As a childhood memory of several generations, the domestic classic animation "Tian Shu Qi Tan" will be re-released on the big screen in the form of "4K restored version" on the 5th, which is a "surprise" for today’s audience, especially those born after 1970s and 1980s. Although many people are deeply impressed by the brave egg, the kind Yuan Gong and the cunning fox, they only watched it on TV when they were children, and never had a chance to watch the whole film in the cinema.
As a matter of fact, Tianshu Qitan, which was born in 1983, is one of Shanghai Animation Film Studio’s most important feature films. Compared with the equally well-known Heavenly Palace and Nayi Naughty Sea, Tianshu Qitan, which is based on the novel Ping Yao Zhuan compiled by Luo Guanzhong and Feng Menglong, has a greater adaptation and originality in plot and style. Directors Wang Shuchen, Yunda Qian and many animators of the older generation have devoted four years to animation, using a lot of traditional art techniques, adding folk cultural elements such as paper-cutting and clay sculpture, and integrating flexible modern perspective techniques and smooth narrative rhythm, making the story of "Yuan Gong stole the heavenly book from the world, learned from the egg to benefit the people, and killed the fox for the people" humorous and interesting.
Thirty-eight years later, The Story of Heaven meets the audience again. Of the 12 main creations on its latest poster, six have already passed away. Shanghai Animation Film Studio had successfully restored the Heavenly Palace in 2011. This time, the 4K digital restoration work of Heavenly Scripture and Wonderful Tan started in 2018. With the support of Shanghai Film Technology Factory, the original animation texture and brushwork were maintained, and scratches and mildew spots were removed, so as to present the most perfect picture to the audience.
In addition, Shanghai Meiying also re-divided the soundtrack and completed the soundtrack through professional and technical means. While retaining the original voices of the older generation of dubbing artists such as Bi Ke, Shanghai Meiying re-joined the orchestration and symphony, and finally reached the channel suitable for today’s cinema standards.
After meticulous and professional digital restoration work, The Book of Heaven and the Mysterious Tan 4K Commemorative Edition is far from being as simple as "fried cold rice", but a re-excavation of China’s classic animation and cultural treasures, which is of great inheritance value to the rising country and animation industry.
After a 38-year return, the scene of "Tian Shu Qi Tan" made netizens cry.
Zhongxin. com
Recently, the appearance of a movie made many people shout "childhood is back".
On October 14th, the classic animation "Tian Shu Qi Tan" announced that it would land on the national big screen for the first time. This animated feature film produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio in 1983 had a douban score of 9.2. Apart from recalling the killing, it even made netizens call it "tears". Of the 12 main creations written in the movie poster, 6 have passed away.
Thirty-eight years later, why do people never forget "The Wonder Tan in the Book of Heaven"?
Source: movie stills
Where’s Pinocchio? "Wonder Tan in the Book of Heaven"?
Compared with The Heavenly Palace and The Sea, which are both produced by Shanghai Meiying Factory, what impressed many people most about The Wonder of Heaven is its interest.
There is a rare book in heaven, "The Book of Heaven", which has been locked in the stone niche door for three thousand years. There are 108 spells recorded in the book. In order to benefit mankind, yuangong secretly descended to earth and carved the contents of the gobbledygook on the stone wall, but he broke the dogma and was punished for guarding the gobbledygook in the cave.
At this time, three foxes stole the elixir in the blast furnace and became three foxes. They came down to the world to cheat money, and pretended to be a nun and colluded with the government to oppress the people and harm the world.
Therefore, yuangong instructed the gifted egg-born-a child who jumped out of the egg to practice the magic in the gobbledygook, and fought with the fox to kill the people.
Source: movie stills
This story comes from the ancient novel "The Legend of Ping Yao". The film’s main creator adopted the way of "string burning" to arrange the script, which merged many traditional folk stories, which was quite subversive at that time. "In the past, our scripts could not be compiled like this," recalled Yunda Qian, one of the directors. "Stringing together violated a set of rules of our screenwriters in the past.".
Yuangong and Eggplant master and apprentice outwit three foxes. The story of "Heavenly Book and Wonderful Tan" is not complicated, but the characters in it are extremely distinct, such as kind Eggplant, selfless "fire thief" yuangong, treacherous fox, immortals, monsters, emperors, monks, county officials, businessmen and so on.
Source: movie stills
And some of the plot designs of "The Wonder of Heaven" are also quite meaningful. For example, the county grandfather grabbed a cornucopia, and the treasure kept coming out. As a result, his own father fell, and one father after another came out to make noise, and finally he ate the consequences of greed.
