Kung Fu Panda

[冠木侍]

The time is nearing. Interesting, I didn't really think that this would be competition for Shrek but I haven't seen it yet to make a decision about that. So many other CG cartoons like Over the Hedge and Bee Movie have had some success but not the the degree that Shrek has enjoyed.

We shall see.

[Zenshiite]

Tons of Kung Fu Panda toys on the shelves right now. Action figures, little mini statues, stuffed animals, weapons. I bought my 2 year old a Kung Fu Panda Master Monkey Staff last night. It's cool. Can be a staff, two different tips for a spear. Said tips can be like daggers. 5 or 6 weapons in one.

[GeneChing]

Any forum member that comes up to me and says 'hi' tomorrow at the Ultimate Internationals or the Martial Arts Benefit for Quake Victims is welcome to a pass. The showing will be in San Jose, courtesy of the good people at Dreamworks and the Tiger Claw Foundation.

[冠木侍]

Hi.

What if you are not so near San Jose at the moment?

[GeneChing]

I hear there are a lot of previews happening all across the country. At least, I've heard of several in our immediate area. So keep your eye out. Or just buy a ticket when it opens on 6/6.

[GeneChing]

It's a laugh riot - as entertaining as Shrek, but about kung fu. What more could you want from this? It has great potential to give kung fu that needed booster shot in the butt.

[doug maverick]

well kung fu movies are making a omeback in the west again. but this time their actually going to be good. none of that wire fu garbage trash with actors who have no ability, mainly because its not cost effective to spend money on training someone for 6 months only to have them heavily doubled in the actual movie. mine as well just get the right person for the job on the outset. not suppose to say this buuttt... you know me i got a big mouth. i hear from a very reliable source that dreamworks is in serious talks with tony jaa about doing his first american film. he was actually going to apear in kingdoms but scheduling conflicts happened. so sssshhhhhh..... don't tell nobody.

[GeneChing]

...Kung Fu Panda is all about that. Come on, now. It's Jack Black. Jackie has maybe a dozen lines tops. Click below to see Jack's kung fu!

Jack Black Busts Martial-Arts Moves At Fans' Request After 'Kung Fu Panda' Sneak Peek Week Screening

'I did not live with the pandas. ... I just grew out my beard,' Black says of his preparation for the film.

By Shawn Adler

"You want me to do some kung fu?" Jack Black teased an excited audience member, who had stepped up to the mic looking for some real moves. "OK, just a taste."

The crowd came for a taste but wound up getting the full-course meal, complete with a kicking (and punching and twirling and jumping) dessert, as MTV's Sneak Peek Week continued with a screening of Black's "Kung Fu Panda" on Friday night at the Paramount Studios Lot.

The animated story of a panda waiter who winds up a master fighter was followed immediately after by a Q&A with Black himself.

"Important note," he added, sitting down after his demonstration and picking up his personal items from the table. "If someone's gonna fight you, remember to take out your wallet!"

Black's hands may be "fast as lightning" (when the heck did he take out his wallet?) but they were no match for his mouth, as audience members wanted to know everything from how much he was like Po the panda ("He's just a dreamer, a funny cuddly dreamer," Black said. "Like me!") to whether the actor would ever play a superhero (" 'Kung Fu Panda' is a superhero of sorts," he replied in mock indignation) to who would win in a fight between his characters from "Kung Fu Panda" and "Nacho Libre."

"My mind is bending around the concept of that one," Black laughed. "Because one is animated!"

One excited audience member, mildly flummoxed perhaps by that very concept, wanted to know if Black had used Method acting to play a panda.

"I don't know if I did any panda preparations," Black answered, grinning. "I did not live with the pandas. I still have never seen a panda at a zoo. I just grew out my beard."

With his moves on such prominent display, however, talk inevitably turned to more pressing matters. And those matters were kicking butt and taking names (though not necessarily the second).

Since Black now was the lead voice in a kung fu movie, which martial-arts superstar does he like most?

"Stephen Chow. His movies are incredible," Black said. "I also really like Yang Chow. Unrelated. It's a restaurant."

The last questioner asked about his feelings on now being in the martial-arts fraternity.

"Am I part of it, do you think I will be? Makes me think I've really got to learn kung fu now," Black giggled, pausing briefly, perhaps thinking about his earlier demonstration. "For real!"

"Kung Fu Panda," which co-stars the voice talents of Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen and Dustin Hoffman, opens nationwide June 6.

[doug maverick]

...Kung Fu Panda is all about that. Come on, now. It's Jack Black. Jackie has maybe a dozen lines tops. Click below to see Jack's kung fu!

lol but this is an animated movie. so it doesn't count. simply because the characters are in an enviroment where they can conceivably do every movement they perform. its like the matrix.

[GeneChing]

I will add that Kung Fu Panda has a great artistic style. The animation is top notch, but we'd expect nothing else from a major Dreamworks release. They even do a fun job tinkering with the Dreamworks fishing off the moon logo. Good stuff. Go see it this weekend. You'll have a great time.

Call them martial artists
The directors of the ambitious "Kung Fu Panda" break animation boundaries.
By COLIN COVERT, Star Tribune

It's unusual for an animated film to combine rambunctious physical comedy and the kind of painterly refinement that makes every frame suitable for display on a museum wall. But that's just what co-directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson have achieved in "Kung Fu Panda." Although their backgrounds and sensibilities are quite different -- Osborne directed episodes of "SpongeBob SquarePants" and Weird Al Yankovic videos; Stevenson worked on "Shrek 2" and "Madagascar" -- as a team they have created a visually textured feature that pushes the boundaries of cartoon art.

