Author | Xie Minghong
Editor | Li Chunhui
What is the most borderless content, American blockbusters or China’s online articles? Many people tend to ignore a category that is almost naturally "borderless"-children’s content, especially cartoons.
In the 1940s, when Osamu Tezuka saw China’s first animated feature film Princess of the Iron Fan, he strengthened his own animation road. In the 1980s, Riman’s Smart Rest and Astro Boy became the childhood companions of a generation of Chinese people.
Especially with the increasing desire and demand for globalization of platform content in various countries, more and more animation works are enjoyed by global audiences without time difference.
If the early animation went out to sea, it was close to an irregular accident. So right now,With the strategic layout of streaming media giants such as Tencent Video in the field of children’s content falling one by one, going out to sea is more like the necessity under the logic of IP operation.When going out to sea, we should build ships and ports. After breaking through the barriers of creation and channels, children’s categories are becoming pioneers in the sea.
Tencent video, which insists on "children’s content has no borders", and the recently launched Animal Detective Team can be regarded as a typical case of animation going out to sea. The launch of multi-platforms at home and abroad has promoted Snow Leopard Eminem and Fox Creek to the top of the world’s children.
In the face of this wave, we are inevitably curious: what kind of story does it tell that can attract friends from many countries? Where will Tencent Video’s international cooperation strategy in the field of children’s content point to?
Animal Detectives, the world’s best list.
"Animal Detectives" is a real fire. Children and parents all over the world are either on the way to catch up with the police or on the way to into the pit. In the short week since Tencent video was launched on June 9, "Animal Detective Team" has captured the high heat value of 9000+ in the station.Previously, I landed on Netflix, and the first month of broadcasting made history: I entered the top ten list in 19 countries around the world, including the United States, Britain, France and other countries for many days.
When Hard Sugar discovered that the "Mandarin version" and the "English version" could be switched, it was already guessed that "Animal Detective Team" was not simple. Although the target audience is children aged 4-7, there are not a few adults who are obsessed with it. In the comment area of Tencent Video Station, the audience teased: "It’s a little naive for children, just right for adults like me."
Children are wise and enlightened early, but adults are still childlike. It is really a beautiful talk to chase an animation together. Animal Detective Team is a children’s animation jointly produced by Tencent Video and Silvergate Media, a famous British animation company that launched The Octonauts. It tells a series of magical detective stories in the animal world, which is both interesting and informative. From the perspective of story mode and the logic of entertaining content, it is undoubtedly a high-quality children’s content with international standards that can accompany children’s growth.
In the story mode, "Animal Detective Team" adopts novel elements of solving crimes, and each unit tells the small mystery of the animal world in about 11 minutes. Not too short or too long, which conforms to the attention distribution law of children of this age. After listening to the song of the mouse team, you can sing along: "Make a scene, the state is wonderful!" The system settings are exploding! "
The people in the leading role group have distinctive and interesting personalities. Snow Leopard Eminem and Fox Creek are working partners who help each other. Director Claw Claw Claw is the task publisher, smelly agent provides the team with advanced weapons and equipment, and rat team is the early intelligence investigation and late file summarizer.
Sometimes "Animal Detectives" will deliberately break the "fourth wall" so that children can connect with reality and smile. In the third sentence, Director Paw Paw said to the agents, "I’m brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed!" Fox Creek was surprised: "But chickens have no teeth."
Logically, each case of Animal Detective Team vividly combines the characteristics of real animals and can effectively convey popular science knowledge.. The saw-scale viper in The Mystery of Monsoon Train attacked the conductor because of stress reaction, and people bit the conductor while saying they were afraid. "Rhino Fury Mystery" leads to rhinos’ living habits by being frightened, although in reality they occasionally gather around puddles but don’t have parties; "Big Trouble on the Tundra" introduces the unique head bump of musk oxen, which is thought to be drums.
Compared with the real presentation of animal documentaries, the drama simulation of Animal Detectives is obviously more popular with children. For example, the animal archives introduce four poisonous snakes: Agkistrodon, Indian ring snake, Indian cobra and sawfly. The actual image is a bit to dissuade reptilians. However, the simulated animated characters are very fun. Indian cobras read magazines and spit out models to paint scales pink, which is very earthy and full of innocence.
The eternal core of "truth, goodness and beauty"
The rhinoceros touches its nose to say hello, the musk oxen form a circle to fight against foreign enemies, and the small animals migrate from the wet forest to the dry land in the rainy season … In the process of watching Animal Detective Team, the children easily get a lot of knowledge of nature, so they can remember it efficiently.
Animal Detective not only cultivates children’s compound knowledge system, but also embodies the content core of Tencent’s video "truth, goodness and beauty".The mode of solving puzzles and solving cases cultivates children’s "truth-seeking" thinking. It guides the audience to verify and infer the details with common sense under the condition of mastering objective information. With the mantra of Snow Leopard Eminem, it is "Don’t miss any details!"
The suspicion of Agkistrodon halys is ruled out because there is still food undigested in its belly, and the Indian cobra is ruled out because there is no swollen neck in the suspect’s photo; Eminem and Xiaoxi decided that they were the initiators of the rhinoceros case, based on the fact that all the rage sites were under trees and there were four mud footprints on the rhinoceros’s back.
Finding out the truth of the incident without criticizing the nature of small animals is the pursuit of "goodness" in Animal Detective Team. Small animals in the story universe live together and help each other, which is the value orientation of "beauty and beauty together" After understanding the habits of the scorpion, the rhinoceros chose to cooperate with it. In order to get food, the rhinoceros gets rid of mosquitoes and enjoys playing.
