"Pinocchio" is a well-known puppet boy all over the world. This children's story created by the Italian writer Carlo Collodi was first serialized in "Children's News" in 1881, and it was not serialized until 1883. At first, the author self-deprecated as a "childish and ridiculous gadget", but now it has become one of the most widely circulated fairy tale images in the world. The original work was introduced into our country during the Republic of my country in the last century. The more famous one is Mr. Xu Tiaofu's translation, which has been translated as "Pinocchio" since then.
Perhaps most people have not read the complete fairy tales that are divided into 36 chapters in the original work, but they have heard more or less, "the puppet boy turns into a donkey", "the little boy and his father reunite unexpectedly in the belly of a big fish", these Widely circulated small chapters. And everyone in the world knows that "children tell lies, and their noses will grow longer." These stories are treasures for children and adults alike. It has taught all children from childhood to be honest and brave. After experiencing various adventures and tests, a puppet will eventually grow into a real boy.
This classic fairy tale has been adapted many times into animation and live-action movies. The most famous is the 1940 Disney adaptation of the animated image. In 2022, another live-action and animation film starring Tom Hanks as Grandpa will be released. In order to remind the difference between the versions, according to the general western naming convention, coupled with the reputation of the director, this version is named "Pinocchio of Guillermo del Toro".
The visual image of Pinocchio that is circulating now is generally derived from the processing and creation of Disney movies in 1940.
In this version, the biggest selling point is probably the fame of director Guillermo del Toro.
Guillermo del Toro, a filmmaker born in Mexico, has gradually become a top filmmaker in the industry since the 1980s, working on special effects and makeup. Films such as "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Pacific Rim" that he acted as director and screenwriter have brought him great success in both Hollywood art and business. At the same time, "The Shape of Water" (2017), which he filmed, won many honors for best film and best director at the Venice Film Festival and the Oscars. Director of "Masters of Cinema".
Of course, the name of this master may not be as loud as some other "masters", but his artistic characteristics are very obvious: he is good at starting from slightly weird visual images of fairy tales, creating a sense of fantasy that is close to reality. A fusion of screen worlds. At the same time, his personal interest often leads him to cooperate with other artists in multiple fields. For example, in the game masterpiece "Death Stranding" produced by Hideo Kojima a few years ago, he played a role, with dubbing and motion capture Participated in game production as an actor. In a later interview, he mentioned that apart from playing tickets, this experience was also a process of learning and expanding artistic creation for him.
The director of "Spinning Top" turned into a virtual character image in "Death Stranding", which is also an interesting cross-border attempt.
The new version of "Pinocchio" is an adaptation of the original story, which is similar to "Pan's Labyrinth". The director added the background of Italy during World War II. The tragedy of the grandfather's loss of his son in his early years, and the later adventures of the puppet Pinocchio in the circus and military camp are all related to the environment of the war era. This probably belongs to the element that the director "Spinning Top" particularly likes. For a story full of magic, coupled with an equally magical background of the times, they reflect each other and have a special literary theme. Just like the "Cold War" in "The Shape of Water", human beings have the right to dream in every era, and the value of dreams, under extreme pressure and coldness, will be more precious than in peaceful times. This can be regarded as the biggest artistic adaptation feature of this version of "Pinocchio".
In terms of visual features, the image of "Reaper" has references from previous "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Ghost Children's House", and also retains the director's previous somewhat unique artistic style.
In addition, the background of this film being invested and produced by Netflix, as well as the stagnation of major film production companies around the world under the epidemic, all make this film one of the few works that can be ranked in the animation field in 2022. And won the best animated feature film award in the film category at the 80th Golden Globe Awards.
Of course, the excellent works in recent years seem to be much lighter in weight compared to previous years. Don't expect too much for the effect. As a family carnival work, the touching father-son relationship flows with the music, which is of educational significance for children to understand the world. The peculiar animation shape can also leave some impressions on people. For a For a work that doesn't inject too much new ideas, it can be considered a success.
