Oh My God. Just returned from Kung Fu Panda. I assume everyone’s heard the hype/seen the movie by now. Just like to say “awesome”. Couldn’t really fault it really.
So, of course the big question on everyone’s lips is “is Kung Fu Panda better than the Incredibles?”
I’m comparing these 2 films, because they are the only 2 cg animated action films that are remotely of the same high quality(if there’s another one, let me know cause, I ‘aint seen it).
I would like to tackle this amazingly important question in 2 parts.
1. The mo fo action. Kung Fu Panda action was all oh so beautiful. It really left me wanting more. Don’t misconstrue my level of film intellect here.. I love my drama and stuff :P, but the action in this film really had me so damn excited, I felt like a little boy again. The fight scene choreography was simply awe inspiring, funny and quite original. There were 4 main action sequences of note.
Now the action sequences in the Incredibles were, of course, great. But they left me thinking that I’d missed out on something. To help clarify my point, in the Incredibles, during the whole chasing through the forest sequence. When the family re-unite and start beating up the henchmen together with the whole family using their powers, this part of the action only lasts for about 10 seconds! I can see the director was only trying to build up the suspense for the last sequence where the family fight together again in the city, but I didn’t find that sequence so incredibly satisfying to justify the grossly cut short family ass kicking forest scene. And as a result, the family never quite got to use their powers together in the most awesomest way possible.
And, you know, that’s what I wanted. I wanted pure, unfiltered awesomeness. I ache for it. Sometime I wake up crying at night because I don’t get enough of it. I don’t like having to watch through all of Crouching Tiger just to find out Chow Yung Fat only has a stick fight with a 15 year old girl.
AWESOMENESS DAMN YOU! GIVE ME AWESOMENESS!!!!!!
Incredibles had small sections of ear bleeding awesomely cool bits, but Kung Fu Panda had lots and lots of this rectal clenching, hard core action(that’s a good thing by the way).
2. The drama. Now, from an emotional thermometer side of the coin, the Incredibles comes up trumps. It manages a crap load more character development and a little bit more of some sort of script. In turn, more characters manage to get fleshed out. Whereas Kung fu Panda really only had 2 or three character plots of note, but I didn’t care. If they put in more character development, it could have eaten into the action sequences. And we did NOT want that
OK
I read some book on Story once. The writer talked about a good script is set in a world that contains fascinating bits and pieces around every corner. Whether it’s set in another culture you know little about, or just another persons frame of mind, it all has to be new and exciting at every beat. So many animated cg films just don’t throw you into this world. But Kung Fu Panda does. The Incredibles does.
After watching both of these 2 wonderfully eye popping films tonight, I have come to the conclusion that…..
It’s been a while since I last wrote anything substantial, and i’ve seen quite a few movies since then. I watched Spiderwick Cronicles, Hulk, Terrabithia, etc etc… I guess I’m talking about fantasy films here. But wow, they’re all pretty much crap. Maybe they’ve always been crap? I rewatched the Goonies recently and i’m quite sure that that was an ok movie. But all the shite we’re getting over the past couple of years all seems to be kinda shit. Was it just me, or was the Lord of the Rings trilogy kinda forgettable?
I like to rate a film by 2 things. By how much you think about the film the next day, and it’s rewatchability. It seems to be the majority of the films targeted towards kids these days have, in general, hit none of these marks. I’m left asking the question of whether these marks were ever hit? Was Goonies rewatchable? The Lost Boys? I know Hulk films definitely were NOT. Terrabithia, Narnia, no, no, no.
But admittedly, I’m 30 years of age and don’t quite have the mind of a child any more(no matter what my wife tells you) and I can’t help but think, what movies are kids of today falling in love with? What are they quoting at school? I admit that I don’t have kids myself, so I don’t actually know the answers to these questions.
Myself, as a child, the movies that really hit home with me were… Big Trouble in Little China? No, that was actually quite forgettable. I honestly can’t remember. I remember rewatching Robin Hood Prince of Thieves quite a bit, but I’d never admit that to anyone.. The only thing that really touched me when I was under 10 was Astro Boy, and G Force - Defenders of the Planet. These obviously were not films though. Shows that appeared after Inspector Gadget and Peter Russel Clarke on the ABC in fact. Why they ever put a cooking show in between 2 cartoons I’ll never understand…
So, what was it in these shows that that touched my 10 year old heart?
Emotional responsibility for the characters.
