Text | Children's IP Workshop
Recently, Universal Studios Beijing can be said to be a fire all over the universe, and as one of the seven parks of Universal Studios Theme Park, the global exclusive scenic spot "Kung Fu Panda Gaishi Land" has given countless Chinese fans a wave of "memory killing" as soon as it was unveiled, attracting many panda fans to punch in the card to commemorate, even actor Huang Lei, star Qi Wei and Korean husband Lee Seung-hyun also came.
Suddenly, the "Kung Fu Panda" movie has been released for thirteen years, and the series of animated movies has also been updated to the third, and the giant panda "Ah Bao", who once loved to daydream, walked out of the 'Peace Valley' and became a world-renowned super IP. So, how did such a super IP created by DreamWorks Animation come to where it is today, and what unknown "kung fu" does Kung Fu Panda still hide in film production and IP commercialization? On the occasion of the official opening of Universal Studios Beijing, let's re-understand the "Kung Fu Panda"!
<h2>A good story is the last word</h2>
The story is the soul of the film and television IP. How can a film related to Chinese culture made by a foreign film team open up the Chinese market and win the love and recognition of Chinese audiences if it does not tell a complete and interesting story well?
In the movie "Kung Fu Panda", Panda Ah Bao is an apprentice in a noodle shop, daydreaming every day, dreaming of one day being able to have a peak duel with a star-level big man in the kung fu world. However, Ah Bao, who will not know anything, wins the tournament after a series of stories of yin and yang, and will represent the 'Valley of Peace' to expel the evil Taro. Next, after the tutelage of the five kung fu masters of the crane, the tiger, the golden monkey, the praying mantis, the little dragon and the "master", Ah Bao finally became a kung fu master, and finally defeated the evil Taro and saved the 'Valley of Peace'.
Stills from the movie "Kung Fu Panda"
From the title of the film alone, it can be seen that dreamworks animation, the production team of "Kung Fu Panda", knows a lot about Chinese kung fu culture and the deep feelings of Chinese audiences for "kung fu". However, "Kung Fu Panda" is not only a "kung fu film", in addition to perfectly presenting the fight scene in Chinese kung fu films, the film also pays more attention to the emotional display of plot details and character design.
With Chinese Kung Fu and the national treasure giant panda as the core theme, through the nuanced understanding and comprehension of traditional Chinese culture, while showing the American dream that "every ordinary person can become a hero through struggle", it also embodies the Chinese cultural spirit of evil and not oppressing righteousness. After all, it is still the familiar Theme of Hollywood "Hero", "Dream-making" and "Salvation" that collides with the spiritual values of Chinese culture, making this classic animated film.
<h2>A combination of Chinese and Western "Kung Fu Panda"</h2>
At the beginning, when "Kung Fu Panda" was released, many domestic audiences did not know that it was produced by Hollywood DreamWorks Animation in the United States, and always thought that it was pure "Made in China", until later they found that it was originally an authentic "imported product".
"Foreigners can't shoot well Chinese culture and stories", for a long time such a voice has been circulating in the film and television industry. But "Kung Fu Panda" managed to punch these people in the face. It is said that mark Osborne, the director of Kung Fu Panda, has studied Chinese culture for thirty years, and it took a total of five years to make the film. Earlier, the 1998 animated film "Mulan" produced by Disney was the same as "Kung Fu Panda", which pioneered foreign teams to create classic Chinese cultural IP, and also won recognition from Chinese audiences.
Stills of the ink painting style of the movie "Kung Fu Panda"
The success of "Kung Fu Panda" is inseparable from the creation of the film "Chinese Style", which immediately pulls into the distance between Chinese audiences and the film story. Set in ancient China, Kung Fu Panda is full of Chinese elements in kung fu, landscapes, sets, costumes, and food. Chinese calligraphy, Tai Chi Bagua, Qigong acupuncture, Shangjia temple fairs, firecracker gunpowder, flying cornices, bucket arches, carved beams and paintings, and other strong "Chinese flavors" abound in the film. Since the story of the film takes place in China, the visual style of spectacular scenery similar to the blank space of Chinese paintings is adopted on the film screen. Among them, the "Peace Valley" refers to the Lijiang Valley in Yunnan and the landscape scenery of Guilin in Guangxi.
If it is only "Chinese style" Chinese audiences may not pay, the film also perfectly integrates the Western genes of many Hollywood blockbusters. Based on "Chinese Kung Fu", the film incorporates American humor and advanced Hollywood film special effects, of course, dreamworks' excellent production standards. For example, the "Emerald Palace" in the movie is composed of as many as 88,100 pieces; the scene where the panda Ah Bao rushes into the air with a "rocket chair" simultaneously uses as many as 54 visual stunt effects such as "arrow fire", "light effect", "explosion", "fireworks trajectory" and so on. And the comedic style of American humor is very important to the success of Kung Fu Panda. It is said that many viewers at that time were laughing at the cinema to watch the entire film.
