Film Name: 新大头儿子和小头爸爸之秘密计划 / New Happy Dad and Son: Secret Plans / Secret Plans
Perhaps an innovative approach, the film is structured into three parts: Little Head Dad’s secret plan, Apron Mom’s secret plan, and Big Head Son’s secret plan. Each segment has its own focus, yet the entire narrative unfolds under the overarching thread of Big Head Son’s dream to become an astronaut. However, this might merely be an extension of television animation thinking. By forcibly splitting the animated film into three parts, it loses the grand scope of telling a complete story within 90 minutes, leaving viewers feeling as though they’ve watched three episodes of a TV animation series.
The film’s true climax actually occurs in the second segment, not the third where Big Head Son executes his plan. This is because the second part presents the most explicit dramatic conflict among family members: Apron Mom deliberately engages in superficial image-building to become the “most beautiful family.” It’s Big Head Son’s final heartfelt plea that awakens both parents—reminding them that authenticity is the truest beauty. Golden Beetle’s voice acting blends seamlessly with the Big Head Son character, bringing tears to my eyes. In contrast, the third part’s conflict merely involves Big Head Son confronting his own psychological fears, and the dramatic height of his acrophobia isn’t particularly high.
Seeing Apron Mom’s “disconnect from reality” in the Most Beautiful Family competition, what it reminded me of wasn’t actually our individual family lives, but our social lives. We’ve all become too accustomed to disconnecting from reality in our social interactions. Covering up our own issues to please others—isn’t that essentially the same as Apron Mom putting on various facades to win the Most Beautiful Family title? Ultimately, it harms our own emotions.
Society abounds with contests like “Most Beautiful Family,” such as the current craze for China Dream-themed film productions. To respond to the China Dream, many institutions fabricate sycophantic postures to conform, while numerous enterprises “force new verses to express false sorrow,” utterly losing authenticity. Can works entirely mobilized by administrative orders truly embody the China Dream? I believe not only are they not, but they may well end up like the spaceship in the film—the very embodiment of the Chinese Dream—being dismantled. What Big Head Son’s heartfelt plea truly reminds us is that we should always maintain an authentic heart.
In truth, for realistic animated series like Big Head Son and Little Head Dad, the greatest challenge lies in finding earth-shattering trials for the otherwise uneventful rhythms of family life. Even emotionally charged conflicts like distortion versus restoration can only sustain about twenty minutes of narrative. The final competition scene feels somewhat forced, as if the film is being dragged into the competitive genre—a genre that inherently requires an ultimate adversary.
Of course, the film’s originally intended ultimate adversary—the astronaut’s child—failed to fulfill this role, instead becoming an ally. This left Big Head Son ultimately challenging only himself, leaving audiences feeling unsatisfied by the lack of a proper rival. In the final competition scene, the other contestants were so devoid of personality and reduced to mere background characters that it felt overly simplified.
PS: Could the astronaut who appears at the end be made less ugly? Could he be more handsome? If he’s that unattractive, why not just have his voice without showing his face?
PS2: The part about Little Head Dad’s secret plan feels a bit made up. Setting aside whether a child that young would even understand what “secret stash” means, even the cheapest bridge wouldn’t need an engineer to save up his secret stash to build it. Where does that leave the local government? As an engineer, Little Head Dad doesn’t even carry blueprints—how careless is that? Can a bridge designed by such an engineer even be safe? And Big Head Son thinks he can catch up to his parents, who are being picked up by a car, on just a regular bicycle? Frankly, it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
PS3: The film didn’t even feature the classic theme song “Happy Dad and Son,” which I was most looking forward to. This deprived the audience of many opportunities for emotional resonance.
PS4: The 3D design for Big Head Son is actually quite cute. But the technical execution for many supporting characters is utterly sloppy. Take the three guards in the booth, for instance—their expressions are utterly blank, their faces downright grotesque. The entire film clearly didn’t have a high budget.
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