01. From much anticipation to condemnation
On December 17, the domestic animation "Lion Boy" was officially released in theaters across the country, and the work was regarded as the most anticipated domestic animation in 2021 for a long time, especially for the audience in Foshan, Guangdong Province.
As the title says, this is a domestic animation with lion dance culture as the main plot line, telling the inspirational movie of the left-behind teenager Ah Juan, with the help of friends and masters, to dream of the lion king champion.
To be able to pay attention to and interpret the traditional culture of lion dance, to some extent, it is inseparable from the blessing of the screenwriter Li Zelin, who is a native of Guangdong who has been deeply influenced by the culture of the Southern Lion since he was a child, and thus can create such a realistic and bloody story.
And now open the Douban, we can also see the 8.3 high scores scored by more than 34,000 people, regardless of whether it is the presentation of the work or the reputation of the audience, this new national comic is also quite excellent, and it seems to have the potential to impact the 5 billion of "Nezha's Devil Boy Descending"?
In fact, we do see such potential trends, such as the large-scale screening of the game on December 11, and the total box office revenue of more than 17 million films.
But ah, just after the large-scale screening, this animation also fell into the quagmire of word of mouth. Notice that it is not how bad the story is, nor how much the special effects are, and what really makes it controversial is only the "character modeling".
In the eyes of domestic audiences, "Lion Boy" is simply a full squint, and this move is simply ugly to the Chinese people!
02. How much do you hate Lion Boy?
In the relevant comment area, we can see the following typical complaints, first of all, direct anger and ridicule of regional irony. "It's not the protagonist with small eyes, everyone is small eyes, don't Cantonese people have big eyes?" "The Light of the Nation (Wrong), the Light of the Water Army (Correct)"
"If a few protagonists have a big eye, they can be considered close to reality, and they will not be criticized like this."
"There is a river between the two eyes, is this the director's family?"
"Tang's Lion Dance"
In the eyes of these netizens, those who praise this animation will only be the water army, because no one wants to grow into this face, and those who say that they are good-looking must be blinded by money.
Then there is the more poignant "domestication" of irony.
"Western vilification has begun to bear fruit, PUA has succeeded"
"I don't understand where the big-eyed man goes"
"We ourselves don't pay much attention to this aesthetic, and in a few years we will be completely domesticated."
"Not only squinting, how to see is not The Chinese style, I thought at first glance that I was a dragon trainer, the traces were too heavy, and I was so unconfident in my own style?"
"Why not call the Tiger Boy?" The film is full of Western perspectives."
In the view of the above netizens, the reason why producers will produce such works, and the reason why some audiences will support them is not entirely the hoodwink of money, on the contrary, it is more seriously brainwashed, which is caused by the so-called cultural aggression.
Of course, as with every quarrel on the Internet, how can there be less conspiracy theories?
"Scolding him like this every day is still to be done, not deliberately strange"
"It is recommended to nominate for an Oscar, this work will definitely win the Academy Award"
"They just want to go overseas to earn dollars" "Cater to Europe and the United States, let the domestic market educate him well"
Earning dollars, taking Oscars, and so on "poetry and far away" is the reason why netizens believe that the producer deliberately did it, and it is precisely because they are convinced of the authenticity of the conspiracy theory that they will be so righteous and angry, and like the following netizens, the squinting eyes will be identified as the existence of the original sin.
After reading these typical angers, how do you feel at this moment?
I can only say that "loud" really does not represent the truth, on the contrary, some remarks that appear sporadically are even more heart-wrenching.
"My eyes are smaller. . . ."
This netizen only dares to say and stop, he does not want to become the target of the public, but he can't help but want to speak out for his own group and express his support for the new work of the national comic.
Of course, as an anime self-media person, if you ask me about my attitude, I also support "The Lion Boy", because whether it is domestication or conspiracy theory, I think it is the anger released after one-sided understanding.
How can you convince me of this?
03. Please look at it rationally
First, you think it's okay for a producer's primary purpose to make money, but please understand how domestic animation over the years has made money?
We can indeed occasionally see blockbusters such as "The Devil Boy of Nezha" and "Jiang Ziya", but more, even more than 99% of domestic animations have not gone to the dismal box office?