<h2>From Kung Fu Panda to Global Super IP</h2>
Foreign animation film and television works attach great importance to the serial development of film and television IP, that is, often after producing a phenomenon-level work with double harvest at the box office and word of mouth, animation film production companies will often continue to produce the second, third, or even more. Disney, Marvel, DreamWorks Animation and many other world super film and television IP are typical representatives of film and television IP series development. DreamWorks also continued this fine tradition in the production of Kung Fu Panda, and the subsequent series was also successful.
The series of film and television development of Kung Fu Panda continues to strengthen people's emotional cognition and "audience fate" of this classic film, and also lays a solid traffic foundation and market goodwill for the subsequent IP marketing, IP commercial premium, IP derivative peripheral development and IP theme park construction.
As the first Sino-US co-production animated film, "Kung Fu Panda 3" has been praised by the industry as a "new milestone in world animation" since its release in 2016. If the first "Kung Fu Panda" was to let Chinese audiences know "Ah Bao", then after the release of "Kung Fu Panda 3" in 2016, "Kung Fu Panda" became a veritable super IP.
Oriental DreamWorks, one of the co-producers of "Kung Fu Panda 3" in China, has created a new situation based on the licensing of film IP and the development of derivatives, and raised the IP of "Kung Fu Panda" to a new height. "Kung Fu Panda 3" official IP authorization and derivatives pay more attention to the "breadth" of IP development than the first two, covering FMCG, automotive, finance, retail, theme parks and other industries, and the joint promotion media value with partners is nearly 1.5 billion yuan, creating a new high in the industry, the IP ecological industry chain covers major cities across the country, touching hundreds of millions of consumers, reshaping the ecosystem of film IP derivatives development.
IP authorization is an indispensable and important means to stimulate the business value of IP, and what kind of ways and means to use FOR IP authorization is of great importance to IP marketing. With the rapid development of the Internet in recent years, new IP marketing methods are also emerging. In this regard, Kung Fu Panda is also keeping pace with the times and constantly trying. For example, we choose to carry out all-round three-dimensional linkage with industry leading brands, e-commerce platforms, offline shopping malls and other channels to create a joint promotion pattern of "Kung Fu Panda" all-media and all-platform derivatives coverage.
On the one hand, it pays attention to the "breadth" of IP licensing, on the other hand, Kung Fu Panda IP also pays attention to the "depth" degree of IP licensing, which even creates a new cooperation model in the industry - "customized" IP licensing and derivative development.
In terms of Kung Fu Panda IP marketing, Oriental DreamWorks Film Production Company participated in the promotion and formulation of the marketing plan of the cooperative brand throughout the process, and asked the original film production team to customize the TV advertisement for partners such as Yiliyou Yogurt, Master Kong Laotan Sauerkraut, Aomiao, Ping An Group, Huawei Honor 5X, FAW-Volkswagen New Bora and other partners, skillfully combining the film protagonist and brand image, rewriting the story for production, and presenting the top animation film production technology and texture to the TV advertisement.
Kung Fu Panda and Yili joint milk
Among them, Kung Fu Panda Fang's customized advertisement "Kung Fu of a Bowl of Noodles" for Master Kang is the most special, which can be described as a novel of the movie, in which the protagonists in the movie continue the story in the movie, combining the brand characteristics of the old sauerkraut noodles themselves with the film complex, from communication to finished product production took half a year
In addition, Kung Fu Panda IP has also cooperated with Master Kong, Yili, FAW-Volkswagen, Huawei Honor, NetEase Games and Tmall to carry out a number of cross-border cooperation in combination with the "Kung Fu Panda 3" movie, and continues to deepen the cooperation model based on film IP licensing and derivative development.
Taking the cooperation between Master Kong and the official mobile game of the NetEase game "Kung Fu Panda 3" movie as an example, the trilogy of kung fu panda mobile game series authorized by oriental dreamworks IP and independently developed by NetEase has realized the in-depth film-game linkage between the film industry and the game industry, creating interactive entertainment enjoyment for the majority of fans and players. As the finale of the trilogy, the official mobile game of the "Kung Fu Panda 3" movie and master Kong Laotan sauerkraut noodles joined hands to open a multi-city "Kung Fu Treasure Hunting Order" interactive activity and cooperate with the offline tour to help promote the "Kung Fu Panda 3" mobile game, and the interactive activity also set up multiple welfare feedback consumers.
In addition, in the development of IP licensing and derivatives, Kung Fu Panda IP continues to open up innovative ways to play. Cooperate with many shopping malls across the country to build a movie theme mall; Shanghai's first Kung Fu Panda IP theme tea shop opened its doors in May this year; cooperate with Chimelong Zoo; and invest in the development of game products in line with the trend of the Internet. In short, through continuous cross-border integration, innovative IP marketing methods, and improvement of the whole industry chain layout of "content + channel + derivative peripherals", Kung Fu Panda has become a well-deserved super IP.
Shanghai Kung Fu Panda Theme Tea Shop
From the movie screen to the daily derivative peripherals, and finally to have an independent park at Universal Studios, the progression of the "Kung Fu Panda" IP is similar to the growth story of the protagonist Ah Bao in the movie. The advent of the Internet and the all-media era has continuously enriched the "play" of IP marketing. Kung Fu Panda has made many innovative practices with its own "Kung Fu", or will provide very instructive inspiration for other IP licensing and derivative development in the future.