Represented by "Animal Detective Team", Tencent Video always adheres to the unified core of "truth, goodness and beauty" of animation works while constantly innovating the content form, and accompanies the growth of young people around the world with green, healthy and rich high-quality content.
Diversified content forms point to the common truth, goodness and beauty.Whether it is a little-known IP such as Shukebeta and The Big Monster in the Forbidden City, or a brand-new self-made animation such as Fox Peach and the Old Immortal, Super Little Bear Cloth Fan, dai ba Meng Mei, Super Mini Warrior, its design and plot are in line with the mainstream aesthetics, helping children gain knowledge and understand life in entertainment.
While focusing on the knowledge of Chinese characters, dai ba Mengmei also involves multi-dimensional emotional experiences such as affection, friendship and teacher-student relationship, helping children to understand the truth, goodness and beauty in interpersonal relationships. In the story of "True and False Dad", Teacher Mumu tried to hide it because she didn’t want her students to know that she had become a bug. Finally, she told the other party the truth based on the principle of truthfulness and magnanimity, which was obviously an example to her daughter MengMeng.
The Big Monster in the Forbidden City is integrated into children’s growth in traditional culture. In the story of "The Boy Sleeping in the Dragon Bed", why did the god beast fail to arrange a protective net against lightning because of the loss of energy in the Vajra? When Xiao Yu and others were in danger, Xing Shi awakened his inner strength and said, "No one can hurt my friend." Among them, there are both the truth, goodness and beauty of the guardian partner and the value expression of self-recognition.
Happiness is the background color of childhood, and the core of the whole work "Truth, Goodness and Beauty" closely echoes the "Childlike Guardian Program" of Tencent Video. On June 1st this year, Tencent Video Children’s Channel launched the theme film list of "June 1st Accompanying Day, Dreaming for the Future", and animated stars such as Piggy Peggy, Weiwei Cat and Super Mini Warrior gathered to encourage children to release their longing for a better world.
International cooperation to help the sea.
Why can Animal Detectives easily break through the cultural and channel barriers of various countries? It can’t be ignored that it is also the "ceiling" of international cooperation in children’s animation-the original story of Emmy-winning screenwriter Gabe Pulliam, the artistic design of Spanish illustrator Alex Rhodes, and the escort of executive producer Adam Idelson, which makes the film present the most cutting-edge children’s content innovation from an international perspective.
Looking deeper, "Animal Detective Team" is an important step taken by Tencent Video in international cooperation, which marks the deep integration stage of international capacity cooperation of children’s content.Tencent Video has launched the strategic first shot of "Children’s Content without Borders" through three modes: jointly producing content with overseas teams, hiring outstanding overseas creators to join the cooperation, and inviting overseas consultants to check the project.
Looking at the internationalization of children’s content in Tencent video, there are mainly two directions of "combination boxing". On the one hand, we continue to deepen international cooperation and sell many local works overseas. Not only "going out", but also "getting on fire".
Innocence and Kung Fu Socks was successfully released to the international market in March this year, and landed in Discovery Kids, a children’s channel of Discovery Channel in Latin America, and POP TV；, a children’s channel of British Narrative Entertainment Media, in April and July respectively. "Super Little Bear Fans" has been broadcast on overseas mainstream TV stations such as Treehouse TV in Canada and Canal+ in France.
"Dolphin Gang" has successively landed on mainstream media channels in ASEAN countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar, including Media Corp Rescue Baby has been broadcast on JEI TV, KBS KIDS, DAKEYO TV and BRAVO KIDS in Korea. In August last year, many children’s self-made animations "Fish Tank Family", "Reliable Team" and "The Adventure of Little Penguin" of Tencent Video appeared at the Angxi Animation Festival, demonstrating the original animation ability of the platform.
The cooperation with mainstream platforms in various countries has established the channel advantage of Tencent’s video self-made animation going out to sea, which truly faces the global children’s audience. The idea of content creation and operation of "high-quality content+international cooperation+global distribution" makes high-quality content quickly generate brand effect. Animal Detective first landed on Netflix and then entered the domestic market, which is the embodiment of its global distribution concept.
On the other hand, cooperation with international high-quality creative talents and production companies has enabled Tencent’s self-made children’s content to have international content standards and global distribution advantages from the beginning.
"Fish Tank Family" jointly produced by Tencent Video and Zeilt Productions, headquartered in Luxembourg; "Reliable Team" jointly produced with Sixteen South Studio; The Adventure of Little Penguin initiated by Tencent Video and undertaken by Luce Creative; And the recently announced self-made project "Call Super Potato" jointly developed with the BBC children’s team, which is in full swing, also makes the market look forward to it.
When the production and distribution of a work itself are combined overseas, its going to sea is a normal process rather than an accident. For example, "Reliable Team" will be broadcast jointly by Tencent Video and French TV, and it certainly has inherent advantages in the European market compared with the works produced and distributed in China.
Taking universal values such as "truth, goodness and beauty" as the core of the work, it is a software that realizes "borderless" communication. It is hardware that has reached cooperation with international high-quality creative and production companies to break down industrial barriers. The two go hand in hand, which is the two-wheel drive to promote Tencent video children’s content to the world.
Imagine, when an animation becomes the common memory of a generation in more than a dozen countries, what a beautiful talk of cross-cultural communication? Today, people are increasingly divided rather than united by multi-culture, and the reconstruction of Babel should start with dolls.
