介绍:
Xiaohua: According to a TV series shooting plan published by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of China
John: SAPPRFT!
Xiaohua: Again the name appears, yes, and we are talking about Calabash Brothers, a 1986 Chinese animation, it will be turned into a 40 episode live action TV series. You will know what I was talking about when you listen to this. (Music playing)
John: I know this show. When we talking about it in the office, I was like “I have no idea what this is.”
Xiaohua: But you know this. Listen, there is another one.
Xiaohua: I’m sure you don’t know this cause this is a way back. You don’t know it either. We are not the same generation.
Liuyan: I don’t know this.
Xiaohua: It was really really small. This was .It’s a cartoon, a small cartoon feature cartoon and it was really funny, but I guess it is a little bit out of date now.
John: But, yeah, the now I know what it is because they still actually play that cartoon on CCTV
Liuyan: Yeah, every now and then.
John: and on BTV as well.
Xiaohua: Every summer holiday, I guess something like that.
John: No, it’s really random. I don’t remember. My daughter when she is watching TV sometimes it’ll come up.
Xiaohua: So, basically the production company Shan Xi Xiao Huo Ban Movie Company says that it is going to plan to turn the animated short film which is and the or as well as the into live action TV series. So do you think it is good news or should we be worried about classic Chinese cartoon being ruined?
Liuyan: I think it really depends on if they can pull it off. At this stage, I think that it’s too early to make a judgmental saying saying that they will definitely do a lousy job and ruin these classic, cause we don’t know for sure because there have been examples where you can actually stretch something you don’t think will be able to turn into 40 episode something. And then they actually do that and it’s not too bad so I‘d like to withhold my judgment at this time.
John: Yes. To be honest, I kind of hope they would make new stories rather than just try to redo what has already been done. Because I think if they try to redo it, there is no one is going to come away satisfied. I think one of the biggest problems for the production company in terms of having a successful run is dealing with the nostalgia of the people who were kids when this was playing. To be honest, I watched this cartoon and it’s pretty bad. Let me finish. I think it is pretty bad. The production quality is quite low and it’s just kind of silly cartoon, but for people who were kids when this show was first broadcast, it doesn’t really matter how good or bad it was. For them, it represents a certain time in their life. So if they were to redo it and try to tell the same stories, well, the people who have that sense of nostalgia, of course is gonna hate it because now they’re adults and they want to keep those memories intact.
Liuyan: I have to agree with that. If you look at the old version of Calabash Brothers, looking back, yes, it was pretty bad but back then it didn’t matter at all. We were just so completely in love with that.
John: It’s like . I used to love watching which was an old American cartoon. Actually ,I remember watching and loving that show then when I was in university, one of my friends bought the DVD box set because he wanted to re-experience his childhood I guess. And I was like, “This is crap. This is horrible.”
Xiaohua: I was hoping someone would stand up and defend the but I guess you guys were right. If you look back and watch again, of course the production quality back in 1980s would be completely different with our standards right now. But the thing is that the company claims that when they are remaking it, they are gonna add things in it and they are gonna make a longer version of 40 episodes one. They are going to add two evil characters in there. It used to just be the scorpion and the snake apparently now there is the scorpion, the stoat, the black mouse, and the green snake.
John: A stoat is basically like a rat or a ferret.
Xiaohua: You(鼬) or something like that.
Liuyan: But I think it really depends on the script. If you can find someone who can come up with a great script, and the end result doesn’t look like they are just stretching it into 40 episodes for nothing then it could work.
Xiaohua: I guess if I’m to be completely objective, I would say there is a chance that it would work. If I were to refer to previous experiences of Chinese remake, I’m gonna say no.
John: Here is the thing any adaptation, I mean, I think that adaptations are very difficult and you have to be kind of brave in terms of what you want to do with the new series or the new product. It’s very easy to take a very popular book, for example, and turn it into a bad movie. It’s very, very easy to take video games and turn it into bad movies and so on and so on. It really depends on how they approach it.
