My Animation Era

  Paper-cut animation originated from the ancient art of paper-cut.

  The art of paper-cutting that everyone has come into contact with the most should be the "window grilles" decorations that are pasted on windows by the people.

  The person who first brought the craft of paper-cutting into the field of animation production has no way to study it. The only history that can be traced back is that paper-cut animation originally had an artistic expression style borrowed from traditional "shadow puppetry".

   "Pig Bajie Eats Watermelon" is the first paper-cut animation that Gu Miao has seen. I can't tell the exact date, but it is a very old cartoon anyway.

   And "Calabash Brothers" is the first or only paper-cut animation that impressed many people, and it has also been praised by countless people as one of the highest achievements of paper-cut animation.

   Even "one of" can be dropped.

  After all, the number of paper-cut animations is very scarce, and "Calabash Brothers" has reached a height that other works cannot match, both in terms of popularity and influence.

   How famous is it?

   There is no actual data, but it can be summed up in one sentence, that is, this animation has influenced at least three generations of people in Huaguo, the original world!

  This evaluation is not an exaggeration at all.

   "Calabash Brothers" is like "Black Cat Sheriff" to the Huaguo animation industry. It is a great work with huge social influence, which has been seen and inspired by several generations.

  For an animation like this, it is no longer appropriate to compare it with other animations.

  It may be hard to say for the previous generations, but starting from the generation born in the 1980s, who dares to say that they have never seen Cucurbit animation and comics?

almost none!

   It may not be possible to watch it 100% of the time, but 90% of people have watched it when they were young. This is already an exaggeration.

   I even dare to say that even those who have never seen it have heard of the animation "Calabash Brothers"/"Calabash Baby".

  Who dares to compare with this popularity?

   Gu Miao never imagined that one day she would be able to witness the birth of a work like "Calabash Brothers" with her own eyes, and even have the false title of a producer in the opening credits of this work.

   Just so cool!

   However, the excitement was nothing but excitement, and Gu Miao, who had regained her senses, also understood that Wanbao's version of "Calabash Brothers" was destined not to be as brilliant as the original version.

   Mainly a question of the times...

  In the era when there were few black and white TV sets, animation works were rare. Only under such a background can "Calabash Brothers" achieve incomparably brilliant achievements.

  But now it's different.

  Not to mention black and white TV sets, even color TV sets are old antiques that have been eliminated for an unknown number of years.

  There are also many excellent animations nowadays, and the entertainment methods for children are varied. Even if "Calabash Brothers" maintains the original standard, it is impossible to reproduce the achievements of the original version.

   Moreover, according to Gu Miao's observation, Wanbao's version of "Calabash Brothers" is also very different from the original version.

   is mainly the production method.

  The times are advancing so fast that even the ancient paper-cut animation has to follow the pace of the times and innovate and iterate the production process.

   It can’t be said that one generation is better than the previous generation, at least with the blessing of new technology, the painting style of Wanbao’s version of “Calabash Brothers” doesn’t look so retro, so it doesn’t taste like the original version.

   But the plot is still the same.

It’s still the gourd mountain, the same two scorpion spirits and the snake spirit, the same old man and the pangolin, who planted gourd seeds, grew gourd vines, produced seven colorful gourds, and turned into seven gourd brothers, each with their own magic. Ability to suppress scorpion essence and snake essence.

  How about this plot...

  Gu Miao is not easy to comment on anything, because any time traveler, it is estimated that he can recite it backwards.

   This is a plot engraved into the DNA, if this can be remembered correctly, then Gu Miao would be ashamed to say that she is a Chinese.

  Don't talk about the plot.

  Even in the animation, Gu Miao remembers the abilities of the seven gourd babies clearly.

  The eldest baby has infinite powers but is brave and foolhardy, and the second baby has clairvoyant eyes and good ears, but it is a pity that she was killed by a goblin.

  Three children have copper heads and iron arms, four children and five children spit water and fire, six children come and go without a trace, and seven children hold a gourd that can absorb everything...

  The abilities of these seven gourd babies were the ones Gu Miao admired extremely when she was a child. Especially Qiwa's baby gourd, he was so envious when he was a child.

   It's just that, when I was a child, my thoughts were different from when I grew up.

  The baby gourd that Gu Miao envied when he was a child, now Gu Miao thinks that's it, or Liu Wa's invisibility technique is practical, if he has this, wouldn't he be invincible?

"anyway…"

   Speaking of the plot, Gu Miao seemed to have thought of something, and couldn't help asking Liang Xiaodong: "Is the ending a tragedy?"

   "Tragedy?"

  Liang Xiaodong was stunned for a moment, then shook his head in denial: "How could it be a tragedy? That's the theme of the animation. Scorpion spirits and snake spirits will definitely be suppressed in the end."

   "I know they will be suppressed, but what about Brother Calabash? What happened to them?"

  Of course Gu Miao knows the truth that evil does not overpower good, but he still has a grudge against the ending of the original version of Calabash Brothers, and believes that punishing evil should not be at the cost of the disappearance of Calabash Brothers.

  It’s just a snake spirit and a scorpion spirit. As for taking the lives of the seven gourd brothers and turning them into colorful stones to suppress them?

  Why can't we change the way.

  Let the seven brothers understand the true meaning of unity, defeat the scorpion spirit and the snake spirit, and stay with the grandfather from then on?

   "You mean, you want to keep the Calabash brothers? Let them continue to star in the sequel?" Liang Xiaodong tentatively asked.

"right!"

  Gu Miao nodded.

   "Calabash Brothers" is a great animation, he definitely admits this, and the ending is pretty good.

  But he was just upset, he just felt that the scorpion spirit and the snake spirit were not worth making the gourd brothers disappear, and the animations of more than a dozen episodes were not enough to watch.

   It can be made longer!

  The story of "Calabash Brothers" shouldn't stop at Calabash Mountain. It's a pity that these seven calabash babies with different abilities disappeared after only appearing in a dozen episodes.

  The seven brothers turned into colorful stones to suppress the scorpion and snake spirits on the seven-color lotus. This ending was silent for him when he was a child.

  The legend of the Calabash Brothers begins at Calabash Mountain and ends at Calabash Mountain. The animation seems to be very long, but it is actually only a dozen episodes.

  How can this episode be enough to watch?

  In Gu Miao's eyes, it would be a pity for an animation like "Calabash Brothers" to end after only a dozen episodes.

  Don’t talk about hundreds of episodes of such extremely long novels, do fifty or sixty episodes, wouldn’t it be good to tell a few more stories about the gourd brothers slaying demons and eliminating demons?

  Besides, the ending of the original version is not easy to produce a sequel. After all, the gourd brothers have turned into colorful stones to suppress goblins, so how can they come out and walk in the world?

"It's too short."

  Gu Miao felt that the ending needed to be changed, to allow the Calabash Brothers to continue walking in the world, and to reserve enough space for the sequel.

  The scorpion essence and the snake essence are at best an elite monster, how can they trap the gourd brothers for a lifetime?

  The gourd baby is not dead, but the ending is no different from death. This is something that I felt very sad when I was young...