In these shows, the episodes that pulled my heart strings, were the ones where decisions had to be made by astro that could effect the lives of the ones he loved. They were impossible decisions that had to be made. It was love, mixed with the fear of losing that love.
Maybe a shrink would undercover the fact that my mother never hugged me and that’s why I was brought to tears by a cartoon at such a young age. But, maybe it was the act of watching this cartoon that brought me to realise my issues and allowed my young mind to process and search for hugs, and love from other places.
Therefore, in some crazy conclusion, how much can our fantasy films and tv shows that kids watch actually teach them things about life? Whether they consciously understand it or not…
>???????? ????? ???????? been on and off with Tarantino in the past. Sometimes I like his stuff, sometimes not. I wasn’t really a massive fan of the Kill Bills. But, what ever you say about him, you have to admit, he can put dialogue together. A couple of people in a car, in a cafe, in a house just chatting away for 10 minutes about nothing really consequential should really spell disaster for a scene. So why am I infinitely interested in what meaningless crap Tarantino’s characters have to say?
I guess the characters are pretty fleshed out. They never really come across as very 2D. I’d be willing to bet that he spends a lot of time creating his characters back stories and motivations.
And this is what Death Proof offers. A ton of characters, pretty much all of them girls, that you really love getting to know.
Oh and to say this is some sort of girl power flick is an understatement. Dude, the second half of this film absolutely rocks the party! My wifie and I were literally screaming with excitement.
Awesome stuff. Loved every minute.
Life drawing hasn’t been like this before.. Last night I popped into the Arthouse Hotel for some life drawing. Not just ya normal naked guy/girl doing the Vogue. This is life drawing, Burlesque style!
Dr Sketchy’s Anti Art School actually. Two lovely burlesque girls do some 1 min poses, wearing their feathers, corsette’s, knee high boots, that sort of thing. Then the artists are hit with a bit of a show, which was lovely, then back to the drawing. A few “Best Drawing” competitions show themselves, then we finish the night with the 15 min poses.
Not at all a sleazy group of people(I think the $15 cover charge keeps out the city dregs). Really enjoyed it. If the $15 bit scares you off, Monday nights at the Arthouse Hotel(Sydney) has a free life drawing session. Get there before 6:00 to get a good pozzie.
Oh, Robert Zemeckis. Why did you think that motion capture will make you money? Why oh why oh why..
Oh how i feel for you.
I know you attempted to make a film that was rich with texture, and fantasy, and imagination. But, poor Robert, you just ended up with a piece of soulless poop. Really.
Watching this is like watching 3D animation take a step back in time. We’ve come so far in 3D animation since Toy Story, and Antz, and watching this was painful. The animation, or should I say acting, was just so wooden. How is an actor going to do their best work while they’re wearing lycra, and acting in a warehouse? It’s just not going to work Zemeckis, no matter how much money you throw at it.
The crowd scenes had little character to character interaction, the horses looked awful, everyone looked liked they’d shot up too much Botox, and the script fizzled after the first 30 mins.
Oh well. I guess we got to see Angelina’s virtual boobs and beaver.
Surf’s up finally made it to Australian Cinema’s the other week. I don’t think it did too well. Within 1 or 2 weeks it was slapped into the early day viewing category. I got around to see it on Saturday with about 15 extremely excited kids and their fathers, who were hoping to score a 90 minute break from needing to look after them themselves. I hear ya. Well I don’t, but if i had kids, I reckon I would.
First thing, this movie and Happy Feet never need to be in the same sentence together. Two completely different films that, except for the odd penguin, bear no resemblance to each other.
Anyway, the Movie. It’s the first animated mockumentary feature film. The documentary style of shooting worked really well. They obviously took some creative license to allow shots that really couldn’t have been taken from a documentary film making team, but hey, I don’t think the target audience would really care. Oh, and there’s some great interaction between the characters and the camera man.
Characters and Script
I’ll be careful not to let out too much info on the plot here. So, there wont be any spoilers..
The characters are what really make this movie. The big Penguin that Codie meets when he gets to the island is the stand-out character without a doubt. He’s voiced by Jeff Bridges.
Cody is who the docco is set around. He is your typical “cocky kid with talent” character we’ve seen 23.6 million times before. Now, there are one or two stand out scenes with these two guys interacting, and it’s magic.
