High-quality domestic low-level animation is still scarce. Production companies lack awareness of long-term development of IP

The battle between several popular films during the Spring Festival is drawing to an end."Kung Fu Yoga" and "Journey to the West", which have a cumulative box office exceeding 1.5 billion yuan, and "Wind and Waves", which have a cumulative box office exceeding 1.5 billion yuan, still remain in the top ten daily box office lists. Another "Bear Haunted Fantasy Space", a low-level animated film that was also released on the first day of the New Year but was ignored, is making a fortune in silence. The current cumulative box office of nearly 500 million yuan has set a record for the series.

scarce. The battle for several popular films during the Spring Festival is drawing to an end. The cumulative box office of "Kung Fu Yoga" and "Journey to the West" have exceeded 1.5 billion yuan, and "The Wind and Waves" have remained in the top ten daily box office. However, another young and young animated film that was also released on the first day of the New Year but was ignored-"Bear Haunted·Fantasy Space" is "making a fortune". The cumulative box office of nearly 500 million yuan has set a record for the series.

The success of the Bear Infested series may not come as a surprise. Factors such as long-term popularity accumulation, suitable scheduling, content innovation, marketing methods, and reputation are all reasons for the breakthrough. At present, there is huge market space for this type of film. However, there is still a long way to go for domestic low-income animated films to break through amid strong imported enemies.

The best box office series for the Spring Festival without similar rivals

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Since its launch in 2012, the "Bear Infested" series has a total of 9 TV animated versions, 2 New Year TV movies, 4 animated movies, 3 stage dramas and related books.

In 2014, this series of major films began to be released at the beginning of each year at a frequency of once a year. The box office of the first film "Bear Infested" was 248 million yuan, the 2015 "Bear Infested Snow Ridge Bear Style" was 295 million yuan, and the 2016 "Bear Infested Bear Heart Returns" was 287 million yuan, but it has not been able to break through the bottleneck of 300 million yuan. Until this year,"Bear Infested·Fantasy Space" took a different approach in the highly competitive Spring Festival season and finally achieved the best box office result in the series.

This "new path" may be the uniqueness of the subject matter compared to competitors in the same period. A closer look at the movies released at the same time as "Bear Infested" in the past three years, you can see that at that time, they all encountered more well-known animated films of the same genre. In 2014, its opponent was "Stealing Dad 2", which was released a week earlier. In 2015, it competed with "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, the Year of the Sheep", which is also a well-known IP for domestic animation. In 2016, it ushered in the most powerful opponent,"Kung Fu Panda 3".

Although this year, although the seemingly competitive Spring Festival period was chosen, the only opponent with the same animation theme was the French animated film "The Great Felice" released on the fifth day of the New Year. Given that European animated films themselves are a niche, the more familiar "Bear Infested" has naturally become the number one choice for young parents to watch with their young children.

Huang Ziyan, vice president of LeTV Pictures, one of the producers of the series, also said in an interview with reporters that the first three years were selected to be released at the beginning of the winter vacation and this year's Spring Festival. The reason is not only because parents have more time to take their children to watch movies during the long holidays, but also because the only family-friendly animated film can also form differentiated competition.

Children think it's interesting and

adults think it's not boring

. In addition to choosing the right schedule, the good reputation of the "Bear Infested" series of big movies is also an important factor. All four films scored higher than 6 points on Douban, and the second film,"Bear Style in the Snow Ridge", reached 7.2 points. The scores of the latest four films in the "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" series, which has released a total of 7 major films since 2009, have failed to pass the passing line on Douban.

In addition to upgrades in terms of stories, characters, etc., this time,"Bear Infested·Fantasy Space" also includes real-life characters starred by stars in the second-dimensional world for the first time. The world view has also changed from the original simple original fairy tale world to a plot that adds fashionable science fiction elements such as "wormhole travel" and wants to defend the second-dimensional fairy tale world from the hands of "enemies" who travel through the third-dimensional world.

Judging from the reviews, most young parents said that the film is smooth, interesting, healthy, inspirational, and has a positive outlook."Children are very happy to watch it, and adults will hardly feel bored watching it."

Huang Ziyan, who participated in the investment when making the first big movie, told reporters that after several years of IP cultivation, they were full of confidence in this new family fun movie before it was released."Whether adults or children will find the picture beautiful, and the characters 'personalities are also Very rich, and the most important thing is that adults will not feel embarrassed when watching it, and they are more likely to post it in their circle of friends."

In the eyes of director Ding Liang, in addition to the highlights of beautiful pictures such as beautiful forests, running deer, and the revival of all things, he also hopes that the film can inspire adults while educating children."Themes such as family affection, friendship, and courage have always been there. There are also, for example, the growth process of young scientists in the film reflects educational issues. Many children enter cram schools in order to get high scores and eventually become test machines. We want to express our thoughts and concerns about this social phenomenon."

We need to put ourselves from the perspective of children

, but being young does not mean that we are mentally retarded.

Today, the cumulative box office of the four major films "Bear's Haunted" has exceeded 1 billion yuan, and the once-popular "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" series has not launched a new film on the big screen for two years.

Regarding the "disappearance" of "Pleasant Goat", some professionals have analyzed that the early start and the immature environment are important reasons. The "Pleasant Goat" series, which began airing on TV in 2005, launched its first major movie four years later. Then, the brand value gradually weakened after the series 'box office peaked at 168 million yuan in 2012, which was the time when the TV animation of "Bear Infested" was just launched. In the eight years during this period, the annual output of China's animation has grown from more than 3000 minutes to more than 260,000 minutes, accounting for about 1/3 of the global total. In 2011, China became the world's largest animation producer. Compared with "Pleasant Goat", which has always been criticized as being too "low-spirited","Bear Infested" has given the public the impression of "family fun" through the producer's promotion.

Although a certain number of low-level animated films are still released every year, it is undeniable that good works are still scarce. Huang Ziyan told reporters that LeTV Pictures has been looking for high-quality projects other than "Bear Infested" in recent years, but has not yet found a suitable target. "For example," Kung Fu Panda "has 1 billion yuan and" Bear Infested "has 500 million yuan. The market is in demand by the audience. It depends on whether there are good products and marketing methods to impress China audiences. Such a large market potential is an opportunity for domestic animation."

In the process of looking for investment projects, Huang Ziyan also discovered many misunderstandings in the creative concepts of domestic animation production companies for young children. "Many people do not start from the market when creating, but from their own preferences and feelings. Using an adult perspective to predict children's choices will definitely be out of touch with the market. Some people really think that what they show to their children is brainless. In fact, what is shown to children needs to be considered from the child's perspective, and more wisdom and love need to be used to make the characters rich and complete."

Huang Ziyan emphasized to reporters that today's children are very smart. They will not like just making a rough animation. Being young does not mean that they are mentally retarded."The product production standards that some people show us really treat children as fools. This is harming children." In addition, she also believes that many production companies lack awareness of long-term development and development of IP.

Editor: yvette