ABSTRACT
In 1956, Chinese animation was still in the exploratory stage and needed to imitate the animated styles from foreign countries. However, by 1987 this situation no longer existed. The concept of animation creation in this period was mainly reflected in two breakthroughs. One was to break through existing expression forms to deeply explore the audio-visual language of films. The other was to look for new animation themes. After the reform and opening up, animated films with different themes sprung up. For example, Snow Kids was adapted from the children’s literature work which was themed at depicting friendship; Butterfly Spring was themed at extolling love; One Night at Gallery and Super Soap were aimed at satirizing real-life phenomena. In 1979, Nezha Conquers the Dragon King directed by Wang Shuchen, Yan Dingxian, and Xu Jingda was China’s first animated feature film in widescreen format. In 1982, the ink-wash animation The Deer’s Bell was released.
