Articles on Animation &Festivals 21 May 2008 08:24 am
Product
– This past weekend I came upon two reviews in one issue of Daily Variety. Kung Fu Panda and Waltz with Bashir were reviewed on the very same page. Both animated films are being presented in Cannes, and Variety reviewed them well in advance of their release (at least, in the U.S.).
Kung Fu Panda didn’t receive a very positive notice: Chopsocky ‘Panda’ has bear necessities read the headline.
“Even by moppet-defined standards, _______The cast of Kung Fu Panda in Cannes.
the situations, characters and moti-
vations here are extremely elementary and lack nuance; other than Po and his prescribed transformation, none of the other figures reveal dimensions not fully evident at their initial appearances.” They went on to praise some of the graphics.
As for Waltz With Bashir, the reviewer said it is, “A subject that might, had it been made conventionally, have repped just another docu about a war atrocity, is tranmuted via novel use of animation into something special, strange and peculairly potent …”
The Hollywood product is designed to capatilize on the voices of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu and Angelina Jolie. The other, Israeli made feature uses a mix of acted and documentary voices (including the director) and is subtitled.
The reviews in Hollywood Reporter were almost identical to these in Variety.
Of course, Kung Fu Panda will ulltimately have a large enough public in its Dreamworks distribution and will probably score $150-200 million. It was designed for commercial purposes to attract a large “family” (meaning “children”) audience.
Waltz With Bashir may not make it to the U.S. Variety said that U.S. distributors in Cannes are taking a “wait and see attitude” before buying into it.
________ Ari Folman _______.._.____That usually means that it has some problems.
_____________________.__________The film has sold to distribution in Spain, Germany, France and Greece. Writer/director, Ari Folman admits that the film is difficult to watch (it is about war) and cannot be changed to a happy ending movie.
The directors of Kung Fu Panda have worked in LA’s animation community. John Stevenson has been with Dreamworks for a while. Stevenson worked in storyboard on Madagascar, Sinbad and Spirit. He also directed episodes of the tv show, Father of the Pride. Mark Osborne has directed episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants prior to joining Dreamworks to direct on this film.
The director of Waltz With Bashir, Ari Folman, also wrote the film. He wrote and directed two other live action films and wrote episodes of “In Treatment”, the Israeli version of the show that transferred to HBO. His next film will be an animated adaptation of Polish author Stanislaw Lem’s “The Futurological Congress”. This time, he’ll make the animated feature in English.
I haven’t seen either film, obviously, though I’ve looked at a lot of clips. One is dyamically drawn with a lot of pop and snap to the animation – meaning there are no characters there. The other looks rotoscoped – more in the manner of the Chicago 10 than Waking Life. I’m getting discouraged again about the medium I love. But then, I’ve only seen clips. Perhaps they thought the poetic scenes wouldn’t attract audiences.
Here’s an article about the Kung Fu Panda party at Cannes.
Here’s a Cannes interview with director, Ari Folman.
on 21 May 2008 at 12:39 pm 1.Tim Rauch said …
There’s a lot I can relate to in this post. While I cannot begrudge anyone the possibility of enjoying either film, and would be happy to have the chance to watch either one, I have some reservations.
In Kung Fu Panda, you seem to have another Hollywood cartoon product: bright color, shiny surfaces, “irreverent” humor, and big, swinging and popping animation. There’s a lot of skill in making a product like that, but ultimately it leaves me a little flat. Is it maybe just not my kind of movie? Am I a curmudgeon at the age of 24? Maybe, but ultimately, Kung Fu Panda seems like just another in a long line of smart-ass talking animal flicks, not any kind of promising, “future of animation” piece-of-art. Still, I hope it keeps the LA scene strong and money flowing to the artists who worked on it.
Waltz with Bashir seems to want to be that “promising future of animation”, but for all the promise of its content and the incredible talent of the Hanuka brothers, this film could have benefited from more emotional quality in the animation. Again, I have not seen the film, but this looks like the animation of Chicago 10 and Waking Life: nothing is ever allowed to settle or move with the controlled meter of quality character animation. Things seem to slide around the screen as if the only hand that controlled them was a graph in a computer program. In the close ups, with the tightly pinched faces and constantly furrowed brows, there’s just not enough “performance” to give the average viewer the emotional gateway you need to get through a feature. Still, I hope this film serves as a reminder of the range of topics animation can be used to address. I wish it all the success in the world and hope these artists can continue to make better and better films.
