Until 7 years ago, Jiang Zhiqiang proposed to let Xu Chengyi return to China to make a movie that combines real shooting and CG. In the absence of any script or conception, he communicated with screenwriter Yuan Jinlin for a long time all night. Although he also wanted to use popular IP for adaptation, he finally decided to take the original road. In 2014, this "Monster Hunt" was completed. After the twists and turns, it was re-shot in the Spring Festival of 2015. Despite the difficulties, it was successfully released in July this year, and the box office was close to 670 million yuan in the first week. Chinese film market. In addition, Xu Chengyi has cooperated with domestic illustrators since 2011, and communicated with them his thoughts on film animation without reservation. Some famous domestic animators have mentioned, "It is no exaggeration to say, Xu Chengyi is my mentor. Not only me, but also a large number of first-line animators in China are trained by him. Whether it is "Monster Hunt" or "The Return of the Great Sage", or the group of Oriental DreamWorks who are ready to go The works of the animators are full of his shadow."
And whenever he mentioned the reasons for his success, Xu Chengyi would attribute it all to his luck and Jiang Zhiqiang's courage. "I think now is a good time. I once thought it would be difficult to find the opportunity to go back to China to do the high-quality animation I wanted to do in my lifetime. I have waited ten years for the opportunity to return to my country to make an animated film, but now I can see There are excellent animated films like "The Return of the Great Sage", and I am really happy and moved to see that my works are also very popular. The more people support our films, those of us who do animation and special effects People, there are more opportunities for development and play, and the sooner we will establish our own style and model.”
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n: What does animation mean to you and your life?
R: Animation is a part of life for me. It's a little more balanced now, and when I first started learning animation, it was my whole life. I will try to capture everyone's movements in my life and accumulate materials for painting. When I first entered the animation industry, they called me little tadpole because of the famous "Little Tadpole Looking for Mother".
n: What is your deepest impression of Chinese animation?
R: It should be when I saw "Mu Di", I felt a sense of refreshment, and then I was full of confusion, because I couldn't imagine how things like ink animation were made, and then I still had some privately with friends. Research. During that glorious period, the whole world felt that Chinese animation was very powerful, and then it stagnated for a while. Now is a good time. China's movie market is constantly expanding, and the requirements for the style and quality of movies are constantly improving, so that there will be more opportunities for more people to do something good.
n: When you first wanted to make this movie, what kind of idea was based on? How many times has the character of Huba changed before and after?
R: I said a long time ago that I wanted to come back and make a cartoon. Jiang Zhiqiang really refused without even thinking about it, because he had never done it before and felt it was difficult, and he didn’t know how to control the budget. But later, he also suggested that I come back to make the film. After constantly chatting with the screenwriter Yuan Jinlin, the prototype of the story "Monster Hunt" came into being. There are many versions of Huba's shape. The first version of Huba was drawn as an animal. After that, according to some tests and investigations, we have also made many improvements to Huba. According to the result, the Huba drawn is a sphere. , In the end, I still felt that it was not cute enough, and I was afraid of scaring the children, so I changed it to what it is now.
n: In the animation team of "Monster Hunt", how big is the proportion of domestic artists?
R: In the "Monster Hunt" team, most of the animation special effects artists are from China, and only two are from DreamWorks. We also invited a Hollywood professional film director to help me check the live-action film part, and they also suggested that I choose a company in Beijing to be responsible for all the animation special effects. At the very beginning, I would always criticize them for not doing well enough to achieve the standard I want, but after a long period of running-in, they have a new standard for judging animation, the recent movie When it came out, when they saw their name on the big screen, a lot of people messaged me that they were proud to make this movie. I personally think this movie is also a kind of victory for the Chinese original.
n: How do you evaluate the work "The Return of the Great Sage"?
R: I am very happy and moved. Whether it's the team of "Monster Hunt" or "The Return of the Great Sage", or the group of ready-to-go animators from Oriental DreamWorks, many of them have worked with me before. Now that I see this kind of animation appear, I am really happy and touched. If everyone's efforts can be accepted by the audience, Chinese movies will have more wonderful movies for the audience to watch.
n: Whether it is "The Return of the Great Sage" or "Monster Hunt", the prototypes of the stories are all from ancient Chinese writings. Many people express regret that new stories and contents have not been developed. What do you think?
R: I think the popular IP is fine, but it requires some new angles and visual ideas. In addition, I actually see that there are a lot of new things coming out in China, such as "Dragon Valley", "Qin Shi Mingyue" and so on. Although the box office is not very good, their ideas and concepts are Okay, I think I should give them some more time. Just like the American DreamWorks, the box office was not good at the beginning, but they insisted on what they wanted to do. While the level is constantly improving, this is also a process of cultivating the market, and there will be good development in the future.
n: "Monster Hunt" has such a good box office and good reputation, will it be made into a series next? Are there any other plans in the future, and where will the focus of the work be?
R: When we first started the road show, there were a lot of audiences asking when there would be a second episode. I didn’t expect their love for Huba. In fact, when we were talking about the first episode, we were thinking about whether to consider the continuation of the second and third episodes at the same time, but at that time I thought the most important thing was to tell the story of the first episode completely, so I didn't think too much about other things. I'm concentrating on everything related to the later stages of "Monster Hunt". The later part of the movie animation was completed three weeks before the release. I started to join the roadshow army after the production. In fact, I haven't rested yet, but the roadshow is relatively good and can sleep. Just working overtime day and night.
n: What do you think will be the new representative elements of Chinese animation in the future?
R: I think Chinese animation is now entering a mature stage. Maybe we didn't have a good animation more than ten years ago, but now there are many good works every year. Things are getting better and better, and the audience will become more and more interested in the market. With more and more confidence, of course, new elements will be born. In fact, it was the same in the United States before. When I first went to the United States, not many people made animations. The Disney boom had stalled, and the new style and feeling had not been established. At that time, Disney even stopped making animations. , but slowly you will find that some people are still trying to produce these popular animations.
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