However, when people are middle-aged, they will find that "Gourd Brothers" is not just a simple story about seven gourd babies defeating the goblins, and there are also many interesting things.

article | Documentary

edited | Documentary

Preface

Calabash baby series classic cartoons are unforgettable childhood memories of the post-80s and post-90s in my country.

However, when people are middle-aged, they will watch this cartoon again, and then they find that " Gourd Brothers " is not just a simple story about seven gourd babies defeating the goblins, there are also many interesting things.

In fact, the seemingly infinite power of the gourd kids have their weaknesses, and their grandfather is definitely not an ordinary person, and snake spirit is not completely damaged.

What did we ignore when watching this cartoon?

01.Methods to deal with the goblin

From the fairy setting in "The Goblin Brothers", you can see the director's good intentions. The fairies who appear in

include snake spirit, scorpion spirit , mouse spirit, bat spirit, centipede spirit, etc., which can be said to be all five poisons .

After that, the fairy fought with the gourd baby, persecuting the gourd baby, and attempting to completely eliminate the gourd baby, which symbolizes the adverse impact of evil forces on social justice in reality.

In order to defeat the gourd baby, the fairy repeatedly set traps on the gourd baby, using a psychedelic mirror, setting up a Hongmen Banquet, and even using counter-espionage strategies, which are actually ridiculing the evil forces, the evil and the ugliness in reality.

If the first "Gourd Brothers"'s satirical about reality is not obvious, the second " Gourd Little King Kong " is a direct satirical of the bad phenomena in reality. These sarcasms of

can be seen from the different ways of Green Snake Spirit to deal with gourd babies.

Big baby has infinite power, and has the power to lift weights and become bigger and smaller at will.

When dealing with the big baby, the snake spirit used not swords, guns, swords and halberds, axes and halberds, hooks and forks, but changed into a huge ingot, which directly floated above the big baby , trying to absolutely suppress him.

The big kid dodged left and right and looked panicked when facing Yuanbao. In fact, some people in the sarcasm show are outstanding talents, but they are really difficult to resist the temptation of money.

Only facing a ingot, the big baby can resist it, but the snake spirit then transformed into a pile of gold coins, blocking the big baby had no way to escape, and was directly pulled into the eyes of money by the "hand" stretched out from the gold coins.

It can be seen that it is easy to reject the temptation of money once, but if you give too much money, people with unstable will fall into a trap.

No wonder this snake spirit said, "Be careful that you can't get out of money!"

Erwa has clairvoyance and wind ear . This is a symbol of people who show that the middle ears of society are clear and clear, and distinguish right from wrong.

When dealing with Erwa, the snake spirit directly turned into a fan. The fan instantly blew a gust of demonic wind, blinding Erwa's eyes and tinnitus in his ears.

This demonic trend actually implies the unhealthy trends and rumors in society.

This is a satirical mockery in a dark and unclear environment. Even if people are clear-headed and clear about right and wrong, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not be dismissed by some people who advocate unhealthy trends all day long.

Sanwa is invulnerable, and it seems really hard to defeat.

The snake spirit used a powerful sword against him, but a secret move, directly putting on him with a pair of small shoes, making it difficult for him to move forward and unable to use his entire skill.

"Wearing small shoes" is difficult for children, but adults entering society may have a deep understanding of this.

Siwa is good at spitting fire, so the snake spirit arranged a large pot of water for him.

No matter how strong his firepower is, he is naturally unable to resist when he is in front of this continuous stream of "cold water".

This big pot of water not only symbolizes the amount of tasks that exceed personal abilities, but also has the meaning of "splashing cold water". Even if the capable work harder, if the capable are not given a moment of rest and arrange huge tasks, the capable will be exhausted sooner or later.

Not to mention "spraying cold water" to those who work hard, this can only make those who work hard lack the enthusiasm to work in the end.

Wuwa is good at spitting water and has the ability to absorb all rivers and swallow rivers.

The vicious demon poured a lot of stinky water into the river, which made Wu Wa have a stomachache after drinking it.

This truly reflects the adverse consequences caused by environmental pollution.

Liuwa is good at invisibility. No one can see him, so there is nothing he can do about him, symbolizing the integrity of neutral faction.

Facing the elusive six kids, the snake spirit directly transformed into , a big hat , and put it under the hat.

This is equivalent to those false judgments in reality. No matter whether you do the wrong thing, as long as you violate the interests of someone who is not useful, you will inevitably be "labeled". Although the gourd of Qiwa absorbed monsters, the snake spirit transformed into insects in the gourd. The insect bit the inside of the gourd, and the gourd escaped again.

This also explains the principle that "a thousand-mile dike collapses in an ant hole".

In real society, cunning enemies often launch attacks from within the team. Even if the most inconspicuous breakage begins to occur inside, it will lead to failure in everything.

In addition to the snake spirit's methods of dealing with the gourd baby, the difficulties and obstacles suffered by the gourd baby are also ironic.

02. Set many difficulties

After the gourd brothers merge to become a very perfect little king, they also face many challenges of the fairy setting.

The monster encountered in this first level is called Hei Chi Hei. It looks abominable and represents the dark forces of the source of all evil. It must smoke everything black and eat it.

