At present, there is indeed a big gap between my country's animation industry and the animation industry in developed countries in terms of quantity, quality and commercial operation. First of all, the production of cartoons in our country is too low. In 1999, the total production nationwide was about 6,000 minutes, which was only the production of one animation company in Japan in one month. CCTV still only has 50 cartoon programs each year, and rebroadcasts the rest of the time. While local stations used to have sufficient sources of cartoons, they are faced with the embarrassing situation of having no movies to show after the government announced support for domestic animation. If we want to significantly increase the production of cartoons, it will be impossible if we continue to regard cartoons as a welfare undertaking supported by state-owned funds as in the past. Because it is necessary to significantly increase production, such a large amount of free investment is difficult for state-owned funds to bear. Therefore, the only way out is to rely on market economy methods, whether it is state-owned funds, collective funds, or individual funds.

However, currently few people in China dare to invest in animation because the market is very immature and irregular. Taking TV cartoons as an example, there are two main ways to recover their costs: one is to sell broadcast rights or copyrights to TV stations, and the other is to use cartoon images to produce peripheral products. The investment in the production of cartoons is generally 10,000 to 20,000 yuan per minute. If you invest in a 52-episode animated series, it will cost at least 20 million yuan. However, the current broadcast copyright fees paid by TV stations are too little. Cartoons per minute are more It costs a few hundred yuan, or as little as 10 yuan, which is disproportionate to its cost. Even if it is broadcast on hundreds of TV stations, plus the income from peripheral products, it will be difficult to recover the cost. On the one hand, without a good market mechanism, it is difficult to produce good works with considerable demand; on the other hand, without enough high-quality domestic animation products, it is difficult to form a standardized market, thus forming a vicious circle. Foreign animation companies took advantage of this situation and put their films into production in China. They spent heavily to buy talents, making our animation talents the creative backbone of foreign cartoons. A large number of Japanese and Korean cartoons are produced in China, which is no secret in the industry. After the cartoons were completed, they were sold to TV stations at low prices with additional advertising and cultural dumping policies, seizing the Chinese market and making the development of the Chinese animation industry more difficult.

According to a market research company’s survey of more than 2,000 teenagers in Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou on cartoons (general name for animation and comics) and cartoon consumption, it was found that among those aged 14 to 17 Among the two age groups of 18 to 23 years old and 18 to 23 years old, the proportions of people who love cartoons reached 89% and 84% respectively. Among the 14 to 17 year olds, 47% of them often watch and read cartoon works. This proportion also reaches 39% in the age group, so the role of cartoons in the process of forming the world view of teenagers is self-evident. Nowadays, most of the cartoons that teenagers are familiar with are Japanese and American cartoons, and they have invisibly been influenced by Japanese and American cultural consciousness and values. This has caused a certain cultural impact on teenagers. Most of the favorite cartoons among teenagers are from Japan and the United States, while Chinese original cartoons have almost no influence. According to statistics, among teenagers' favorite cartoons, Japanese cartoons account for 60%, European and American cartoons account for 29%, while Chinese original cartoons, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, account for only 11%. Among all teenagers aged 14 to 17 in the three places, 56% have purchased cartoon works such as books, magazines, DVDs, and cartoon-related products such as toys, clothing, and accessories for their favorite cartoons or cartoon characters in the past six months. For all purchases, The average purchase amount of teenagers who have purchased the product in one month is 54 yuan. For teenagers aged 18 to 23 and 24 to 30, although the proportion of cartoon consumption has declined, the average purchase amount has increased significantly. Based on the above amount, in the three major cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou alone, the total amount of cartoon-related consumption completed by urban teenagers aged 14 to 30 every year exceeds 1.3 billion yuan, which is roughly the same as shampoo, which has a large sales volume among daily necessities. Quite, extremely impressive. When talking about which cartoons or cartoon characters are used for related consumption, it is found that the top five are Snoopy, Mickey Mouse, Kitty Cat, Pikachu and Doraemon.

As an art, animation is open to all ages, and people of all ages should be able to find their own spiritual home in it.