For example, the well-received "Great Protector" can only be barely returned with more than 80 million box office in the end.
For the now-famous light-chasing animation, before they produced "White Snake: Origins", whether it was "The Adventure of Atang" or "Little Door God", these ingenious works could not escape the fate of loss.
How can a domestic animation with relatively good color have to invest tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan? And how many works can really break the box office today? So the mercenary businessman actually wants to rely on domestic animation to earn gold, so is his brain in the water? Wouldn't it be more delicious to make a live-action movie?
In addition, many netizens said that they were abandoning the domestic market, catering to overseas, and wanted to earn gold and reputation from the outside. But please, as long as you have a little understanding of what kind of domestic animation with potential to win awards is, you will not become a keyboard man.
In the case of the Annecy Film Festival in France, which is known as the Oscar of the animation industry, the domestic animation that can be qualified in the past two years is "White Snake: Origins", "Jiang Ziya", "Luo Xiaohei" and other word-of-mouth masterpieces, and which of them are catered to the so-called overseas aesthetics?
In addition, what they don't know is that domestic animation has not had eye-catching results overseas, even if it is "Nezha", which has exploded in domestic word of mouth and box office, it has also received millions of dollars in box office in North America.
You may also say that "Nezha" does not work because it does not cater to the aesthetics of foreigners, but I would like to ask, in the absence of precedent, "Lion Boy" can be successful? Is it true that the producer has mines in his house, so can he try it willfully?
On the contrary, having seen so many domestic animations that eat "Chinese style" can get a good box office, do you think that a businessman who really understands what mercenary is, he will not know which side he should please?
Of course, the producer of "Lion Boy" knows, so he will choose the traditional Chinese culture of lion dance!
And this is still a relatively niche and has almost no predecessors in the field of national comics to try, and the risk of failure has risen several orders of magnitude.
Of course, as long as you have watched this animation, it is impossible not to give the producers a thumbs up, every fierce competition is produced with exhaustion, and the essence and action of the lion dance are perfectly presented.
Not only that, but take the artistic style of "small eyes, big spacing" despised by netizens, not only do I not feel ugly, but on the contrary, I can enhance the fierceness and fierce momentum in the process of lion dance, further highlighting the transformation of the protagonist from a sick cat to a male lion.
Artistic style is about "unity", if there are many different styles of character settings in a work, then you have to be careful whether the producer is satirizing certain groups. But it is clear that the producers of "The Lion Boy" are honest, and his unified artistic style can indeed polish the theme of the lion dance a lot.
In fact, I really don't know, why is it that to judge whether a work has malicious intentions, you only need to look at a "skin bag"?
Is it that the current audience does not have the ability to understand the plot at all? Or is it that because of the impact of short videos, there is no patience to sit down and enjoy more than 100 minutes of movies? So if you haven't even practiced it, then why should you express your opinion?
The plot of "Lion Boy" is not only not malicious, but also full of positive energy, it describes the journey of the poor left-behind teenager Ah Juan to chase the dream of the lion king to compete for the championship, and in the process, it also interprets the courage and love of not fearing difficulties and sympathizing with the family.
Such a domestic animation masterpiece should not be buried by some prejudices, especially in the case that the work can be successfully reviewed and has been recognized by the relevant departments, I really do not understand why netizens still have to add drama here, and they have to pull what flattery is not flattering overseas people.
In addition to this, what value can this have for the development of domestic animation?
04. Finally
As we all know, an animation from planning to release, at least 3-5 years, and in this process, perhaps even the producer did not think that the change in public opinion will be so drastic, in just a few years the domestic audience has been so angry about the small-eyed character design.
So in a sense, "The Lion Boy" is a work that was not born at the right time.
Of course, the adult world comes at its own expense. And a movie should be a commodity first, followed by the self-expression of the producer, which is why many connotative films have a dismal box office and many movies have no chance to be released.
That is to say, even if public opinion is irrational and biased, as a filmmaker, you must first try to understand and flatter public opinion, otherwise it is likely to bring losses to the entire production team and investors, which is obviously irresponsible.
I only hope that chinese comic practitioners can learn from the experience of "Lion Boy", and as a small animation self-media person.
All I can do is to shout and support the annual domestic animation of "Lion Boy" here again!