Thursday, August 28, 2008

It's Kung Fu Time!!!!!.......

   
Hey!.........I recently saw Dreamworks Kung Fu Panda and it was a very good experience watching this movie. I still have Kung Fu Hangover, the story was well told. The one thing is for sure as far Animation is concerned......Dreamworks is going neck to neck with Pixar. I think there is a competition between Pixar and Dreamworks that who has got better render power, because they all (Pixar, Dreamworks, Bluesky) have shown what they are capable of. I think Pixar displayed their world class Animation skills along with very good story telling skills in movies like "Toy Story", "A Bug's Life", "Toy Story 2". Even Dreamworks with their "Shrek"and "Madagascar" while Bluesky with "Ice Age". There is no doubt that they are Super Duper Story Tellers. 

But now the competition is who is a better story teller which is basic of movie making.


Even the effects, like Fire in Dreamworks "Shrek" or like Ice Effects of Frozone or Syndrome's Hightech  Gadgets or water stimulation in Pixar's "The Incredibles" or Handling Fur on Sally in "Monster Inc." or Road cracking scene in "Cars" or Bluesky's Ice Effects of "Ice Age Trilogy" and water stimulation in "Horton Hears a Who".  Every body is doing something Spectacular. 
Coming back to "Kung Fu Panda".... All thumbs up for characters design........especially the Childhood Version of TaiLung, which was very cute. Even Poo, Master Tigress, Master Monkey, Master Shifu, Master Mantis, Master Crane, Master Viper, TaiLung and last but not the least Master Oogway.......all the Characters were well stylized. 
           
There's a Unique style that Dreamworks has come up with which is if a character is in action, the animation of a small section of that particular sequence is in slow motion in the mid of the action and then suddenly comes back to the normal speed, which looks good and don't forget the Squash and Stretch in animation (which is an Important principle).  I always wonder how must be the Rigs of the Characters.......and it must be fun Animating those characters.  I would love to Animate characters like Mike (of Monster Inc.), Buzz Lightyear (of Toy Story), Mr Incredible and Edna (of The Incredibles), Linguine (of Ratatouille), Verne(of Over The Hedge), Master Tigress and Master Monkey (of Kung Fu Panda)..... Boy its a long list. :P. There is one more Thing.....when you see any animated movie.......if the story is not strong enough, the interest diverts to Animation, Character Design and Effects..which is a Big case with Indian Animated movies...like "Hanuman", "Bal Ganesha" etc.  Might not be the same case with everyone but these all are inspired by Mythological Epics which I have heard in my childhood...so in a way I know a little bit about the story and here my interest diverts to the style of Animation, over all colour theme and character design in first screening (i.e. when I am watching that particular movie for the first time) which is bad. 
But it takes more the 4-5 screenings to look beyond the story and execution of it.  Which is the same case with "Kung Fu Panda" or other Dreamworks, Pixar's and Blue sky studio's movies.  I hope one day India will make some thing of that standard.

Pixar has always come up with a unique way to tell a story and don't forget their short films like "Luxolamp Jr.", "Boundin", "Jack Jack Attack", "Mikes New Car", "For the Birds","Gari's Game" and "One Man Band".... every one is uniquely different from each other.  Now Pixar's Wall-E is releasing on 29th of August in India (that is tomorrow).  Now in Wall-E, there will be a lot of particles effects as it has more of the outer space environment.  Characters gonna be ultra high-tech, like Wall-E and Eve.  I have head that their up coming new short film called "Presto", is as impressive as their previous short film.  I hope it works well. I am looking forward to it.

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