DreamWorks is finally showing itself as worthy rival!
We saw Kung Fu Panda last night. It was great! Now I'm on record as never liking a computer animated movie unless it was made by those geniuses over at Pixar. I own all the Pixar movies; Bug's Life, Toy Story 1 & 2, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Cars, and Ratatouille. I have found all other attempts to create a movie as well as those has fallen short. I hated Madagascar. The characters were horribly drawn the voices didn’t work for me and there was a lot of potty humor. Don’t get me wrong a love potty humor, Benny Hill is one of my all time favorites, I just don’t want it in my computer-animated movies. Over the Hedge had some plot problems, The Bee movie was poorly drawn…I could go on and on.
But Kung Fu Panda had it all. They even animated the DreamWorks title shot in the same theme as the movie. The opening dream sequence was beautifully drawn with rich textures and had a Kabuki look to it. The characters were well drawn and their movements worked well. There was the proper felling of weight and mass with each one. The lighting was as good as anything John Lasseter has done. The slow motion shots rivaled any Ang Lee movie. And the Kung Fu sequences look like Bruce Lee choreographed them. The voices were perfectly cast. And the landscapes were gorgeous. Great plot with a couple of nice little messages that did not seem trite or hit you over the head. Jack Black was very funny in a subtle way; they didn’t let him go too far with it. This wasn’t a showcase for any of the actors’ usual shtick.
Great movie! I would gladly purchase the DVD and let it sit on the same shelf as my Pixar collection
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I forgot to mention the Shrek movies, another DreamWorks creation, in my comparison to Pixar. I enjoyed the first two, the third fell very short. I liked the clever way they intertwined all the other fairy tales in to the story. The potty humor was pretty thick for a 'kids' movie. But the biggest difference between those and Pixar is the animation. It falls flat in comparison. Pixar movies look as if they were shot with real lighting and an actual director of photography lining up every camera shot. Shrek movies are pretty two dimensional in that way. They just draw the characters and the background and throw them together.
Alright, with such a convincing review, this is now on the must see list. Hope wants to see it really bad - so, it looks like we'll be making a trip to the theatre soon. Hey - do theatres still do the deal with free movie Tuesdays?
Yes, they still do free Tuesday movies at many theaters for older movies. Gina's got the full list and schedule for the summer. I'll have her email it to you.
Free movie tuesdays? What? I never heard of them.