I Like Kung Fu Panda. You Should Too.
As many of you are (painfully?) aware, I have a big fat animation fontanele… and thus complete loathing for Dreamworks animation. They’re the studio behind junk like Shark Tale, Madagascar, Over the Hedge (worth only the 3 minutes of Ben Folds “Heist”) the Shrek sequels and with the help of Jerry Seinfeld, the completely lifeless and forgettable Bee Movie. It’s not to say I don’t appreciate the artistry behind them, it’s to say I don’t appreciate the canned and date-stamped way they create their “films”, where story is slave to the latest pop culture jokes and star of the moment voice work*. Hence, the reason no one seems to remember them much past their initial release and heavily marketed DVD roll outs.
Then Kung Fu Panda happened. I’m not sure if this was an inspired flash-in-the-pan or a preview of better things to come, but whatever it was, Kung Fu Panda wasn’t anything like their previous stuff. No fart jokes. No booger eating. No pop culture elbow jabs and “wink-winks”. From the very first frame, Kung Fu Panda demonstrates it was clearly a labor of love (the animation is vibrantly lush and detailed) for those involved. In short: despite a trailer heavy on the gags and crafted with the Dreamworks audience in mind, I really, really liked it.
Cut to now (kinda): The film was released on DVD/Blu Ray a couple weeks back and, while I’m a little slow on getting this up, we watched it again with Joshua. I was, again, impressed, nay, confounded, at how much I liked it. Having viewed it a few times now, I’m confident in saying this film is one that WILL hold up years down the road.
So, basically, to all family members and their spawn who may not have seen Kung Fu Panda: Do so.
*Please don’t be confused at the Dreamworks logo hovering over the charming “Wallace & Grommet: Curse of the WereRabbit” or “Flushed Away”– while these films were facilitated by Dreamworks, they were wholly the work of another studio out of the UK: Aardman.
We are totally with you. We love that show. The rest should be grouped into the kung-poo genre.