My Animation Era

Chapter 1107: Three Thousand Questions about Blue Cat’s Naughty Questions

　　　The people born in 2000 have rarely seen the animated work "Three Thousand Questions of Naughty Blue Cat". They may be more familiar with "Blue Cat Dragoon".

 Because most of the animations watched by those born after 2000 are works produced in 2005 and after, and animations before 2005 are difficult for them to access.

  But for those born in the 1990s, "Three Thousand Questions of Naughty Blue Cat" is definitely a timeless classic.

  Gu Miao is born in the 90s. For him, the blue cat is the "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" of his childhood, accompanying him through countless days and nights.

 He still remembers it to this day.

At that time, as soon as I got home from school, I would eagerly turn on my computer and watch the cartoon series "Blue Cat's Three Thousand Questions" as if I were eating or sleeping.

 How was the earth formed?

 Why do stars blink?

 How do polar bears live? Why do humans need to sleep…

As the saying goes, every child has a copy of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" when he was a child. He will always be curious about the world and have many questions hidden in his heart.

 You can ask your parents or teachers for some questions, but parents and teachers are not encyclopedias and cannot know everything.

Moreover, parents and teachers are very busy, so it is impossible to ask them everything.

 So at that time, the animation series "Three Thousand Questions of Naughty Blue Cat" came out and became the best way for Gu Miao to understand the world and answer his doubts.

 Not afraid of other people’s jokes.

  When Gu Miao was a child, it was the first time that she saw so many kinds of dinosaurs, so many kinds of marine life, so many aerospace and sports... Thanks to the "Blue Cat's Three Thousand Questions" animated series for popularizing science.

If it weren't for this animation, he would have never known at that age that in the distant ancient times, there were so many kinds of magical dinosaurs on the earth and so many kinds of magical creatures in the ocean.

 So from this perspective, the series "Three Thousand Questions of Naughty Blue Cat" can be regarded as a meritorious one.

 The value of popular science is far greater than the value of art!

Perhaps in terms of the fun, excitement and beauty of the animation, Blue Cat's Naughty Questions is really not as good as other animations.

 But when it comes to popularizing knowledge and bringing novelty to children, Blue Cat’s Naughty Questions is definitely the winner.

“Isn’t this the animated version of One Hundred Thousand Whys? Haven’t you all read the book One Hundred Thousand Whys?”

  Huang Kun’s complaints also represent the views of people like Lao Zhang and Hou Bin.

From their point of view, the animation project "Three Thousand Questions of Naughty Blue Cat" is exactly the animated version of "One Hundred Thousand Whys".

 It is so preachy, will anyone really read it?

“You have to know that text and video carry different amounts of information, although the audience is the same.”

Gu Miao explained: "How many children can really read through a thick and heavy book patiently? And the boring text descriptions, how can the pictures be intuitive and interesting?"

The book series "One Hundred Thousand Whys" is very famous, so famous that people all over the country know about it.

But just because this series of books is famous does not mean that everyone will buy it and read it, and even if they buy it and read it, they may not find it interesting and they will remember it after reading it.

On the other hand, looking back at the series "Three Thousand Questions of Naughty Blue Cat", because it is an animated work and uses entertaining and educational storytelling, the effect of popularizing science knowledge is far better than reading a book.

 At least the viewers who have watched it will remember it in a short period of time.

 Perhaps over time, this knowledge will still be forgotten, but it is still much better than other carriers.

 “That’s true…”

Lao Zhang said thoughtfully: “Messages conveyed through video and audio are indeed easier to accept than text, especially for children with immature minds.”

“But for a simple science animation, there is no need to mobilize so many people, right?”

Huang Kun was a little puzzled: "Similar popular science animations have been made by people all the time! How is "Blue Cat's Three Thousand Questions" different from these popular science animations?"

“Other popular science animations are about popularizing science knowledge first and then an animation.”

Gu Miao said with a smile: "The Blue Cat's Three Thousand Questions is first of all an animation with ups and downs in the plot and interesting characters, and secondly it has the function of popularizing science knowledge."

 Tell the story first, then popularize science!

Or simply, integrate popular science knowledge points into the plot directly, instead of just copying them mechanically for the sake of popular science.

 It’s not like Gu Miao has never seen popular science animations in the industry.

can only say…

Those popular science animations only achieve "popular science", but ignore the attraction and interest that animations should have.

for example.

 A certain local TV station once produced a popular science animation to teach children to develop good living habits.

