Kung fu Panda

When I saw leaked Dreamworks concepts for this film, I was really excited. Pandas! Probably one of my favourite bears (actually, they are more closely related to racoons). Luckily I managed to get on an advanced screening to get it out of my system! The only doubts I had about this film was the ability to translate the amazing 2d concept designs by Nicolas Marlet (also worked on Monsters Inc, Madagascar, and Over the Hedge) For those who’ve been lucky enough to see it (or even trailers), you’ll appreciate how amazingly clean and rhythmic the shapes are within the character design. They did a really great job pulling the clean shapes into 3d, volumetric designs. Even still poses were very dynamic, because of the natural flow in design and solid posing. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen designs which have made me want to catch an animated flick.  What’s more is that you’ll even get to see the designs animated in a really organic and stylised 2d sequences (which I loved the most) as well as a treat in the credits.

On a technical standpoint, the effects were not overwhelming, but complemented the designs so well. The fur’s stylised application kept it from distracting (which is such a common annoyance in more recent production) and the lighting was crisp enough to clearly highlight silouhettes in those amazing action sequences. If there was anything to dislike compositionally, I’d say that a some of the backgrounds had too much detail, and caused action to be lost amongst it all.

With a cast of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy liu and Jackie Chan - you’d think you might find the familiar voices annoying, but they seemed to work naturally as the voice cast. The story was pretty solid and dorky, but it’s allowed to be! It is a kid’s film. The character acting and timing was brilliant. The audience I was with ranged from 6 to mid 50’s and everyone got good and clean laughs out of it (which I think is an amazing feat in this current age of filmmaking). I think the theme of self value really held the film together well, and wrapped up really tidily but in a manner that remained warm and thoughtful.

Was surprisingly enjoyable and I absolutely recommend that you see it. I may be a biased animator (:P) but it’s super fun and worth your money!