Why is 1999 Lotus Lantern the most classic animation work in China?

As a masterpiece of Shangmei Factory, we all thought that Lotus Lantern would be the beginning of the rise of domestic animated films, but it was the end of China animation.

The story is based on the well-known folk story "Baimuxiang split the mountain to save his mother". The third Virgin fell in love with the scholar Liu Yanchang and gave birth to her son Aquilaria. His brother Erlang God was ordered to arrest the Third Lady of Heaven, kidnap Aquilaria sinensis, threaten the Third Lady to blow out the lotus lantern, and nail her to the foot of Huashan Mountain.

Aquilaria sinensis, who was taken to the Heavenly Palace, was dissatisfied with his uncle's arrogance. When she was wandering around, she met a little monkey jumping out of a stone. Really super cute! ! ! ! ! To say that Shangmei Factory is good at painting animals, especially monkeys, rather than people!

Then agarwood was changed by the land. Only when the Monkey King came out of the mountain could she save her mother. So the agarwood and the little monkey stole the lotus lantern, and on the way to escape, with the help of Gamei, the daughter of the human tribal leader, they successfully escaped from the Heavenly Palace.

The small agarwood that returned to the world was immediately tested by the novice village. The little monkey was cheated away by the old Taoist priest ... and was chased by a roaring dog as soon as he woke up. It is said that this roaring dog is also one of the shadows of my childhood, which led me to watch Disney's "Climbing Up" for a long time before changing the channel. Finally, Aquilaria sinensis, who came to the city, rescued the little monkey with the help of small animals and began a difficult journey to find his mother. Spring, summer, autumn and winter, mountains, lakes and seas. Finally, Aquilaria sinensis learned a skill from animals in the forest and found the Monkey King when he grew up.

At this time, the Monkey King was already a Buddha, and he hung up an attitude about using agarwood to find his mother. Finally, under the attack of agarwood cannon, he promised to show it to agarwood, and he would push the stone statue of Erlang God into the molten slurry and practice axe to save his mother.

Speaking of this stone statue, we will mention the woman who made soy sauce at the beginning. At this time, Gamei had grown up, and her father was thrown into the molten slurry because he failed to build the stone statue of Erlang God on time. Gamei was also released by Erlang God to continue processing stone statues instead of her father.

Aquilaria found Gamei, and Gamei said, let's dance ~ jump. Jiro can't see the past, but the stone statue is dancing and there is no carving. So he sent the tengu to eat the moon. The tribesmen and agarwood decided to fight against Erlang God, and together they pushed the stone statue into molten slurry and refined it into an axe.

Finally, after a drama full of spiritual pollution, Aquilaria launched the skill of "combining lamp with human", defeated Erlang God and rescued the Three Virgin.

In the 80-minute film that took three years to shoot, there were more than 70 minutes of background music. This episode includes CoCo Lee's "365 Days of Thinking of You", which was as well-known as the song "Didi Da" at that time. Aquilaria sinensis slept in the cold valley and dreamed of her mother. How many children's tears did fireflies gather to light the lotus lamp at that moment? There is Liu Huan's "Heaven and Earth in My Heart" with the growth of agarwood ... and the ending song "Love is a word" was written by Jeff Chang Shin-Che. It was 1999. It goes without saying how popular these people are. With such a big coffee music team and these golden songs that have dominated KTV so far, there will be no more Lotus Lantern.

Besides music, the most prominent feature of Lotus Lantern is characterization. This is not a simple story of finding relatives. Each character's distinctive personality is full of profound connotations, from which audiences of any age can gain insights.

The protagonist Aquilaria sinensis met with sinister feelings at the beginning of the road to finding relatives. Different from other protagonists with similar themes, Aquilaria sinensis did not start all over again, but was supported. But according to the phrase "sincerely, the stone will open" given by the earth god, I have gone through all the hardships. Even though he died of thirst in the desert, he gave all the water to his best friend, the little monkey. Hungry enough to stare at the steamed stuffed bun and drool, I didn't steal a piece when I helped the old woman pick up the baked wheat cake. When the Monkey King hit the wall for help, he realized that saving his mother could not depend entirely on others, but on himself. At this point, it is higher than those dramas that rely on others to watch without self-effort, and I don't know where to go.

Look at Erlang God again. Jiang Wen is a voice actor. Jiang Wen and Wujiang are excellent villains. It is said that Jiang Wen asked for a DVD as his son's birthday present for nothing. As one of the shadows of childhood, the sound of Erlang God alone is creepy, and the overall shape makes me feel confused and deja vu when I watch the Great Sage return. In fact, the role of Erlang God is very contradictory. I never understood why I was so cruel to my sister. I looked up some information recently. Erlang God and Sanmen Notre Dame were born to the younger sister of the Jade Emperor and a scholar named Yang. It is said that the original story was that the Jade Emperor wanted to kill his sister with 10 suns ... Erlang forced nine suns to save his mother. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Erlang God, as the sworn enemy of the Monkey King, became the number one villain, and the story of saving his mother was imposed on his nephew. Regardless of whether the story is true or not, Erlang God of Xian Fansheng must have had a hard time in the Heavenly Palace when he was a child. His inner inferiority and hatred for his mother's violation of dogma accumulated too much until his sister broke out after repeating the same mistakes, which is not difficult to understand.

Look at the Monkey King, and our chivalrous image is completely different. This is a kind of monkey that is experiencing a midlife crisis. After eighty-one difficulties, he finally became a Buddha, a lonely Buddha for thousands of years. He no longer lives in Guo Huashan. There are no monkeys and grandchildren around him, and there are no masters and younger brothers. The bloody sense of justice is gradually covered up by everything the Buddha should have. The screenwriter used a sentence, "After becoming a Buddha, you don't have to scratch if you don't have lice. Where is this monkey? " It shows the loneliness of fighting for Buddha in an understatement. It was not until Aquilaria first met him that he said, "You don't have a mother. How do you know the pain of losing your mother?" For the first time in 1000 years, he couldn't control his emotions and cried loudly with the little monkey in his arms. Here, the Monkey King, who claims to be the voice of Teacher Peisi Chen, this performance is enough to be included in the textbook of China's animation voiceover history.

In addition to Jiang Wen and Peisi Chen, our young lady's voice is Xu Fan. Gamei's voice is quiet and the seiyuu lineup is really strong.

In a word, Lotus Lantern is a monument of China's animated films, and we all owe it a movie ticket. Last question: Shanghai Animation Film Studio, how are you?