 What is the main plot?

　　My mother made Coca-Cola chicken wings, and the children grabbed them with their hands while eating, and were clapped by their mothers, with a look of aggrieved confusion on their faces.

Mom: "Baby! You can't use your hands directly. It's very unhygienic. You should be like mom..."

 Then the baby learned to use serving chopsticks to pick up food, and his mouth was full of oil when he ate under his mother’s pleased smile. This episode of animation ended here.

This is a proper popular science animation.

 But is the science popularization effect very good?

Each episode of this thing lasts 3-5 minutes. It is said that the original plan was to have 100 episodes, aiming to teach children to develop 100 good habits.

The results of it?

It only aired about twenty episodes and ended in a hurry, because the children were not interested at all, so they just thought it was "advertising time" and directly changed the channel to watch other children's cartoon programs.

 To put it a bit harshly.

This thing is not even as creative as some "toy advertisements". Children would rather watch the advertisement than watch this popular science animation.

 "Three Thousand Questions of Naughty Blue Cat" is not this kind of popular science animation. If it were, the original work would not have achieved such brilliant achievements.

　　First of all, it must be interesting. In the interesting animated plot, popular science knowledge points should be thrown out in a reasonable way, so that children can accept and recognize it.

How can anyone preach when they come up?

 Popular science animation, in the final analysis, is also animation. Since it is animation, the audience’s feelings must be considered, and we cannot simply read from the script.

 “Okay, I generally understand.”

 Huang Kun nodded.

 Animation first, science popularization second! After figuring out the secret behind this, he could suddenly understand why Mr. Gu was waging such a big battle.

 Putting aside the nature of popular science, based on the standard of looking at normal animation projects, this is an "epic" animation with 3,000 episodes!

What?

Mr. Gu didn’t say the length of the project. How did he know it would be 3,000 episodes?

 There’s no need to guess?

 The name of the animation is "Three Thousand Questions of the Naughty Blue Cat". If these three thousand questions are one question per episode, it will definitely be the basis for the 3,000th episode.

 Possibly even more!

Oh my God! This is even more exaggerated than the "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" series.

 …

Gu Miao was speechless regarding Huang Kun's speculation.

 The entire series of "Three Thousand Questions of Naughty Blue Cat" adds up to several thousand episodes, but it is not a single work.

 This is a series, a series!

If you want to put it this way, there is also something to say about "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf". They are also thousands of episodes in length, which sounds equally exaggerated.

 But the thousands of episodes of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf are also a collection of series.

 Broken down into a single work, apart from the special first season, there are only about a hundred episodes of Dingtian.

 The same goes for "Three Thousand Questions of Naughty Blue Cat"!

 Broken down into individual works, the number of episodes is actually not that exaggerated. There are only a few hundred episodes in each season. "How many...hundreds of episodes?"

Lao Zhang widened his eyes and said, "Isn't that too much? Except for the first season of Pleasant Goat, we haven't done any animation with more than 200 episodes, right?"

“Don’t be embarrassed, “Detective Conan” has already broken through this limit, but it was just divided into several seasons for the sake of good looks.”

 “Indeed, I almost forgot about Conan.”

Lao Zhang suddenly woke up. In addition to the first season of "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf", the number of episodes of "Detective Conan" is also exaggerated.

 Since Mr. Qingshan was repeatedly caught in the air force when fishing, he learned from the experience and diligently updated the comic for a long time.

  Thanks to the progress of the original comics and some original series, the total number of episodes of the TV version of "Detective Conan" is now almost 500.

But this property is different.

　　Although "Detective Conan" has always been serialized, updates will occasionally be interrupted.

This mainly depends on the update progress of the original comic, whether Teacher Aoyama can catch a big fish, and the strength of the TV original.

Normally speaking, TV animations will stop updating for a period of time every hundred or so episodes, leaving enough time to wait for the original comics to be updated.

 As a result, the audience and Wanbao officials will also "divide the animation into seasons" according to the suspension time.

 But this is actually a “pseudo-season broadcast”.

　　Although the audience is officially divided into seasons under the banner of Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3, the animated "Detective Conan" has never been divided into seasons. It has always been the same season.

When Gu Miao mentioned this example, Lao Zhang remembered that this was indeed the case.

However, even with the precedent of "Detective Conan", producing an animation that can easily last hundreds of episodes is still extremely risky.

 “Would you like to subdivide it further?”

