Suddenly, everything is topsy turvy. While Pixar has made some films that either haven’t connected with me, or I out-and-out hated (Finding Nemo and Cars, respectively) Dreamworks has begun making films I love (Madagascar, Bee Movie).
In that vein, they have brought us Kung Fu Panda this summer. Now, when I first saw the trailers and the little character posters they were circulating a few months back, I thought it looked like what I thought of at the time as a typical Dreamworks offering. You know, lots of flash and star power, but terrible design and color sense, way too many pop cultural references, and an ultimately worthless story. Well, I was wrong in every way. Kung Fu Panda turns out to be a really enjoyable film!
And lo and behold, the star power in this film takes a back seat! I didn’t recognize Angelina Jolie’s voice as the Tigress, and it was 3/4 of the way through the film before I realized the Master was Dustin Hoffman. And there wasn’t one pop cultural reference I could see.
Beyond that, the film is gorgeous. There are scenes that are just jaw-dropping. Some of it is due to expertise on the tech side of the film – that volumetric fog in the layered cliff sides makes me wish I had my own tech department – but most of it is good old-fashioned work on the visual design, pencil and paper and sweat.
Hey Steve! I remember talking about this movie on the forums and how I was looking forward to it because I was a fan of the writers.
Unfortunately, I’m back in Japan, so I can’t see this one just yet. And with tickets that are more than double the prices as the states, I think the only movie I’ll be checking out is the Dark Knight. (I mean, I HAVE to see that one).
Anyway, I’m posting this because I thought credit should be given where credit is due and point out that Surf’s Up was done by Sony Animation and not Dreamworks
Yes, yes, of course. My mistake. I meant Bee Movie.
I did love Surf’s Up, though, more than the recent Pixar offerings, and that was the beginning of my surprise that other companies were able to out-Pixar Pixar, by not trying to be Pixar anymore, which is what it seemed to me they had been doing.
Thanks for spotting that slip.
Hi Steve. This is a late comment cause just this week I was able to watch this movie in my country. I agree with you, they have their own style definitively distinguisable from pixar’s, the look is amazing and the story is not bad.
I enjoyed it!