Chinese cartoons have always been arranged in children's programs such as Seven Color Light and Big Windmill. From the aspects of host and design, they are all aimed at children aged six or seven. Most of China's cartoons in recent years have been simply drawn. Although the characters in them are childish, they are full of truths. When Chinese people make cartoons (referring to those who actually do this work), most of their thoughts are limited to the circle of children's programs, and at the same time they also need to educate children. Therefore, the most basic problem of Chinese animation is that its positioning is too narrow. The current Chinese animation audience is probably limited to preschoolers, right? Are cartoons like "Big Head Son, Little Head Dad" successful? Maybe it is indeed successful in the eyes of preschoolers. But as a mature animation lover, what I see is that around me, many teenagers are searching for and buying pirated VCDs of Japanese animations. These phenomena are probably invisible to the workers of CCTV. The result of such a narrow vision is that they themselves are unable to understand how large an audience they have lost. If China's potential market is developed, our country's animation industry will be in a very advantageous position in the international market competition - we will probably be able to recover our investment in the domestic market, and then compete at zero cost in the international market. There is no doubt that It is the most competitive.

The main reason why Japan, which is separated from us by a narrow strip of water, dominates the international market for its cartoons is that it has a rich domestic market and operating methods. Japan publishes more than 300 cartoon magazines and 400 cartoon books every year. There are no less than 50,000 to 60,000 cartoon associations and research societies, and there are no less than 100,000 amateur cartoonists. Most of Japan's successful animations are extended from comics. Comics are actually a book version of the language of television pictures. It uses almost all techniques in film and television production, such as front shots, overhead shots, long shots, close-ups, fast shots, slow shots, as well as the use of camera switching and montage techniques, etc. Transplanting comics that have been tested by the market and are well-received by speakers into animations is a great trick to reduce investment risks and ensure success. Almost every comic book that becomes famous will eventually be made into a full-length animated film, such as "Doraemon", "Battlestar", "Slam Dunk" and so on. When making cartoons, in addition to keeping the characters and the storyline basically the same, it is also necessary to ask professionals in the music industry to create theme songs for the cartoons and invite famous singers to sing them, such as the theme song for the live-action version of the video game "Street Fighter" "SOMETHING THERE" is sung by the popular Japanese pop group Change & Asvka. Because, compared with animation, the investment in comics is much less, and the risks are naturally much less. What's more, before publishing comics, they are often published continuously in magazines to test readers' reactions, and then revise and adjust based on the feedback. If the prospects are not promising, change course as soon as possible; if the move is successful, move forward courageously. Doing so is almost foolproof. This is just the first program that works. Next there are two branches, one is tapes and CDs (the covers are mainly the protagonists of the original comics and cartoons, and the songs are mainly theme songs and interludes from the cartoons); the other side is the ones from the comics and cartoons Various toys and daily necessities based on characters or animals, such as stationery, clothing and even watch dials, can be printed with their cartoon images. In addition, using cartoon images for advertising is a powerful weapon for businesses. In a country that is big on comics, the main revenue lies not in the comics themselves, nor in the animations they extend, but in the trademark revenue created by comic stars. The American cartoonist Schulz, who became extremely rich by creating "Peanuts", only received 20% of his income from cartoons. The remaining 80% of his income came from the trademark made by Snoopy, the puppy in the comics. There is a cute little girl named Arale in a Japanese comic called "Doctor Genius". Her image was used to promote 3,000 kinds of products in a year, with a contract volume of 100 billion yen. Merchants were paid a percentage of merchandise sales, making the author's earnings that year among the best in the country.

It can be seen that they operate cartoons and cartoon extension products as a whole, and the income is calculated as a big account, and the gains and losses are not calculated based on a single item. Finally, the video game industry developed video game software that was closely related to the original comic books and cartoons from the protagonist's image to the storyline, and the II and III generations also appeared subsequently. In Japan, there was once a little-known little playing card factory that suddenly became one of the top ten companies in Japan. It only relied on a monster called FC, which was only about one kilogram, to dominate the world market for ten years. That's Nintendo. Looking at the entire process (some business processes are not included), from the literary and comic industries to the film and television industry, music industry, toy industry, and video game industry, in addition to the anthology industry and other ancillary products, it is the animation economy. the objects involved.