This is a mockumentary in the same style of This is Spinal Tap. I know that with this style of film, they do a lot of filming of the actors just hanging out in character, and just use the good stuff. I read this interview with Jeff Bridges and he says he and Shia LeBeouf(Cody) improvised a lot of the dialogue themselves in the studio. Apparently the director encouraged this. Good choice.
Other characters of note are Joe, the chicken. He’s a stoner surfie chicken kinda resembling Crush the turtle from Nemo. Except he’s a chicken. He’s actually quite likable. He had enough of something to make him stand out from the stoner character crowd. Oh, and every time I saw that chicken walk, I giggled. I do tend to giggle excessively at odd things, but that chicken walk is just hilarious… He actually walks like a chicken
Other shots of note are Cody’s family interviews. Great job here.
The CG was Amazing, the waves were just ridiculous. Wow.
Animation was great. I think, because the dialogue is kinda real life, i don’t think there was much opportunity to really push the acting. So, in the end, you don’t come out of the film thinking about how great the animation was. But hey, the animation is fantastic in this. Not a pixar filim though.
Overall, it was quite good. I do have a gripe though
1. We didn’t really get to watch the surfing in the comps. I mean it was there, but it was kinda like watching a fight scene in the Bourne Identity movies. You really wanted to be able to see more of what was going on. There was the odd slow motion replay that was pretty cool.
So i gave this a good 7.5 out of 10.
It’s probably fair to mention that I surf, and I’m an animator, so I may be biased towards this film’s subject matter.
If you were having any doubts about seeing this film, don’t.
Go watch it.
With a few rare cases, I find the best animated films are when they make use of the fact that it is animated. For example, a lot of Japanese Anime is just mellow drama. Why bother making this an animated film? Maybe Jap animation is a bad example, as I’m sure the Japanese culture loves animated mellow dramatic films. God forbid the day Bollywood starts making 3 hour, 3D motion captured, dramatic dance spectaculars… But you get my concept.
Really, we watch films to be immersed in a good story. Who cares if it is animated or live action? But, we do watch “animated” films because we want to see something special done with the use of the animated media that couldn’t be done in live action. Spirited Away, Antz, Akira, Toystory, Bugs Bunny, Pom Poko, crazy takes, exaggerated poses, stylised characters and backgrounds etc
Of course there have been films that have blurred the lines of live action and animation very successfully as well. The Mask, Kung fu Hustle, A Scanner Darkly etc.. I actually quite enjoyed Monster House because the character designs, script and the direction was well done(I thought). God knows why they didn’t hand animate it though.
Why would someone bother to make a film like Polar Express completely “animated” with motion capture, when it could have been made with live action characters and cg effects for a quarter of the price? (A rumor was going around that it cost $300mil to make and only made $45 mil at the box office)
I guess I’m just sore because I don’t understand what the point of motion capture is, and maybe, there’s a chance that one day, I’ll lose a job to motion capture clean-up artists.
Of course when I animate I use video reference as much as everyone, but I wouldn’t call myself an animator if I completely motion captured all my character animation.
This topic stirs up emotions inside of me that I don’t understand. Perhaps, in a previous life, I was the animator that got assigned the task of tracing over the girl that did Snow White’s performance. And I’m still pissed.
After much playing and coding in Wordpress, I have finally got this site up and running.
Yes, there were tears.
Yes, there were issues with sanity.
Yes, my lovely fiance was harassing me to come to bed every night.
But, it was worth it.
Well, I think it was…
Saw a super advanced screening of knocked up last night.
Same director as 40 year old virgin, so there’s no doubt i was expecting a crazy funny movie.
In the end, it was a romantic comedy.
It’s a well written one. Enjoyable. Funny. but sorry guys, you hyped me up so much i was expecting more.
I even made a short film dedicated to getting pissed and waking up in someone else’s bed(which is basically what Knocked Up is about). Admittingly, my short film was created for a competition/promotion for the movie, with $10,000 as first prize. I didn’t make the cut…
Back to the movie in question.. Maybe i’m sore for not taking out first place. I thought the movie was ok, i got nothing against babies, but I really expect more from a comedy these days.
it was like watching a version of Nine Months where Hugh Grant is a pot smoking, porn loving, mildly overweight Canadian. In fact, the more I think about it, it was a LOT like nine months.
Welcome. I'm a designer/web person/3D animator/other stuff. This is just a place for me to get some interesting info out there.
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I'm a 3D Character Animator by choice, but I'm also happy to model, work on motion graphics, create web sites, graphic design, flash animation and more...
