VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[RayAnime]

I saw Kung Fu Panda last night and if you've seen it as well I'm interested to know what you thought about the performances, the animation, the movie as a whole, etc. If you haven't seen it yet, you should--it's really good (imo)!

The production designer Raymond Zibach was in our audience which was neat--he had about 30 people with him cheering him on and it was fun to join in the excitement, especially since the film looks gorgeous--from awesome 2-D animation sequences to the colors to the sweeping backgrounds.

I am one of those people who holds Pixar up on a golden pedestal (so yes, I'll admit I'm biased) and I can't say that KFP knocked it down, but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and thought it was really well done overall. No in-your-face pop culture references, no poppy soundtrack, a timeless story with heart, solid performances and great animation= a huge improvement (in my book) over any other DreamWorks film I've seen to date, and I think it's one of the best animated films in recent memory.

There are some nit-picky things involving story and some of the performances that I could mention (I'll leave the story stuff out for those who haven't seen it) . . . it took me a little while to accept Jack Black's modern slacker vibe as a panda in ancient China, but ultimately he won me over--his performance was nice overall, I just thought his sound was a bit too current-day--but then again DreamWorks is known for pushing the Big Names in their films, so it doesn't come as a surprise that the character was a bit more JACK BLACK as Po vs. Po the Panda (who happens to be played by that funny guy who was in School of Rock). Randall Duk Kim, James Hong, Dustin Hoffman and Ian McShane were the standout VOs for me. The weirdest thing about the movie was that they had this star-studded supporting cast (Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, David Cross & Seth Rogen) that I feel they overpromoted and underused--I can't even remember if Jackie Chan actually had more than one line. It seems like kind of a waste after all the advertising (and money they probably paid these people) for them to have only a handful of lines among them.

All in all though, I thought the film was really well done--I'd go see it again for sure!

Thoughts??

[Dave DeAndrea]

I'm with you as far as the Pixar Pedestal... they really are the standard which all others are judged by.

Took the family to see KFP yesterday afternoon and we all really enjoyed it! I got a kick out of some of the brief quirky thing like "The Invisible Trident" and the whole "Legends" speech at the beginning. I can't help but wonder if some of them were Jack Black adlib's that they simply decided to go with.

I thought the voicing was great. I had forgotten who the star actors were supposed to be (besides Jack Black) and was surprised when the credits rolled. I'm glad I didn't know ahead of time... it allowed the characters to have a life of their own. Dustin Hoffman did a great job.

I thought the animation was well done although I didn't get any real connection with the Furious 5. Maybe it's because they were always moving. My least favorite look was the Tiger... the face and head just seemed a little flat and lifeless to me. But I LOVED what they did with the turtle... the light shaking and all.. very good!

We'll likely see it again before the weekend's over... and I'm hopeful for loks of bonus features on the DVD.
_________________
Dave DeAndrea
Voice Actor & Producer
www.davedeandrea.com

[louzucaro]

La la la la la la Ray and Dave are talking about the movie which I haven't seen yet and I am not listening la la la la...

Sigh. Will probably have to wait to see this when it hits video.

Re: other DreamWorks movies, I have to say that while I, too, think Pixar is the shiznit, I thought Antz was really great.

But that's just me.
_________________
Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf!"