The Legend of Luo Xiaohei: Is It an Attempt of Crossing the Comfort Zone for Chinese Animation?

Abstract

The theater version of The Legend of Luo Xiaohei is a “blockbuster” made by domestic animated films in 2019, but it only costs 300 million yuan at the box office, which is not commensurate with the excellent reputation of the IP. Although The Legend of Luo Xiaohei created this hot intellectual property (IP) through a series of dramas, the theater version failed miserably when it crossed the two comfort zones of instant noodles and fans to it: Its plot rhythm was slow, and its content was not full enough, so it was difficult to enrich it for a longer time than the series; it is difficult to support the content of the film which should be more complex than the drama because of its poor characterization and improper arrangement of plot content; the way of expounding its world outlook and theme is difficult to be accepted by the majority of the audience, and the unreasonable early publicity also makes it difficult to expand the audience. Combined with this case, this paper tries to discuss the development mode of animation IP based on “launching theater version animation on the basis of original dramas,” and concludes that the development of overseas animation ip should improve the script according to the genre, make full use of media publicity, and avoid relying on fans’ economy.