In the film, yuangong destroyed the fox, but he was finally captured by heaven. His spirit moved many viewers: "I remember that I finally saw yuangong being taken away by the chains of heaven, and I cried." "When I was a child, I always thought there would be a sequel."
It’s not just an animation for children
Now, it is quite luxurious to look back at the creative team of "Tian Shu Qi Tan".
Let’s look at the dubbing team first. Ding Jianhua voiced "Eggborn", Bi Ke voiced "yuangong", and Su Xiu, Cheng Xiaohua, Shi Rong, Cao Lei, Shang Hua and other dubbing artists all gave wonderful voice performances for this animation.
Directors Wang Shuchen and Yunda Qian studied in the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, respectively. The former created such excellent animation works as Nayi Noisy Sea (screenwriter, director) and Mountain Scenery (screenwriter), while the latter directed such excellent animation works as Little Sisters of Prairie Heroes and Adventures of Sloppy King.
In the film, Wu Yingju, a famous composer, combines and innovates traditional folk musical instruments with western musical instruments. He also composed music for classic domestic animations such as "Making a scene in Heaven", "Mudi" and "Little Tadpole Looking for Mom".
Directed by Yunda Qian. Source: Video screenshot
At that time, the creative team headed by Wang Shuchen and Yunda Qian were unwilling to make a film for children only.
Director Yunda Qian invited Ke Ming, who was then the editor of Nanjing Xinhua Daily, as the animation modeling design, and applied China folk art, painting, sculpture, toys, opera and other elements to the artistic modeling. Many characters in the film borrowed from opera masks, such as the fox girl’s squint and blush, and the county magistrate borrowed from the clown image, and added mouse face and moustache, which made the audience unforgettable.
Source: movie stills
The interesting and agile painting style of "Tian Shu Qi Tan" is also inseparable from the creativity of the main creative team. "I just let them find a way," Yunda Qian said. For example, the original painter came up with an interesting picture of an egg eating a big cake raw, taking a bite from the middle and putting it around his neck.
Source: Video screenshot
In addition, pavilions, waterside pavilions, palaces, courtyards, weeping willow arch bridges and other landscapes follow the "wu school" style, drawing human landscapes with meticulous brushwork and heavy colors, and drawing natural landscapes with elegant ink and wash. There are also many folk images in the film, such as "birds fly at the phoenix", walking on stilts, dancing dragons and lions and so on.
The Golden Age of Domestic Animation
Director Yunda Qian once said, "At that time," Tian Shu Qi Tan "was still very popular, because it was interesting and funny, and it still met the requirements of our strange beauty."
Source: movie stills
The arrogant little emperor was voiced by the voice artist Cao Lei in "The Wonder of Heaven". She remembers that she let go of the match at that time. Sometimes the little emperor in the picture drooled, and the director Su Xiu told her to put half a mouthful of water in her mouth, which made her unable to speak smoothly.
"When we were matched, we liked the play very much. Why? Because the film was silent at the beginning, the characters painted by the director are all very individual and unique, which provides us with the premise of giving full play. Unlike a foreign film, you must stick to the voice and mouth of the original film. We can play by ourselves and create by ourselves. Director Wang Shuchen was inspired after listening to our match, and made changes to the picture on the basis of dubbing. This is indeed a collective creation. " Cao Lei said.
Over the past 30 years, in the creation of "The Wonder of Heaven", director and screenwriter Wang Shuchen, screenwriter Bao Lei, animation stylist Ke Ming, composer Wu Yingju, voice artists Bi Ke and Shang Hua all passed away, and Yunda Qian, one of the directors, is now over 90 years old.
In the repair tidbits previously exposed, Ding Jianhua, who re-voiced the film "Eggborn", lamented that the previous voice was not burdened, but now the voice has a burden.
Source: Video screenshot
In order to better present this domestic animation classic, the "Tianshu Qitan 4K Commemorative Edition" has gone through a long process of overall restoration and digitization.
In the new poster, Egg Boy runs to the sky with open arms, chasing light and hope, and carrying forward the spirit of gobbledygook. In the lower left corner of the picture, Yuan Gong looks from afar in a lifting manner and waves goodbye to his apprentice Egg Boy, which means that the brilliance will be passed down from generation to generation and will never stop.
These classic cartoons, as well as the behind-the-scenes creators’ dedication to China animation, should not be forgotten.
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