Ultimately, I do not feel discouraged about the future of animation. Kung Fu Panda and movies like it will ensure that there continues to be a heartbeat and flowing blood for professional animators, storyboarders and directors in this country. Hopefully, that will some day mean those artists can use a big budget to challenge themselves and their audience the way Folman has tried to with his film. Bravo to all the artists who worked on these films, may you get up tomorrow and do great work.
on 21 May 2008 at 1:19 pm 2.Michael said …
Nicely said, Tim.
on 24 May 2008 at 1:55 pm 3.Matt Jones said …
Au contraire-Waltz with Bashir is infused with emotion & atmosphere. The ‘talking head’ sections do get a bit floaty in the animation but the story is never less than compelling & there are terrific scenes of dynamic action-especially the opening with the running dogs.
KUNG FU PANDA has a featherweight premise but is simply a joy from beginning to end.
on 24 May 2008 at 2:00 pm 4.Michael said …
Matt Jones has seen both films in Cannes and includes reviews of both films, as well as others, on his blog. There are some fine drawings there as well. Take a look.
on 02 Jun 2008 at 3:42 am 5.Jenny said …
“In Kung Fu Panda, you seem to have another Hollywood cartoon product: bright color, shiny surfaces, “irreverent†humor, and big, swinging and popping animation. There’s a lot of skill in making a product like that, but ultimately it leaves me a little flat. Is it maybe just not my kind of movie? Am I a curmudgeon at the age of 24? Maybe, but ultimately, Kung Fu Panda seems like just another in a long line of smart-ass talking animal flicks, not any kind of promising, “future of animation†piece-of-art. Still, I hope it keeps the LA scene strong and money flowing to the artists who worked on it.”
I just saw “Panda” (which I didn’t work on)last week. It is outstanding, the best feature Dreamworks has made in CG and probably their best feature so far of any method.
It couldn’t be more different from the negative expectations and presumptions suggested above. I’d heard startlingly positive buzz about it beforehand(I say “startlingly” because often the tired crew as well as folks in the immediate vicinity are the hardest on the films), but the final product was far better than I’d imagined.
It’s so lovely to look at that I was aastonished…the characters provide the humor–their situations and personality do. While Jack Black is certainly known as a a wise ass performer, his Po also has sincerity and heart–the entire film has heart. There’s wonderful CHARACTER animation, esp: the aged tortoise, the red panda/sensei(or whatever he’s called in Chinese), and the supporting characters–notably a goose, a mantis, and especially a crane who moved like a crane, not like a “thing” that happens to resemble a crane. It was just wonderful. Hell, even the score was sensitive and beautiful. It’s a “kung-fu” action film, not a fairy tale, but it’s obvious that the animators got into the genre rather than simply using the trappings to make another “talking animal picture”(one animator, Rodolphe Guenodon, himself a martial arts person, staged/supervised all the fight animation). Honestly, please try and see it in a theater. I don’t ever rave about things I am not sincere about. It’d be a shame not to give this film a chance. if you guys don’t like it, well, that happens–there are people who disliked or were unmoved by “Ratatouille”–no means a completely perfect film but one that for me was successful on so many levels and kept me engaged throughout.
Panda is far simpler a story than that, but it makes all the “right” choices, which was a marvelous thing to experience. It really feels unlike any other Dreamworks movie. And Todd McCarthy’s review, which I read before seeing it? I don’t know what made him so sour but I think he was way off base. I didn’t recognize the film he reviewed in the one I saw at all.
[I should add that I thought the trailers weren't up to the level of the film at all; imho they give no impression of the film's quality, but perhaps they're made for small kids or something, I don''t know.]
on 03 Jun 2008 at 10:37 pm 6.Tim Rauch said …
Ok, this strand is probably more or less dead to new readers, but now I HAVE seen the film (in IMAX, which was kinda neat).
I stand by what I wrote. Yes, the trailers were somehow worse than the movie, but after all the strong visuals and better-than-I-expected animation, I would agree with my friend who said it “had a beginning and an end but no middle”. The best Dreamworks film? Dunno, don’t watch most of them. But for me, this thing was a bunch of cliches strung together and glossed over with strong production value. Not a whole lotta meat on those bones. Dreamworks should make the movies they wanna make, and maybe this is that (god bless them), but some day I’d love to see big-budget animation done in this country with emotionally complex characters and plotlines. This wasn’t that: it was more “kiddie-fare”, but if I had children, I don’t think I’d have them watch it. Shouldn’t children be given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to having good taste?
Ok, I hope this string really is dead. That way no one can get angry at me for saying this thing looked to me like the whole idea was the title, “Kung Fu! and Pandas!” and basically nothing else, except millions of dollars and the blood sweat and tears of artists who oughtta have the opportunity to work on something more substantial.