On Cultural Nationalism Analysis Of Character Performance And Design In The Animation Havoc In Heaven

Havoc in Heaven is the first feature-length animation produced during the Cultural Nationalism Movement in the Chinese animation industry from the late 1950 s. It is composed of two episodes which were completed respectively in 1961 and 1964, and is generally accepted as a peak in Chinese animation. Based on character performance and design, this paper tries to analyze this Cultural Nationalism from the three perspectives of Chinese Opera characteristics, animation features and essential patterning design, with its Chinese Opera characteristics being the main focus.This paper begins with introduction to its historical background. After the second episode was produced, Havoc in Heaven was banned till the 1970’s. Example as such have something to do with modern opera reform then. This paper also introduces and analyzes Chinese opera characteristics in animation development of this twenty years, and then puts forward that Peking Opera had been taken as reference in script writing of Havoc in Heaven on the basis of historical records comparison. This has long been neglected by animation researchers since the producer had never mentioned it.As to Cultural Nationalism of performance, the author observes the absorption of Havoc in Heaven from Chinese Opera by analyzing the influence of Monkey King performance to the character Monkey King’s depiction in the animation. Chinese Opera performers usually have unique skills and give spectacular performances on stage, based on which the author gives on analysis of the animation features of character performance in Havoc in Heaven by contrasting with Princess Iron Fan in the 1940 s and The Golden Monkey Conquers the Evil in the 1980 s. Thus, animation features in different times are discussed. Besides, by comparing it with the contemporary Disney animation Sword in the Stone, the author finds out the similarity of animation features between those two works, and thus concludes there was no breakthrough in Cultural Nationalism at that part in Havoc in Heaven. Based on this conclusion, the author ponders over the relationship between some of The Disney Twelve Principles of Animation and animation features, and the limitations of these principles.The design of those characters has never been easy. Dissatisfied with Zhang Guangyu’s three drafts, Wan Laiming asked Yan Dingxian, a young boy at his 20 s, to revise the characters. The incident shows not only Wan’s personal preference, but the conflict between Zhang’s graphic design and space pattern as well. In this paper, the author tries to analyze the Zhang’s preference of design through Havoc in Heaven, namely, Zhang absorbed decorative patterns in character design. Influenced by Chinese Opera Facial Makeup, he designed those characters with traditional patterns design methods. Essential patterning design methods were quite different from cartoon character design methods in western countries at that time.By analyzing the Cultural Nationalism of character performance and design in the classic animation Havoc in Heaven, the author tries to come up with some reference for future development of Cultural Nationalism in Chinese animation.