Directed by Yan Dingxian, written by Yao Zhongli, Nie Xinru and others, adapted from the cartoon "Shuke and Beta" by "Fairy Tale King" Zheng Yuanjie**, it first appeared on the TV screen in 1989. The little mouse Shuk and Beta drove airplanes and tanks, opened companies, caught bad guys, fought pirates, and defended the peace of mankind, becoming the "best partners" in the hearts of many children at that time.
When Shuke and Beta" was broadcast on the "Revisiting the Classics" channel, the China Television Art Committee invited screenwriters Yao Zhongli and Nie Xinru to review their creative experience and "recall the classics" with the majority of TV audiences.
Shuck and Beta are created as "people".
Narrator: Yao Zhongli, first-class screenwriter of Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio
Origins of Creation: The Empathy of a Generation
In 1987, after I finished writing "Hulu Brothers", I have been planning a new script. One day, my 4-year-old son Yao Yu listened to me read Zheng Yuanjie's "The Adventures of Shuke and Beta" and actually cried. He said to me, "Dad, can you make Shuk Beta into a cartoon?" "I know the child was touched by the story of these two little mice.
Dragons give birth to dragons, phoenixes give birth to phoenixes, and mice give birth to burrows in the ground", using "origin" to determine the pedigree of "good people" and "bad people" still has a very great impact on our generation, and it would be meaningful if this concept could be broken through cartoons. So I immediately started to prepare the preliminary desk work, and submitted the creative origin, story theme, character design and other related shooting copy to the leaders of the studio.
Subvert traditional values
- What I love about Shukbeta
One of the main reasons I love Shukbeta is that they both have names. For a long time, the small animals in domestic cartoons only had animal attributes and no "human names", but there were well-known "characters" such as Mickey, Tom and Jerry in foreign cartoons. Therefore, in 1982, when creating the cartoon series "Little Rabbit Taotao", we gave the little white rabbit a resounding name "Taotao".
I like Shukbeta because they, like Mickey and Jerry, are no longer labeled as badass, but seemingly weak but full of intelligence, and can output aesthetic value. Therefore, when designing the copy, I focused on the two main characters, Shuck and Beta. The leaders of the United States Film Studio quickly agreed to set up the project according to this plan, and Zheng Yuanjie also happily signed the authorization contract. At this point, I officially started writing the script for the cartoon "Shuk and Beta".
and Nie Xinru and other screenwriters
After the first draft was completed, the leaders of the American Film Studio asked for my opinion, can I let Nie Xinru write the script together? Nie Xinru's mother, Yu Hejing, is an old comrade in the literature group and my senior. I am also the lyricist of the theme song "Bright Eyes" of the cartoon "The Blind Girl and the Fox" written by Nie Xinru. Therefore, I agreed to the leader's opinion.
Nie Xinru successfully completed the creation of the second draft of the script for the first six episodes. In 1989, because Nie Xinru went to Germany to study, the creation of the script for the last seven episodes was completed by me and my old classmate Zhang Zhiyuan. The director is Yan Dingxian and Lin Wenxiao, who collaborated with me on "Little Rabbit Taotao".
Shuke and Beta" was widely acclaimed and won many awards, and more than 30 years later, it can still become a classic work imprinted in the hearts of children, I think this is inseparable from the second creative period of the American film studio at that time, and the animation artists kept in mind the motto of "not imitating others, not repeating themselves", not for utilitarianism, buried in hard work, and went all out to make good works.
Labor the most glorious Shuk and Beta
Narrator: Nie Xinru is a professor at East China Normal University
"The glory of labor" and collectivism
- I wanted to give meaning to Shukbeta
I am full of personal emotions for "Shuke and Beta" and resonate with Yao Zhongli. But to create a cartoon for the public, it is not enough to have personal emotions, but also to have solid character logic. To this end, we made a sharp distinction between the personalities of Shuck and Beta, so that they "don't know each other without fighting", and let them earn everyone's respect through their labor. "Labor Glory" is my personal experience when I cut the line, and it is also the meaning I want to give to Shuck and Beta.
Director Yan Dingxian and Director Lin Wenxiao asked me to give advice to the storyboard, and I mentioned one: After Shuke helped the little bee transport pollen, the soldiers guarding the hive saluted him, and only used one shot. I suggested a set of shots to show the little bee's salute, and from Shuck's line of sight, there would be a strong psychological shock, because he had never received such courtesy as a mouse in the past, so he would have tears in his eyes. The two directors happily accepted my opinion.
In addition to the "glory of labor", for the collective, for everyone, not for the individual, is also the aspect that the film emphasizes, such a collectivist spirit and "glory of labor" complement each other, become the theme throughout the film, we feel it is tenable. Without such a spirit, Shuck and Beta would have become naughty children in the general sense of the word, rather than heroic characters with "ideal" overtones.
The animated version of "Shuke and Beta" is too "edifying"? I disagree
I have seen some comments in recent years, thinking that the adaptation of "Shuke and Beta" by Shangmei Film has too much "edification" and seems to be a "transgression" of the original work, and I don't agree with it. Those who put forward these comments clearly view "indoctrination" as a negative practice. For children, their world is a world that needs to be constructed by education, and people cannot be born as social beings, but only through "education" can they become people who live in harmony with society. Therefore, setting up characters and behaviors with positive meaning in cartoons is not only a social ethical need, but also the responsibility of cartoon screenwriters.
As the theme song of "Shuk and Beta" sings: on the one hand, don't be swayed by some incorrect society, you must have your own opinions, "your own way to go"; On the one hand, it is necessary to put the well-being of the collective above the interests of the individual, and "whoever needs help, just shout Shukbeta". These lyrics accompanied the music composed by Mr. Kim Fu-jae and spread all over the world.
Subvert the binary opposition of "good guys" and "bad guys".
Once the theme is set, it is necessary to build an interesting plot and story based on the original work. At that time, there were already successful cartoon works such as "The Adventures of the Sloppy King", "Sheriff Black Cat", "Hulu Brothers" and "Avanti", so we wanted to try to build a narrative structure that strengthened the suspense in the story of "Shuke and Beta", so that the stories were interlocking.
We are also making some attempts to subvert the binary opposition of "good guys" and "bad guys". In addition to the group of bad cats, there are special good cats like "Miri" who help Shukbeta; In the group portrait of the rat, in addition to the positive image of Shukbeta, there are also heartless and cruel guys like "White Road". In addition, there is also the intermediary character "Fei Fei", who is neither a hero nor a villain, but a living being in our daily lives.
These designs are widely accepted by audiences today, but they were still quite innovative more than thirty years ago, at least not in cartoons at the time. We hope that in this way, children can learn to dialectically distinguish between "good" and "bad" according to people's specific behaviors.
*"TV Art" WeChat *** screenwriter Yao Zhongli Nie Xinru).