watching the film. Although the funny images of the skunk and the rooster are very prominent, the funny way of the skunk from the beginning to the end is only the trick of farting. After watching too much, it is inevitable that people will be aesthetically fatigued, and eventually they can't laugh at all. The French rooster feels good about himself and has an excessive desire to lead. It is very interesting and can be regarded as the most outstanding animal character in the whole film. Unfortunately, it has too few scenes. It often wanders away from the water-seeking team and lacks space to play to its fullest. . In addition to the label of "vegetarian", the lion's gentle personality is very weak. As a beast, it is not as impressive as the black panther, which is purely a cameo.
The connotation of "Animal Story" is exactly the most popular environmental protection theme of cartoons in recent years, but unlike Hollywood, which quietly hides the theme of environmental protection in wonderful stories, this film conveys the concept of environmental protection more directly. White preaching and sarcasm. For example, it is mentioned in the film that the 168th human environmental protection conference was held. Politicians from all over the world attended the conference just to pretend to go through the motions. The mercenary businessmen built dams to destroy the natural ecology, and also named them in the name of ecological protection. The irony is very clear. The turtle couple complained at the animal conference about the crimes of human beings that have destroyed the environment for hundreds of years. Not only the lines are also very well written, the pictures are also well coordinated, and they have the power to move people emotionally. Human sins and the future of the world to comprehend and reflect. What makes the author particularly interested in this film is that the story and connotation shown in the film exactly coincide with the reality of China. In the film, humans build dams for their own sake and put wild animals in a desperate situation. I am also arguing about the impact of the Three Gorges Dam on the environment. It seems that the dam is really not a good thing! In the film, the herd of rhinos and the herd of bison fight for a small pond, but they don't know who is the culprit behind it. Their cannibalism is undoubtedly stupid and ridiculous. After learning the truth, they also joined the crusade. Human animal army. Isn't this the best innuendo to Chinese society? Most of the people are fighting for small profits, and the poor people are fighting endlessly, but they don't know where the root cause of all kinds of social problems is, and they lack the courage to challenge the mastermind behind the scenes. Isn't this worth thinking about? Are we not even better than animals? (Text / Levin)
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