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What do pets do when their owners are not around? It’s a question that *haunts pet lovers. So when Chris Meledandri, the founder of Illumination–the animation house behind Despicable Me–posed this question to Despicable Me co-director Chris Renaud, they both agreed to explore the answer in a movie.
主人们不在的时候，萌宠们都干了些什么呢？这是宠物爱好者们一直想要知道的一个问题。所以当电影《神偷奶爸》制作公司——照明娱乐公司的创始人克里斯•梅勒丹德利向《神偷奶爸》导演之一的克里斯•雷纳德提出这一问题时，他们不约而同地打算在电影中探索这个答案。
That’s how The Secret Life of Pets came to be. It depicts how dogs, cats and birds cope with their days alone and their pet-to-pet friendships in the Big Apple.
这便是电影《爱宠大机密》的创作初衷。它讲述了在纽约城的狗狗、猫咪、鸟儿们是如何独自度过一天以及这些萌宠之间的友情。
The movie, to be released in Chinese cinemas on Aug 2, has been a huge hit since its Hollywood debut on July 8. As of July 24, it has grossed about $260 million (1.7 billion yuan) at the US box office. But the film’s success is not only the result of its intriguing premise, but also of its *anthropomorphic approach, which *endows animals with human-like qualities.
这部电影即将于8月2日登陆中国院线。影片自7月8日好莱坞首映后引发轰动，在美国共收获了2.6亿美元票房（约合17亿人民币）。但这部电影的成功不光是因为它有趣的设定，更是因为它采取了拟人化的手法，赋予了动物们人类的品质。
Anthropomorphism is hardly a new concept, according to Ramin Setoodeh of Variety Entertainment. Aesop’s fables in ancient Greece were some of the earliest, most famous stories to use this technique. “Starting in the 1920s, the entertainment industry got into the talking animal business with Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse competing with Warner Bros’ Bugs Bunny,” Setoodeh wrote. What followed was a wave of talking animals on screen, in films like Bambi (1941) and shows like Mister Ed (1958-1966), featuring a deer and horse respectively.
《综艺》杂志的拉明•赛图德认为，拟人化并不是一个新名词。古希腊的伊索寓言便是最早也是最有名的使用这一手法的故事。“自20世纪20年代起，以华特•迪士尼的米老鼠和华纳兄弟的兔八哥之间的竞争为代表，娱乐界开始发展能言动物产业，”赛图德写道。紧随而来的是一股会说话的动物的银幕浪潮，比如电影《小鹿斑比》（1941）以及电视节目《爱德大人》（1958-1966）便分别由一只鹿和一匹马担任主角。
This year, talking animals have been especially active on screen. If you look at box office charts, you’ll find that, of the top 12 biggest films so far in the US, half of them have featured talking animals. That list includes Disney’s The Jungle Book and Zootopia, as well as Fox’s Kung Fu Panda 3 and Sony’s The Angry Birds Movie.
今年，会说话的动物在银幕上格外活跃。查看票房排行榜你就会发现，到目前为止的美国票房前十二名的电影中，半数都由会说话的动物担任主角。这包括了迪士尼的《森林王子》和《疯狂动物城》、福克斯的《功夫熊猫3》以及索尼的《愤怒的小鸟》。
Why is that? “These cuddly creatures are serving as an *antidote to dark times in the world,” Setoodeh writes. “Some executives in Hollywood are starting to wonder if audiences are growing *weary of bullets and *apocalyptical imagery on the big screen, because of all the real-life tragedies from mass shootings and terrorism attacks.”
为什么会这样？“这些可爱的生物就像是这个世界黑暗时代中的一剂解药，”赛图德写道。“因为在现实生活中如枪击案和恐怖袭击等悲剧的发生，一些好莱坞高层开始怀疑，观众已经逐渐厌倦了大银幕上的子弹以及末日景象。”
Quick-witted animals offer an escape. “It’s a concept that people understand, get and really like,” Jeff Bock, an analyst at the entertainment research firm Exhibitor Relations, told Variety Entertainment. “We love these creatures. Put in a human *persona, and people go gaga.”
而这些聪明的动物则提供了一个逃避之法。“这是人们了解并且真正喜爱的一个概念，”娱乐调查公司北美院线联盟分析师杰夫•博克在接受《综艺》杂志采访时表示。“我们喜爱这些生物。赋予它们人物角色，人们便会狂热的喜欢它们。”
