KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS:A JOURNEY THAT WE ALL GO THRORGH

⊙ By Travis Knight

翻譯：思葦

KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS:A JOURNEY THAT WE ALL GO THRORGH

《魔弦傳說》：我們走過的成長之旅

⊙ By Travis Knight

翻譯：思葦

今年開年上映的第一部動畫片是《魔弦傳說》。這部定格動畫（stop-motion animation）是美國萊卡動畫工作室花了五年時間才完成的心血力作，講述了一個名叫久保的少年面對步步逼近的巨大危機，踏上尋找父親留下的秘寶的旅途。這種史詩式的冒險故事一直被認為是定格動畫幾乎不可能做到的題材，那么大屏幕上那些充滿東方風情的驚人畫面又是怎么實現的呢？一起來聽本片導演講講幕后的故事吧！

Host:While the Disney and Pixar brands have becomesynonymouswith[同義]blockbuster[賣座電影]animated[動畫的]films, the small Portland-based studio behind Kubo has been quietly making its mark. Since it was founded a decade ago, Laika Entertainment has earned three Oscar nods for animation for its films Coraline, ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls. The head of Laika is Travis Knight. Give us some of the basics of stop-motion animation 101. Like, when I look at this little character of Kubo, is he a plastic model, a clay model?

Travis Knight(Director):He’s a littlepuppet[人偶]. The basic way it works is that you have a puppet. They have a steelarmature[支架], which is, like, a little skeleton inside their body. And they’re covered with asilicon[硅]skin. And, you know, they have cloth costumes. And in a lot of ways, it’s like a live-action production house. It’s justin miniature[小型]. We still have the same departments. We have, you know, costuming and hair. And then we…you know, we move these things aframe[畫面]at a time.And the thing that we’ve done differently at Laika is that we try tomerge[混合]technology and forward-thinkinginnovation[創新]with this hundred-year-old art andcraft[工藝]. And it’s thatfusion[融合]of those things that makes the productions look so interesting, I believe.

Host:Western animation—I mean, cinema in general, frankly—doesn’t have the best reputation in terms of representing Asian countries and cultures. And so, like, when you’re trying to set a story in a place like Japan, how do you walk that line of, kind of, staying true to the atmosphere and the sense of place without falling intostereotypes[刻板形象]?

Travis:For the first two, three years of a project, all we’re doing is developing thescript[腳本], the story, the characters, the world. And as part of that process, you are, you know, diving really deep intoregional[地區的]and historical research to make sure that you’re grounding your fairytale in the real world. You know, for me, I was eight years old when I was first introduced to Japan. Itagged along[尾隨]with my dad on one of his business trips to Japan. And from the moment I set foot there, it was like I’d been transported to another world. It was so completely different than anything that I’d ever experienced. And so for me, that was the beginning of a love affair…well, a lifelong love affair.

Host:How old were you when you first started working with any kind of crafts or doing art?

Travis:Yeah, I’ve been doing it my whole life. I was a fairly lonely kid growing up. And, you know, a lot of that time spent alone I was creating. I was writing stories. I was making music. And it was just a way of expressing myself. It’s something I’ve always beendrawn to[吸引到].

Host:Is it me, or do you and Kubo have a lot in common? That childhood soundsoddly[奇妙地]familiar.

Travis:We do have a lot in common. He’s an artist. He’s a musician. He’s a storyteller. He’s an animator, really, when you think about the way he brings these things to life.

Host:And lonely.

Travis:And lonely. And the…you know, the center of his universe is his mother, and that was true for me as well. And this film, you know, explores that time in our lives when those things begin to shift and thenirrevocably[不能挽回地]change, when we crossthe Rubicon[界線]from childhood to adulthood and the things that we gain and the things that we leave behind along the way, which can often be bittersweet. But it is a fundamental journey that we all go through.CY

Give us some of the basics of stop-motion animation 101.

在美國大學課程系統中，編號101的課程一般是指某個專業開設的、面向入門者的基礎課程。后來，人們常用“名詞+101”這種搭配來表示某方面的入門知識或者基本竅門，如：I think you really need to learn more aboutjob search 101. （我覺得你確實需要多掌握一點求職基本功。）

主持人：盡管迪士尼與皮克斯兩大品牌已經成為賣座動畫片的同義詞，少年久保背后這家位于美國波特蘭市的小工作室也低調地闖出了一番天地。成立已有十年的萊卡娛樂公司憑借他們的《鬼媽媽》《通靈男孩諾曼》和《盒子怪》三度獲得奧斯卡動畫部門的肯定。特拉維斯·奈特是萊卡動畫“掌門人”。給我們講講定格動畫的入門基礎吧，比如我看到久保這個小男孩，他是塑膠模型嗎，還是黏土模型？

特拉維斯·奈特（導演）：他是個小偶人。定格動畫的基本原理就是你得有個偶人，它里面有個鋼制支架，就像是它體內的一副小骨架，外面是硅膠皮膚。你瞧，偶人也要穿衣服。從很多方面來說，動畫工作室就和真人攝影廠差不多，只是規模比較小罷了。我們也有同樣的制作部門，也有服裝和發型什么的。然后……你瞧，我們要移動這些拍攝對象，一次拍一個畫面。在萊卡這里，我們有個與眾不同的做法，就是嘗試將科學技術、前沿創新與這種上百年的手藝結合在一起。正是這幾大要素的混搭讓我們的成品看起來那么有趣，我是這么認為的。

主持人：西方動畫——我的意思是，老實說，西方電影從整體而言，在如何表現亞洲國家與亞洲文化這一方面的名聲一直不怎么好。因此，當你要將故事設定在一個像日本這樣的地方，你是如何保持平衡的呢？如何做到既能真實還原當地的氛圍與感覺，又不會落入刻板俗套呢？

特拉維斯：在一個項目的頭兩三年，我們要做的就是埋頭設計劇本、故事、人物，以及背景。在設計過程中，你要對故事發生地進行深入的地區及歷史研究，確保你的童話故事能以真實世界作為基礎。你瞧，對我來說，我在八歲那年第一次接觸到日本文化。當時我爸爸經常到日本出差，有一次把我也捎上了。我第一次踏足那片土地時，那種感覺就像一下子被帶到另外一個世界似的，和我之前經歷過的所有東西都不一樣。所以，對我來說，那就是迷戀日本的開始，這是一種延續一生的熱愛。

主持人：你是幾歲開始玩手工、搞藝術的呢？

特拉維斯：你瞧，我這一輩子都在搞藝術。從小到大，我一直是個很孤獨的孩子，大部分獨處的時間都在搞創作。我會寫故事，也會創作音樂。這一直是我表達自己的方式，我對此情有獨鐘。

主持人：只有我是這么想的嗎，還是說你和久保確實有很多共同點？這個童年聽起來有點耳熟啊。

特拉維斯：我們確實有很多共同點。他是個藝術家、音樂家，還會講故事——你想想他是怎么讓那些小折紙動起來的，從這一點來說，他簡直是個動畫師。

主持人：他還很孤單。

特拉維斯：他很孤單。而且……你瞧，對久保來說，媽媽就是整個世界的中心，對我來說也一樣。這部電影探討的是我們人生的這么一個階段，各種事情開始發生轉變，最后徹底變樣，不可挽回。我們越過界線，從少年長大成人，一路上得到了一些東西，將另外一些東西拋諸腦后——這常常是一個苦樂參半的過程，但也是我們所有人都要經歷的一段重要旅程。