Role, Structure And Style

This article compares and analyzes the similarities, differences and tendencies of the animation film-making in China, Japan and the U. S. since the new century begins-from three major perspectives:role setting, space-time structure and narrative style.When it comes to role setting, the characters in Chinese animation film are designed to do less education work now, but, at the same time, to become more flat and simple than ever. And there are also endeavors that make the characters'self-awareness wake up, trying to shape three-dimensional individuals. By contrast, the American and Japanese producers are more successful for their mature and complex ideas in creating roles.As for the space-time structure, animation film in China and the U. S. generally has a unified and stable time pattern, while the Japanese ones are more diverse in presenting time. In addition, as the "metaphorical space"-a term belonging to animated movies exclusively-broadens the visions of both creators and audience, China and Japan has narrowed down the gap in constructing space between themselves and the U. S. by employing metaphorical space in the movies.Talking about style categorization, it is Japan producers who win with the most obvious type features in their work; and the U. S. animation films combine a relatively stable narrative mode with varied elements of categorization. With regard to style nationalization, the U. S. designers has ceaselessly learnt from the cultures of other countries, and on this basis, conducted innovation by fueling its movies with the modern thoughts of America culture and spirit. Meanwhile, due to history reasons, Japan has been reaching a balance and selection between the eastern and western culture. In China, the nationalization development of animation films has undergone such abruption caused by the state system reform and market impacts that it is confronted with a new situation to start from the scratch line. It will not break the deadlocks and revive the previous brilliance until Chinese animation producers step out the misunderstandings of nationalization and establish a sense of innovation.