Kung Fu Panda

My second child movie in a week, I better not let this be a habit.

I’ve always enjoyed Kung Fu movies. So I was excited to see this one. I really liked how they brought all the styles into the associated characters. It had a lot of the same basic story elements that a lot of the old chop soki movies did. There is a definite difference in comedy though, since this is being marketed towards children in the States.

There is a very simple message to this film, believe in yourself. Taking the fat Panda and teaching him how to be a great fighter to stop the guy no one else can, but only by making him believe in himself. Age old message, but this time set to kung fu animals.

The voice acting was pretty good. Nothing spectacular, but Jack Black is funny, which is to be expected. What I was a little surprised at was how they didn’t try to market all these actors they have doing voices, with people like Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, and even Jackie Chan. But they just focused on Jack Black. My only problem with having Black do the voice is at times it felt like the voice and character on screen didn’t really fit together. Part of it could be that Black has such a distinct voice and face, that when you hear him talk, you can only imagine his face, and not this CGI panda. But this wasn’t too bad for most of the movie, just a scene here and there.

The animation was spectacular. 3-D animation has come so far in the past few years, and between this and Wall-E I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

Wall-E

With out doubt, this is the most adorable, cute movie I have seen in a very long time. If someone told you that the movie was about two robots running around on an adventure, but that they didn’t even really speak, except for each others names. You might not think there could be much to it. But Pixar has managed to infuse so much expression and emotion into that little box shaped robot.

For the first 10-15 minutes I was reminded of how much Wall-E reminded me of Johnny 5 from Short Circuit. Lots of similarities between them with the same kind of head/eye encasings, and the triangle shaped treads. And while Johnny did have an impressive array of expressions, the fact that Wall-E was CGI opened up the possibilities even further.

The back story is actually pretty bleak and depressing. Taking place in a future where people have had to leave the Earth because it was completely covered in garbage, and not just the surface, the planet itself is incased in satellite trash. It really isn’t hard to pick up on the messages that they are trying to get across. With scenes of sky scraper tall piles of trash, and thousands of billboards for a super corporation Buy N Large. Complete with a billboard on the moon for “new shopping center coming soon”, right next to the Apollo Lander. When we finally get to see the humans of the movie, it’s very unsettling. Everyone is so fat and lazy that they use hover chairs to get around, and don’t actually interact with one another, but use little holographic displays to talk to each other, even if they are right next to each other, complete with robots waiting on their every need.

My favorite part of the story is how it’s simply about this little robot and how he affects everyone without really trying, he’s just trying to find this other robot that he has a crush on. The little things he does have a huge impact on everyone around him. Simple things like waving to someone. He also has a great sense of innocent interest in things. Being a trash gathering/compacting robot, he finds all sorts of odd knickknacks and trinkets that he keeps because they interest him, things like Rubix Cubes and sporks.

Really there are a few plot holes in the movie. But they are very minor, and never really are a bother. The only thing I was left wanting was to know what his name means. I’m sure it might’ve said somewhere, and I just didn’t catch it.