First, France was the first country in Europe to produce animated films. This is the work of French animation master Paul Grimer. Adapted from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Aries and the Chimney Sweeper", the whole film is lively and full of wisdom, humor and politics throughout.
This film is the film with the longest production cycle in the history of animation in the world. This perfectionistic professionalism has deeply moved generations of animation practitioners.
In 1946, Paul and his good friend Jacques Purvey started the collaboration of "Aries..." (the prototype of the king and the bird). The 100-person production team worked for three years and was less than 80% complete, and the company couldn't bear the pressure of almost going bankrupt because it seemed to never be done. So this unfinished version is released to the public. Paul resolutely opposed it, because it was far from his original intention,
so Paul began the long fundraising and completed the remaining work with strong perseverance. "I was always looking to use harmonious colors to enrich the character and the scene. Because we made a lot of color adjustments, we ended up with a very beautiful picture."
It was not until 1980 that the work was re-released under the new title The King and the Bird.
This film alludes to real life and has strong political criticism. Although this is a cartoon suitable for all ages, the story is obviously alluding to the French Revolution, and the moral of it is indeed not understood by children. In the film, "Charles fifth plus three equals eighth, eighth plus eight equals sixteenth His Majesty" indiscriminately killing innocents, curbing freedom, and implementing a reign of terror, which is actually a portrait of the tyrannical and brutal Louis XVI. The dark underground city detains civilians who cannot see the sun all the year round, reminiscent of the Bastille. Aries and chimney sweeps yearn for freedom and love, and they still have chimneys leading to freedom in a world without windows. And the most defiant is the bird. It rescued its son from the king's guns, mocked the king's serenity mercilessly, and even encouraged the wolf and tiger to overthrow the king, and drove the giant robot to destroy the entire country into ruins. This is actually a portrayal of the French revolutionary agitator. And the power of metaphorical uprisings such as lions and tigers is terrifying once awakened. The blind musician in the underground city, he symbolizes the pursuit of freedom, longing to bathe in the warmth of the sun, and when he heard the sound of the bird flapping his wings, he exclaimed in surprise: I know there is another world on the ground! Sunshine, birds, they all exist! If there is faith in life, there is hope. He is considered to be the French Enlightenment thinker Voltaire.
The film is not the happy ending of "A lover gets married", but an uncontrollable robot destroying the city. When the giant robot opened the cage door that bound the bird with its thick fingertips, the bird slowly jumped out. Then, it clenched its huge fist and smashed the bird cage symbolizing prison. The fist fell heavily, and the ground shook. After the robot destroyed the entire city, it sat wearily on the ruins, with its head slightly sideways, posing as a Rodin sculpture 'The Thinker', as if thinking about the outcome of this revolutionary uprising and the future of the country. In the distance is the horizon of dawn, where the once glorious kingdom has fallen into ruins, and those who have escaped have been displaced and have nowhere to go. Revolution destroys everything while destroying tyranny, and whether the future of the people is as hopeful as the dawn of the dawn, we do not know. On the one hand, the film shows that autocratic rule is bound to be destroyed, and on the other hand, it also reflects on the destruction of civilization by the French Revolution as a violent revolution.
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