Kung Fu Panda

[Dacey]

So something called "Ping Pong Rabbit" is coming. Apparently a studio is trying to break into the Chinese film market by "making family entertainment at a reasonable cost that can travel all over the world"...in this case, by just ripping off Kung Fu Panda.

http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/to ... 08.article

Heck, even the movie's logo is literally Kung Fu Panda's logo!

[ShyViolet]

Wow, that's insane!

[droosan]

Unrelated, but I spied this on a shelf at the local Target last night:

[ShyViolet]

No way!! That's without a doubt the most blatant ripoff ever!!!

[Dacey]

And then there's this...

[Ben]

Cloudy With A Chance Of Septuagenarians...?

[ShyViolet]

Liked the new trailer but only to a certain point--it's basically a repetition of everything we've seen in 1 and 2, theme-wise. Po becomes a hero despite his silliness; the Furious Five and Shi Fu help see him through it. I'm also disappointed that my first misgivings about the "Po trains his fellow Pandas to become warriors" storyline seem somewhat accurate. Too much DWA "wackiness" and "fish out of water" jokes; it's exactly what we'd expect in a DWA film. I really hope I'm wrong about all this, but I don't think so.

[Dacey]

Again, Vi, it's a Kung Fu Panda movie. The comedy is going to take priority over the drama, just like the other two movies. You can't really not make a movie of this sort without it being "wacky."

[ShyViolet]

Really liked the clip! Sweeter and funnier than I expected. I guess you were right, Dacey.

[Dan]

To comment on the story on the front page of the guy who tried to get money from DreamWorks by claiming Kung Fu Panda was a rip off of his story only for it to be discovered that he was committing fraud:

So the drawings he used that were revealed to be backdated. He traced from a Lion King coloring book from 1996. I want to see this coloring book because I cannot recall anything from the Lion King that would suggest pandas.

[Dacey]

There was a lot "Baby Simba" stuff around at the time, with characters that did not appear in the film. I'm assuming it would've been from that merchandise, if memory serves.

[Ben]

What an idiot!!

[ShyViolet]

Early review positive yay!!!!!

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review ... ilm-856347

Variety liked it too:

http://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/ku ... 201680767/

[ShyViolet]

Another review, not quite as positive but ranks the film as "pretty good."

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendel ... b48f436af5

[ShyViolet]

Cool Wall Street Journal feature:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-dreamwo ... 1453312164