There are certain differences between the United States and Japan in the development of the cartoon industry. Japanese cartoons focus on promoting authors, while American cartoons focus on promoting brands. The property rights of cartoon stars belong to the publishing company. Although time has passed and professionals have changed, Cartoon stars, on the other hand, can perform new shows without interruption. The age of celebrities is also fixed in a set age group and remains unchanged for a long time. "Mickey Mouse" was born in 1928, "Superman" was born in 1938, "Batman" was born in 1939, "Peanuts" was born in 1950, and "Garfield" was born in 1978. So far, the comic magazine named after Mickey Mouse has been published in 36 languages ??around the world. The Chinese version alone has three versions in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. "Canada" is no less impressive. Its story has been published continuously in 2,300 newspapers around the world in 26 languages. The animations and movies of these cartoon stars have become popular all over the world, creating huge commercial value. This is the long-term marketing strategy of American cartoons. The company organizes professionals to plan, write, draw, package and promote, forming an orderly and smooth value circulation system and a mature market recycling system, thereby creating a Animation images that are deeply remembered by people are used to form an integrated commercial action mode including film and television, comics, modern animation information media resources, toys, stationery, handicrafts, parks, etc. "The Lion King", through worldwide distribution, has a total box office of US$310 million. Including other operations, the total revenue is more than US$900 million, which is more than 10 times its cost (of course not net income). The current world animation market is very prosperous, and the trading of cartoons has become the protagonist in many important international film and television markets. Many countries with developed cartoons have also expanded their cartoon production scale through international trade channels. The transnational cartoon processing industry was formed under this rapid development situation. Therefore, in a broad sense, animation no longer only refers to the animation industry, but the entire animation industry has developed to this day and has already transitioned to the stage of enterprise and commercialization. The connection between animation and economy has become the most prominent feature of the entire animation industry today. .

We carefully study the successful business experience of major animation countries in order to more effectively utilize the many functions of cartoons as a mass communication medium. On the premise of emphasizing social benefits, the reason why we must pay attention to the cultural commodity form and economic benefits of animation is to pay attention to the popularity and communication effect of cartoons, attach importance to the development of animation productivity and animation cultural economy, and further improve our animation market. However, on the other hand, when we do not yet have a commercial operation system, and when none of our authors have experienced the test of the market, if we directly let them create "commercial" works, It doesn't necessarily have good results. Take the controversial domestic cartoon "Lotus Lantern" in 1999 as an example: dubbing by big-name stars, popular theme songs, huge investments, Disney-style characters, 3D effects... Logically speaking, these are all important factor in business success. But today, all of this has become the focus of ridicule among anime fans. Is "Lotus Lantern" successful as China's first fully commercial animated feature film? Perhaps it is considered a success, because it is unprecedented in China and can be said to be a milestone in the history of Chinese animation. However, as an animation, "Baolian Lantern" is an absolute failure.

The storyline is weak, the plot setting is random, and the overall story lacks dramatic conflict; the art design shows helplessness in the struggle, adopts borrowed style design, and lacks complement to the Chinese school; the scene design is weak from form to content, showing that it is incompatible with international There is still a big gap between the first-class level and the production level. Although it has many elements for commercial success, it just lacks the most important thing - the soul of a cartoon. This is something that cannot be achieved simply by relying on external factors of commercialization. This is especially impossible for Chinese authors who have no experience in commercial creation. If an animation really wants to achieve the greatest commercial success, it must have something intrinsic that is worthy of the audience to think about, remember, and linger on. This is the combination of commerciality and artistry of animation. Animation culture in the world is constantly evolving and developing. Whether it is the selection of script topics, styles, techniques, film and television language, the use of high and new technologies, etc., there have been great changes from the traditional creative model. We cannot rest on our laurels and be satisfied with our past experiences. We must make a big breakthrough in concepts, seriously understand and study many new ideas and techniques in foreign cartoons, and absorb them into our creations. It should be admitted that our cartoons have some shortcomings in adapting traditional stories or creating modern themes. They mainly lack some concepts with modern concepts and international awareness, and they also lack new ideas in narrative methods and forms of expression. . Our creative concepts need to be further updated to keep up with the pace of the world. We should have a clear understanding of this: commercialization is very important to the Chinese animation industry, but commerciality is not the first and only attribute of animation, and commercial interests cannot dominate everything.