The film's title may suggest a lampoon of martial arts movies, but the partners explained that their goal was to make an homage to Asian films that inspired them. After a frenetic opening sequence in the style of seizure-inducing anime, the film's look combines lyrical beauty with exuberant slapstick battles. The numerous fight sequences are choreographed as carefully as anything in a topflight martial arts film.

"We asked ourselves the question, what if Akira Kurosawa shot a Jerry Lewis film?" said Stevenson, a tall, ginger-haired Scot. "That made us feel that we could shoot a funny movie that would also be very beautiful and have great cinematography and composition, and reflective of principles in Asian art."

The film, following the adventures of a clumsy martial arts novice who succeeds and saves the day, is set in their own mythical version of China. "It's not set in any particular dynasty, but it is based very carefully and respectfully on Chinese art," Stevenson said. "It's not Asia World, it's very specifically China, just as it's very specifically kung fu and not tae kwon do or sumo or anything else. By making our choices as specific as we could, then hopefully you just accept that that's a real world and then you can forget about it and just follow the story of our main character."

[GeneChing]

Jackie gets great billing in the credits, but Persall is right. He only has like a dozen lines, if even. I wonder how much he got paid for that.

'Kung Fu Panda' a funny parody of martial arts flicks
By Steve Persall, Times Film Critic
In print: Thursday, June 5, 2008

The world's greatest martial arts warrior can't wrap a Black Belt around his hefty waist. He doesn't have the eye of the tiger, more of a plush toy's pleasant gaze.

Meet Po the panda bear, and prepare to enjoy the most unique animated adventure since Surf's Up.

Kung Fu Panda is a dead-on replica of chop-socky cinema from Bruce Lee to Jet Li, with the usual moral lessons of loyalty and risk given a childish touch. First-time directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson computer-generate an ancient China setting to rival anything noted director Zhang Yimou builds for real, populated by mystical, butt-kicking critters like Po.

Except Po doesn't easily wear the chosen one's crown. He's actually lazy as pandas are prone to be, and clumsy when he decides to move. There's no more perfect voice than Jack Black's for a boisterous bear with high hopes and low chances of reaching them. This performance ranks among animation's finest: silly and solemn when required yet never to either extreme.

Po is sleeping when the movie begins, introduced by his manga-influenced dream of meeting his heroes, the Furious Five kung fu masters. Not likely, since Po is resigned to working forever in his father's noodle house.

Fate offers the chance: The Furious Five are making a rare public appearance to decide which one will be selected Dragon Warrior. The position entails a showdown later with villainous white leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane), a former pupil of the Furious Five's spiritual leader Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). The secret weapon to defeat him can be attained only by the Dragon Warrior, and Tai Lung wants it first.

Po literally crashes the ceremony in a fireworks-fueled fiasco, shocked when the wisest teacher, Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), anoints him as the next Dragon Warrior. Shifu is determined to train Po so strenuously he'll quit. The Furious Five are perturbed that this graceless outsider has been blessed, especially Tigress (Angelina Jolie), who coveted the honor.

Kung Fu Panda proceeds in predictable fashion, with Po buckling down, Shifu loosening up and the now-Furious Six squaring off with Tai Lung. The movie is almost too reverential of classic martial arts movies that often became tedious while punches weren't being thrown. But every frame is gorgeously designed, the arch dialogue delivered with commitment or comical flair.

A better cast of voices can't be imagined but could be better exploited. Nobody can steal any show from Black, but Hoffman gives him a run for the funny. Jolie gets the tiger's share of dialogue among the Furious Five; Jackie Chan's Monkey speaks so seldom that his casting is more of an inside joke, while Seth Rogen's Mantis is unrecognizable.

Kung Fu Panda winds up as a fresh take on a familiar moral of being true to yourself, never getting too wrapped up in technical beauty to simply be fun. The martial arts motif is wonderfully suited to animation since those flicks were cartoons of sorts anyway. Why it never happened before is a mystery; that it will happen again is a given.

[Zenshiite]

Saw it, loved it.

Took my 2 year old with me. It was his first movie. He loved it too. He also loved the trailer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. That'll likely be his second movie. When he saw the lightsabers in that he shoulded "lightsabers!"

He was also punching and kicking and shouting "kung fu panda!" during the movie. Hahaha.

[SPJ]

just seen it, kids would like it.

sort of zen ny, too.

the secret of secret ingredient of secret recipe is that there is no secret.

the secret of the dragon scroll

--

the secret of unlimited power

is the secret of power to believe in yourself.

--

if you believe.

===

[Oso]

just saw it today with several of my students as a school outing

it was hilarious, best movie I've seen in a while.

now, whenver I hit my students in sparring I will be saying 'skiddoosh' !

[TenTigers]

I took my kids class to see it-they loved it! I also enjoyed it as well. My kids are too mature for animated cartoons, so I have nobody to see them with, so this outing was more for me than anyone else. I had the idea to kill two birds with one stone by having the kids wear their uniforms to the theatre and pass out guest passes-but best laid plans...the theatre near the school had two showings-one too early, the second too late, so we ended up going to a theatre that was further away. Oh well. But we all had a great time. The movie was funny and the scenery was beautiful-even though it was animated.
I also used to watch Sagwa for the same reasons!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hJqniXFYbH0