Kung Fu Panda

Post by **CGIFanatic** » June 4th, 2008, 1:07 pm

I don’t know but suspect that some small town McD’s aren’t sticklers for releasing the toys on exact dates.

Post by **Once Upon A Dream** » June 4th, 2008, 1:41 pm

Thanks,CGIFanatic

I wonder if the one that took those pictures is working in McDonalds.

Post by **CGIFanatic** » June 4th, 2008, 2:24 pm

Your Welcome

I’m sure McD employees get the toys before anyone else does but I got the impression from reading the blog that those toys came with the happy meals they purchased.

Post by **Dacey** » June 4th, 2008, 7:38 pm

Meg wrote:Seems to be doing very well on RT so far:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kung_fu_panda/

Sweet!

Post by **droosan** » June 4th, 2008, 9:10 pm

I saw Kung Fu Panda last night, at the ASIFA-Hollywood screening. It is fantastic! Much better than the trailers might lead one to believe.

First and foremost, this is a 'kung fu' movie .. while it is a comedy, it never lapses into 'parody'. It also has none of the elements Dreamworks' animated films are noted (and, sometimes, scorned) for: there are no 'winking' pop-culture references, and no fart/poop jokes of any kind. There is one pop song, over the (beginning of the) end credits .. but it is not accompanied by the cast of characters having a dance-party set to that music. There's not even a gratuitous 'comic-relief sidekick' character, nor even an inane 'hero gets the girl' subplot (despite there being two strong female characters on the kung-fu team).

Instead, there is only .. awesomeness.

Exhilarating fight scenes, a fantastic prison escape, gorgeous designs for both the characters and environments, and wonderful acting on the part of both the animators and the voice talent (including plenty of nice subtle expressiveness in the film's 'quieter' moments). It's quite obvious that the key creative personnel on this movie have enormous respect for the martial-arts genre, and even for asian art and film-making in general; there are more than a few key moments in the movie that are an undeniable 'nod' to the likes of Miyazaki, Kurosawa, or Ang Lee. And yet, there is still plenty of Tex Avery-styled 'western' cartoon humor to be found, as well.

And, perhaps best of all .. Kung Fu Panda features an incredibly fun, traditionally-animated opening scene, along with a gorgeous 2D 'collage'-styled end title sequence.

All this, and an action-packed score by John Powell & Hans Zimmer, to boot (I went out and bought the CD first thing this morning)!

This is, by far, the strongest and tightest film ever to be made at Dreamworks .. and should, by rights, be their biggest 'crowd-pleaser' (yes, IMO, moreso even than the Shrek trilogy). I'm definitely gonna see it again, this weekend ..

Post by **Ben** » June 5th, 2008, 5:38 am

Very cool. I have to admit to being stoked for this one since I noticed it was being framed for 2.35:1.

Sounds like DWs' best so far.

Post by **Meg** » June 5th, 2008, 7:01 am

Hey, I didn't know John Powell had a had in scoring this! I love his stuff.

Post by **Once Upon A Dream** » June 6th, 2008, 6:57 am

Wow,sounds very exiting

it might be the best Dreamworks movie but I need to see it first

.

Post by **Whippet Angel** » June 6th, 2008, 8:18 am

Eeeee, can't wait! I'll hopefully catch it this weekend. ^___^

Post by **EricJ** » June 6th, 2008, 4:54 pm

And this far into the thread, I guess I'm the only anime fan who thought "Ranma 1/2" did kung-fu pandas better?...

Post by **droosan** » June 6th, 2008, 7:50 pm

Panda Genma in Ranma ½ doesn't practice kung fu; his fighting style is derived from Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū ("school of indiscriminate grappling"). It's totally different.

-------

Actually, (much) earlier in this thread, I'd mentioned the 1980's comic-book series Panda Khan .. and YCougar brought up the similar book Usagi Yojimbo.

I found many aspects of Kung Fu Panda's 'world' to be similar to that of Usagi Yojimbo.

Which, IMO, is a Very Good Thing.

(there's also a 'dash' of Disney's Robin Hood in there!)

Post by **Daniel** » June 6th, 2008, 9:06 pm

Saw Panda earlier today and thoroughly enjoyed it!

I can't really add more to what Droo said, but I really, really, loved it it. Much better than Bee Movie totallly. And yes, I'm actually a little shocked there weren't the typical pop culture references. It felt... nice. I only hope DW continues this trend.

The fight scenes were just au inspiring; I mean, wow. Big difference from watching it on plain ole television. The score was also genuine a knockout. I'm very tempted into picking up the CD.

All in all, this is now my favorite of DW's animation offerings.

Btw, I got Master Shifu and Tai Lun at McDonald's before going to the movie. Cute toys!

Post by **Whippet Angel** » June 7th, 2008, 12:06 am

Yeah, my little brother went the other day and got Po. I'm SO going to steal that!

Post by **Dacey** » June 7th, 2008, 1:44 pm

"Panda" is kicking serious box office butt:

http://boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/

Post by **Once Upon A Dream** » June 7th, 2008, 2:51 pm

Better then Bee Movie? now I have to see this and it might be even better then I thought.