Abstract:

Either for animated films or for usual story films or documentary films, narrative is one of the basic, kernel topics. The development of narrative arts and techniques, often from an important aspect, reflects the course of film development. As far as China' s film is concerned, the issues of both narrative and ideology that is embodied as a cultural soft power, are worthy of discussing from these two levels of creation and research. But for the animated film, the nature of artistic creation is imagination, and is the narrative ability reflected in imagination by way of images, and essential innocence and child' s interest. The imaginativeness of animated films is closer to children' s nonlogical, nonconventional, nonlinear thinking, or, in other words, antiadult logical thinking. This way of thinking, to some extent, determines the external forms and narrative features of the animated film. In ideological demands, the animated film is clear to focus on the cultural connotation of common humanity, because children are main audience of the animated film, characteristic of less difference and more universality if compared with adults. The animated film needs more "edutainment" than the story film that takes the adults as the main audience, and, therefore, more effective expression of ideology through video and narrative images instead of simple moralizing. While it is not difficult to establish a view of value that can be recognized, it is also not easy to improve and strengthen the effectiveness of this view of value. If the desire to instruct is too strong and the mode of narrative is too straight to the theme, things will ultimately go to their opposites. This is just a big problem, which not only trouble the domestic animated film but also torment the whole Chinese film industry.