In recent years, Hollywood, the most recognizable film industry in America and also in the world, produced a series of superhero animated movies, such as Batman, Spider-man. A Chinese film director Tian Xiaopeng also made a superhero animated movie Monkey King: Hero is Back (2015) which is considered the highest-grossing Chinese animated film thus far. All these superhero movies have achieved a great success and have exerted a great cultural impact. The adventures and popularity of the superhero in the movies have established the character as an inspiring force within the public eye, with the character serving as inspiration for musicians, comedians and writers alike.
Hero and heroism are the eternal topics of mankind. Heroism is the reflection of people’s hero complex. Different kinds of heroes are shaped in movies to express the culture of heroism and people’s hero complex. Many Chinese and American animated movies have a similar theme: heroism. The characters in animated movies are the reflection of a nation’s ideology. The present thesis will discuss the heroic figures of Monkey King, Superman, Chen Xiang and Batman in four animated films, namely, Havoc in Heaven (1964), Lotus Lantern (1999), Superman: Brainiac Attacks (2006) and Batman: Year One (2011). A comparative analysis of hero complex in Chinese and American animated movies will be made and the causes of their similarities and differences will be discussed from the historical, cultural and social perspectives.
2    Literature Review
A lot of studies have been done on hero complex in both Chinese and the American movies. Deng Jiaqi (2013) studies how American hero complex is reflected in superhero movies. In his research, he discusses the concepts and the origins of hero and hero complex and analyzes Americans’ hero complex by taking the example of some superhero movies. It is concluded that the Americans have deeply rooted hero complex, which is the embodiment of American doctrine of salvation and inpidualism and this hero complex is reflected everywhere in American superhero movies. 中美动画电影中英雄情结比较分析(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_48076.html