It's okay if other things are swallowed by it, but once the human heart is blackened, it means moral decline and social order chaos.

But in the eyes of this monster, human hearts are the most likely to be "blacked".

It can be seen that maintaining moral justice and not being blinded by interests is a difficult but extremely necessary thing.

After smashing black and eating black, Xiao King Kong met the spider demon again.

This monster is good at playing the ecstasy song, trying to invade Xiao Jingang's firm mind with the magic sound, thus causing him to lose his direction and not knowing what to do.

Spider monster also reflects real life, ironically speaking, a control freak that makes people with a strong will disturb them and eventually be bound to their hands and feet.

Fortunately, Xiao Jingang was firm in his heart and was freed from the magic sound of the spider web.

Xiao Jing just didn't easily burn the spider demon's spider web, and he encountered a multi-faceted monster in the next level.

This monster changes his face very quickly, and he also takes advantage of others.

If a weak person comes to it, it will immediately become open and fierce, and spray countless sharp javelins from its sharp teeth.

But if a person with a fierce face comes to compete with it, it will immediately become obedient and docile, trembling and dare not show any magnificence.

This monster undoubtedly symbolizes people in society who bully the weak and fear the strong and have two sides.

To deal with such a person, you must be brave and show the momentum of being fearless.

The next level that Xiao Jingang came to was a big monster.

The monster's attitude is also very direct, indicating that it is necessary to charge tolls. If you don't take out something to bribe him, you will definitely not be able to get through this level.

What the big monster is talking about is the current society bad humanity . No matter what you do, you don’t care about the rules of association, and think about giving gifts to others to open the back door.

Sometimes this gift is not willing, but you can’t do anything without giving it something, and you can’t make any decision.

got rid of the big-handed monster, and then Xiao Jingang fell into the land of gentleness again.

The beautiful banshee has no fierce face, nor does it have any weapons to hurt people, but her lethality lies in her soft words and soft silk, which makes Xiao Jingang fall into a trap without realizing it.

As the saying goes, “Heroes are sad to pass the beauty”, which means that people are in peace for a long time, which ultimately leads to the loss of their minds.

After passing these many levels, Xiao Jingang challenged the last two levels: Steel Tooth King and King Kong .

These two monsters seem to have copper heads and iron arms and extremely hard, but these monsters themselves have fatal shortcomings. The disadvantage of the Steel-Tooth King is the nostrils, while the disadvantage of the King of King Kong is the navel.

So no matter how powerful the evil forces are, they also have flaws.

Even if everyone in this world has shortcomings and deficiencies, as long as everyone unites, justice will eventually overcome the darkness.

When the gourd little King Kong found the snake essence treasure, he did not take the treasure for himself, but permanently destroyed the source of the sin.

This once again allows us to see the power of justice.

In addition to the content of the irony, criticism of the evil forces in reality and the essential pursuit and promotion of justice. When portraying characters, the cartoons of the

Calabashi series also strive to be full and three-dimensional, rather than characters with a single personality.

Here we use the grandfather and snake spirit in "Gourd Brothers" as an example.

03. The grandfather who is absolutely extraordinary

"Fairy, give me my grandfather back!"

This sentence is definitely the most classic line in "Gourd Brothers".

Because this sentence is too impressive, it makes us feel when we were young that the gourd baby is a savior with boundless power and omnipotence, while the grandfather is a mortal who is weak and needs to be saved by the gourd baby at all times.

But now revisiting this classic animation, you will find that this grandfather is definitely not an ordinary person.

First of all, let’s think about a question: What kind of person can live alone in the mountains and ridges?

According to the general setting of Chinese mythology, this person is either a god or a Buddha.

Of course, we cannot make judgments so arbitrary. We need to analyze the identity of our grandfather, but we still have to see what he did.

This old man hangs on cliffs to collect herbs every day. His toughness can be said to have exceeded that of fifty percent of young people today.

Then when the old man saw the poisonous snake, he threw a flying knife over and accurately split the poisonous snake into two pieces.

His martial arts skills are so superb, it is estimated that "Little Li Flying Knife" is beyond the reach of the world.

When the fairy was accidentally released from the hole by a pangolin, a cold and evil wind blew everywhere.

The creatures in nature were frozen into ice by this demonic wind, , but grandpa did not freeze , which shows his extraordinaryness.

In a poor valley full of stones, my grandfather also planted gourds with his superb agricultural technology and fed water several times a day.

After that, my grandfather was captured and detained by the snake spirit. faced the monster without any fear . Instead, he pushed the snake spirit to the ground with a slap, which shows that the old man is extremely courageous.

Then grandfather followed the pangolin to escape, fell several times in the fairy cave, but was not injured, and he was a god.

The most shocking thing is that when the snake spirit got the gourd and was about to collect seven gourd babies, it was grandfather who stepped forward and ran into the snake spirit, which made the snake spirit throw out the gourd, causing the gourd to return to the Qiwa's hands.

To a certain extent, Grandpa is the boss behind the scenes who turned the situation around.