Lao Zhang suggested: "Producing hundreds of episodes at once feels too outrageous and exaggerated. How about less, how about only 100 episodes at a time?"

 “That’s too little…”

Gu Miao shook her head.

　　The seasons of the animation "Blue Cat's Three Thousand Questions" are not ordinary plot divisions, but represent different plot units.

 You can get the clue from the name.

 Humor stage, Star Wars, sports series, age of dinosaurs, sea world, space adventures…

 These different units tell completely different story backgrounds.

Although the protagonists are all naughty blue cats, the development of the plot will also change greatly under different story units.

If possible, Gu Miao does not want to disrupt the arrangement of this plot unit, and the series will be whatever it is.

 But Lao Zhang’s concerns are not unreasonable.

Producing hundreds of episodes of animation at once is not a heavy burden for Wanbao Animation, but the risk is indeed too high.

 “It’s better than this…”

Gu Miao proposed a compromise idea, which is to set up a few more units while reducing the length of the original units.

For example, detailed units such as Humor World and Dinosaur Age can be streamlined to about 100 episodes.

 But at the same time, add a few more units like this and do a few more seasons.

In this way, the total number of episodes has not decreased, 3000 Questions is still 3000 Questions, but the workload of each season has become less, and the production risks have also been greatly reduced.

"Can!"

 Lao Zhang agreed: "Make more sub-series, each sub-series is a separate season of animation, and one season of animation has about 100 episodes..."

 Elementary school students can calculate it.

If there are only about 100 episodes in a season, it will take at least 30 seasons to complete Mr. Gu's blueprint for the "Three Thousand Questions".

Suppose further that Wanbao Animation only produces one season of the TV animation "Three Thousand Questions of Naughty Blue Cat" per year on average, that is a full 30 years, spanning nearly half a century...

 “Good guy!”

“If these three thousand questions are completed, half of the twenty-first century will be over.” Lao Zhang clicked his tongue.

 “Isn’t that great?”

Gu Miao disagreed: "If I can't finish it, I'll ask Xiao Sensen to continue it later. If Xiao Sensen can't finish it, I'll let my grandson continue it later."

 There is an endless shortage of children and grandchildren, but if the number of animations does not increase, how can we not finish the work?

 “You know how a foolish old man can move mountains.”

 Lao Zhang couldn't help but smile and said: "According to what you say, this project shouldn't be called Blue Cat Naughty Three Thousand Questions, just call it Blue Cat Brand Heirloom."

 “Haha, just kidding!”

Gu Miao smiled happily.

  No matter how exaggerated "Three Thousand Questions of the Naughty Blue Cat" is, there is no possibility that it will never be finished.

 Instead of thinking about this, it is better to think about what the next generation will do after he finishes "Three Thousand Questions of the Naughty Blue Cat"?

 Blue Cat Dragoons?

 It doesn’t seem impossible!

 Gu Miao thinks that before she retires, she should at least write out the plan for "Blue Cat Dragoons" and leave it to Xiao Sensen.

 Otherwise, he would have finished the Three Thousand Questions, and when Xiao Sensen succeeded him, there would be nothing to do. Wouldn’t that be an instant embarrassment?

Speaking of this, Gu Miao actually has a bad taste.

The current Wanbao Group, or simply Wanbao Animation, has a lot of famous IPs under its name, and it is also working hard to create original creations and open up new tracks, so there is no problem.

But if it takes twenty years and Xiao Sensen takes over...

When he discovers that his father has already tried all animation themes and animation types, and has left behind one masterpiece after another, will he just start doing it?

 This is a hard work!

 All roads have been walked by Dad, and all genres are supported by the masterpieces left by Dad...

 Just thinking about it makes me feel hopeless.

 In fantasy novels, there are three thousand avenues. Choose one of them and you will be able to prove it!

Now that all three thousand avenues have been proven by my father, unless future generations open up a new path, where can they go to prove it?

 What is this called?

Our ancestors were so awesome and their great achievements were so dazzling that it would be difficult for future generations to catch up even if they spend their entire lives.

 In this case, let’s start showing off!

 Since these conditions are met, what else can we do if we don’t show off? No way? Does anyone really think that Xiao Sensen and his descendants can surpass Gu Miao?

Gu Miao didn’t even dare to think so.

 He is a wall-hanger, but his descendants are not wall-hangers.

If you don’t cheat, if Xiao Sensen can achieve half of his achievements in a lifetime of hard work, that would be enough to be called great.

 (End of this chapter)