Characters experience of ten thousand brothers.

Xue Mei Zhuo, the head of Great Wall Film Company, learned something about the process of making cartoons in the United States. He appreciated Wan Brothers' interest in this cause and invited them to join Great Wall Company to shoot cartoons. The first domestic portrait co-starring "Studio Noisy" was soon born in Great Wall Company. The content of the film tells that a painter (Wan Laiming) is painting in the studio, and a paper man jumps out of an ink bottle to make trouble with him and makes a scene in the studio. Although the plot is simple, they encounter many problems: when shooting, either the place that should be moved does not move or the place that should not move moves; The gourd is pressed here and the gourd is floating there. After many experiments and repeated explorations, they succeeded in shooting. Then they drew a letter and sent it back.

1928

After these two original cartoons were released in Shanghai, people aroused great interest, and the Wan brothers began to be favored by the producers.

The 1930s

Under the influence of left-wing movies, Wan Brothers gradually broadened their creative themes. They drew six short films such as China Awakening, Dog Detective, Blood Money, Tortoise and Rabbit Walking Race for Lianhua Company, and also drew films such as Mystery Detective, Year of Domestic Products, Vulnerability, History of National Pain, Camel Dance, Flying Lucky and Resistance for Star Company. Camel Dance, which was painted on 1935, is the first animated film with sound in China. The content of these animated short films is mostly in tune with the pulse of the times, and the art is constantly improving, from the synthesis of real people and animation to the full use of animated expressions to express ideas.

While drawing cartoons, star companies also try to insert cartoons into feature films. As early as 1928, in "Burning Red Lotus Temple" produced by Minken Company, those sword fights were all made by Wan Brothers with animation. Later, Ge Xiang Beauty produced by Star Company, Urban Scenery produced by Dentsu Company and Parents and Children produced by Cultural Film Company all inserted their animation shots, which added a lot of color to the films.

Before the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, they drew nearly 20 animated short films. Most of these short films imitate the American form in shape and action, which is very foreign.

1936

Dawan wrote an article on "Gossip Comics". Jong Li reviewed this shortcoming and said; "To make China's animation industry have unlimited vitality, it must be rooted in its own national traditional soil." Unfortunately, before they could realize their artistic transformation, the guns of the all-round anti-Japanese war started.

1938

Except for the fourth child, Di Huan, who stayed in Shanghai and switched to photography, the remaining 30,000 people came to Wuhan from Shanghai and later to Chongqing to carry out anti-Japanese propaganda activities with animation as a weapon. Wan Laiming was also elected as the director of the All-China Film Anti-Japanese Association.

During this period, they drew four episodes of anti-Japanese war cartoon and seven episodes of anti-Japanese war songs for China Film Studio. Anti-Japanese War Slogans Comics promote the Anti-Japanese War and save the nation with the style of comics, which makes the anti-Japanese War slogans active on the screen, novel and unique. Song Collection of Anti-Japanese War is a combination of popular anti-Japanese war songs and animations, including Ma Run composed by Xian Xinghai, Man Jiang Hong composed by Liu Xuean based on Yue Fei's original lyrics, Protecting Hometown composed by He Luting, Heroine, Cold Clothes in May and Commemorative Songs, and Shang Jia composed by Sheng Jialun.

1940

The Kuomintang authorities pursued a passive anti-Japanese war policy. Not only is it not allowed to shoot feature films with anti-Japanese content, but even the new form of anti-Japanese war songs is excluded from shooting. Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan had nothing to do, so they turned back to the "isolated island" and worked in the cartoon department of Xinhua Film Company. At this time, the American cartoon business card "Snow White" is being shown in Shanghai, and Chinese people are scrambling to watch it, and the attendance rate is enduring. This incident greatly shocked Dawan and 20,000 people. They were determined to make a high-quality animated feature film and win glory for their country.

After careful consideration, Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan decided to draw a large-scale comic "Princess Iron Fan" based on the three-tone banana fan fragment in The Journey to the West. At first, Zhang, the manager of Xinhua Company, thought it was profitable and decided to invest in filming. Later, he found that animation was expensive and took a long time, and he was not sure about making money, so he wanted to give up halfway. Wan Laiming argued vigorously, patting his chest to ensure that he would not lose money, and won the support and investment of Sheng Pihua of Shangyuan Banking Company. Princess Iron Fan didn't give up halfway. However, due to economic, personnel and technical constraints, more than 20,000 good ideas have to be ruined.

In order to shoot this film, they organized 100 people to participate in drawing, and drew nearly 20,000 drawings, with more than 400 reams of paper alone. After a year and a half of hard work, the length of the lens is 1.8 thousand feet, and finally it reaches more than 7,600 feet, which can be shown for 80 minutes. They also invited famous actors, such as Bai Hong, Yan, Yin Xiucen, to voice it.

The film is novel in design and vivid in image. The Monkey King's seventy-two changes and the magic of Princess Iron Fan are vividly portrayed. This film also brought China's landscape paintings to the screen, which made the still scenery move for the first time. It also absorbs the artistic modeling features of China traditional operas, endows each important figure with distinctive personality characteristics and makes it have strong national characteristics. In the world film history, it is the fourth large-scale animation art film after Snow White, Lilliput and Pinocchio in the United States, which indicates that China's animation art is close to the advanced level in the world at that time. 194 1 After its completion, it was released in the name of China United Film Company, and Chinese people rushed to watch it, which made Shanghainese proud in the "isolated island" period. Since then, Snow White can no longer dominate the cartoon film industry. It is worth mentioning that, although the words "people rise to win the final victory" in the film encouraged the anti-Japanese struggle, they were forcibly cut off by the enemy and puppet authorities during the screening. However, by 1979, Komatsuzawa of Japan still mentioned in an article that "the Monkey King called on people to stand up against cows" in Princess Iron Fan at that time was actually satirizing the Japanese war of aggression against China.

Princess Iron Fan is very popular. Zhang Shankun thinks it is profitable and wants to make a new film. Twenty thousand also made a plan to paint "Make a scene in Heaven". But at this time, the Japanese invaders had entered the concession, and the comic department of Xinhua Company was forced to cancel. Twenty thousand had to find another partner, got a capitalist's investment and bought movie material. However, when 20 thousand was ready to start shooting, the capitalist suddenly broke the contract and withdrew his capital. It turned out that he saw the soaring film material, and instead of taking risks in filming, he might as well hoard the material for profiteering, so the shooting plan of "Make a scene in Heaven" had to be ruined.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, all three brothers entered the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. 1963, their animation dream of "making a scene in heaven" finally came true, and they won the first prize in international film festivals one after another, and they were also shown in dozens of countries around the world, marking that China's fine arts films entered the advanced ranks in the world.