In recent years, some people have analyzed that the grandfather in the gourd widow is Pangu's descendant , and these seven gourd widows may be his previous magic weapons.

It is precisely because of this that the Cauldron recognized him from the beginning and called him "grandfather".

04. The snake spirit without a broken snake spirit

is not only the identity of grandfather, but the identity of the snake spirit in the head of the fairy is also really intriguing.

When I first watched "Gourd Brothers", I just thought that this snake spirit, snake and scorpion, was really damn, and was a completely negative character.

However, now when I re-watch this cartoon, I feel that this snake spirit is not so completely bad.

After catching my grandfather into the demon cave, the snake spirit did not beat my grandfather, but instead ordered his subordinates to treat her well.

As the leader of a group of fairies, the snake spirit also toasted his grandfather himself and said with great respect:

"Old man, let's get to know one's family and make friends to ensure that you spend your old age in peace."

Although this is something that makes people feel goose bumps, it is really polite and can't find fault.

Even if he was pushed to the ground by his grandfather, the snake spirit was not angry, but instead stopped the scorpion spirit and wanted to attack his grandfather.

It can be seen that this snake has truly understood human nature after practicing for thousands of years, and it is really reasonable in terms of interpersonal communication.

At the same time, the snake spirit is also extremely smart and knows how to win.

After defeating the six gourd babies, the snake spirit directly carried the seventh gourd that had not yet been born into the cave to raise it, which can be regarded as a demonic "prenatal education" for the gourd babies in advance.

After Qiwa was born, the snake spirit directly hugged him in his arms and asked him to call him his mother.

Mother is the object of protection and maintenance for children no matter what. The snake spirit’s approach actually grasps everyone’s human weaknesses and directly turns Qiwa into a magic weapon in his hands.

Snake spirit is the image of a human head and snake tail. It is willing to play a loving mother and also attaches great importance to that gem. Based on these characteristics, many people think that Snake spirit is actually a descendant of Nuwa .

Nuwa recorded in "Records of the Grand Historian" is the image of a human head and snake body, and is also regarded as the mother of .

According to this analysis, grandpa is a descendant of Pangu and snake spirit is a descendant of Nuwa.

Then the story of the gourd baby is not just as simple as seven gourd baby defeating the gourd, but is related to the war between two ancient tribes, and the profound meaning is even richer.

No matter what, the cartoons of the Calabash Va series produced by Hu Jinqing are indeed rich in meaning, and are also a criticism of the real society. They are a brilliant work of Chinese animation.

It can be said that everyone can taste different flavors from them at different stages of life. The great success of the

Calabash series cartoons is inseparable from one person.

This person is director Hu Jinqing and is the real father of the gourd baby.

Director Hu Jinqing

05. The Father of the Calabash

The Calabash series cartoon is a hard work by Director Hu Jinqing. Without him, the birth of the Calabash treasures would not have been possible.

Calabash is the first paper-cut series cartoon in China, and it is also a cartoon with unique Chinese characteristics.

At that time, cartoons from Europe, America and Japan were very popular in China, and foreign cultures unknowingly penetrated the thoughts of children and young people.

The appearance of the Calabash Va series of animations has really allowed the whole world to see the strong strength of Chinese animation.

Foreigners looked at this complex line lifting action and felt extremely magical and expressed great respect for Chinese animation.

However, it is a pity that the glory of Chinese animation at that time did not continue.

It is not easy to make such a paper-cut cartoon, and it takes a lot of time and effort.

Sometimes you have to reshoot by accident. It may take several days for a few seconds of shots.

It is obvious that making such an animation requires a lot of patience and a very high aesthetic vision.

Although so much effort has been spent, the cost of making such animations is not high.

is far inferior to the production cost of cartoons in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea at that time.

After the emergence of the Huluwa series of animations, many animation producers came to learn from Hu Jinqing.

However, because of people's impetuousness and capital impact, most people only pursue interests , and do not have in-depth thinking about the future of Chinese animation.

So many people gradually left Hu Jinqing and turned to animation factories in the United States, Japan and other places as ghostwriters.

In this way, Chinese-style animations have gradually declined under the exclusion of market capital.

ending

Now we are always looking forward to the rise of Chinese animation and comics, but we seem to have forgotten the once gloriousness of Chinese animation.

"Ma Liang," "Magic Pen," "Magic Palace" and "Nezha," are all popular all over the world, and have taken the lead in a number of animations and are loved and welcomed by thousands of viewers.

Whenever people revisit the classics of previous Chinese animation, they inevitably recall the past years and involuntarily shed tears of the times.

This tears reminds the current Chinese animation producers that they shoulder the important responsibility and mission of returning Chinese animation to glory, and the Chinese are always full of expectations for animated films with Chinese characteristics.

This will eventually be a long and difficult road, but the Chinese have always had the tenacity of seeking from top to bottom and not regretting it.

There are currently a group of high-profile animation producers walking on the road.

In recent years, Chinese animation has appeared on the screen. Most of these animations are telling Chinese stories well. The techniques and styles used are also unique in our country. This is undoubtedly the best proof of the rise of Chinese animation.

Chinese animation will eventually return to the king, and we look forward to that day.