It cannot be said that it is very lively, nor can it be said that the special imagination of animated movies has been brought into play. It can only be said that all links are done very smoothly.
In addition to the movie, on the contrary, the promotional feature "The Craftsman Behind the Scenes" produced by Netflix before the movie is released is more worth knowing. Although generally speaking, apart from special fans, not many audiences will really care about the promotional materials of this kind of movie, but through this 40-minute tidbit, a general understanding of the complex production process behind stop-motion animation will be useful for artists in the film industry. tribute. You can search for this production special from Station B.
Stop-motion animation is to use the camera to freeze the camera to change the movement of the subject bit by bit, thus creating a sense of continuity in the film. The subjects are generally clay figurines, puppets, paper figurines, puppet and other materials that are easy to build into specific shapes and easy to change movements. In addition to hand-drawn animation and 3D animation, stop-motion shooting is still an introductory method for students majoring in animation production to learn animation production.
In the making of specials, we'll be surprised to learn that almost everything is physically made - except for some of the background environments that are made in post-production. This makes people feel a sense of shock like a creator.
In the making of specials, we'll be surprised to learn that almost everything is physically made - except for some of the background environments that are made in post-production. This makes people feel a sense of shock like a creator.
In the documentary about "Pinocchio", we can see the current top stop-motion animation, using more mobile mechanical bones to make the skeleton of the doll, and at the same time using 3D printed silicone, woodcut and other materials to make more detailed doll details , and constantly adjusted the actions of these dolls, and finally produced a continuous animation effect.
It can be said that the animators who are responsible for the content of different paragraphs are not only the designers and producers of the dolls, but also the operators of all the shapes of the dolls. It is transformed into a real screen shape, and at the same time, the dolls are constantly and finely adjusted in more detailed movements and expressions, giving these models a real feeling of people.
In order to achieve the final effect, there is no doubt that many years of experience in animation and model production are required, and at the same time, there is also a very complicated pre-visible film production process-before the actual animation can be seen, first pass the story version, live-action short Videos and other methods visualized the final screen effects step by step, and finally led to the cooperation of artists in different fields to obtain a short animation scene. Years of this work, and multiple groups of these artists working together, resulted in a 120-minute film.
In order to allow the relevant production staff to "see" the finished film in advance, it has now become a common film production process to simulate the final film scene through simple shooting similar to short videos. Similarly, it is also used in animation production.
Although the production process of films starring real people is also very complicated, the production of this kind of stop-motion animation requires all the scenes and animated characters to be produced out of thin air, which has a sense of dream like a creator.
In such sideshows, watching the artists are full of love and dedication to their profession, you can better understand everyone's love for "film art" in the meticulous work day after day.
According to the shooting needs, there are both a reduced overall church model and an enlarged close-up part of the characters. No matter what it is, it is step by step from the art design on the paper to the production of the actual object, and only then will the final film be seen. The patience and creativity that this process requires is quite admirable.
Surprisingly, even in the introduction of regular voice actors, the figure of "Big Devil" Cate Blanchett can still be seen. The aggressive actress, one of the biggest stars in the global film industry, insisted on voice acting in the film out of admiration for director Guillermo del Toro. It's a pity that only the role of "monkey" was left in the end, but she seemed to have fun playing it, adding different hissing sounds to the monkey, creating a unique and fresh vitality for this animated image.
Watching the big demon king imitate the monkey's call is both joyful and touching. An actor should actually be an actor, and a star is just an illusion.
Sometimes the fame, fortune and great wealth brought by movies make people forget that the most original ideal of movies is actually just a kind of artistic creation, creating an imaginary world out of thin air. In the field of animation, stop-motion production is an older craft than 3D production, but still has inheritance value. "Pinocchio" shows many details of this craft. Compared with grandeur, it is a kind of admirable delicacy, and it is also a kind of amazing spectacle. This reflects the unique artistic characteristics of director Guillermo del Toro - the ultimate pursuit of the beauty of visual images.