The reason for all this coverage is…I participated in interviews with most of the cast this past weekend. And on top of my interviews, Erico from the website Omelete (Collider’s partner) flew here from Brazil for the junket and I’ll be using his video interviews as well. So…like I said…it’s Kung Fu Panda week on Collider.
Thankfully, I really enjoyed Kung Fu Panda so helping to promote the film is cool with me. And if you haven’t heard of the film yet…
Kung Fu Panda features Jack Black as Po the Panda, a lowly waiter in a noodle restaurant, who is a kung fu fanatic but whose shape doesn't exactly lend itself to kung fu fighting. In fact, Po's defining characteristic appears to be that he is the laziest of all the animals in ancient China. That's a problem because powerful enemies are at the gates, and all hopes have been pinned on a prophesy naming Po as the "Chosen One" to save the day. A group of martial arts masters are going to need a black belt in patience if they are going to turn this slacker panda into a kung fu fighter before it's too late. Fighting alongside Jack Black is a hell of a voice cast, with the film also featuring the voices of Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Ian McShane, Lucy Liu, Angelina Jolie, David Cross and Seth Rogen.
During the mini press conference, Dustin told a lot of funny stories and I was really surprised at how forthcoming he was about how he got involved with the movie and how his career has changed since he got in the business many years ago. Seriously, it’s a great interview.
Finally, before getting to the interview with Dustin Hoffman and Director Mark Osborne, if you want to watch 10 movie clips from Kung Fu Panda click here.
And, as always, if you’d like to listen to the audio of the interview click here for the MP3. Again, Kung Fu Panda gets released this Friday at theaters everywhere.
 "Click to enlarge")
Question : You chose to have Jack and Dustin work together in this and that is unusual in animation, why did you do that and for Dustin, what was it like working with Jack Black?
Mark: It was actually really important for us - creating the characters is an evolution, we have an idea and then we bring someone like Dustin in to help us really author the character, because he’s such a huge part of creating the character. So for us there is a very important dynamic between Po and Shifu, and we wanted to actually explore that with both actors. So it was something that we did early on intending it to be a very playful session, an exploratory session, and we ended up actually getting a lot of great finished dialogue in that session, because the interplay was so great. And it was a thrill; they hadn’t worked together, so we got to pair these two, and just to be there was fun.
Dustin: Oh that it could be longer, is my answer. I wish there would be a way to make these films where the actors interact all the time, but the process is – you can’t do it. It’s been four years doing this, making it, so you work for a few days, see ya, later they call you, four months later you come in again, so you couldn’t have all the actors in the same place, but it would be wonderful if we could, I think.
Mark: There’s a time constraint, schedules are complicated, but also for us there’s a technical consideration too, so normally you’re just working with one person at a time, just because – sometimes we’ll come in and we’ll just need ten lines from a certain sequence, and that’s all we need.
Dustin: Some people have asked me a lot, did you enjoy doing it? And I tend to tell the truth in work, in life I don’t. And I said, ‘No, I don’t enjoy it, it’s painstaking,’ and finally I asked Mark, just in this last press conference, I said, ‘Can I ask you, do you enjoy it?’ And he said, ‘No, it’s painstaking.’ You know, it’s tough to make a regular movie, because it’s tense on the set, because you have to do a certain amount of work, you want to get all the coverage, you don’t know whether you’re making the right choices, directors always say, as actors do on the way home, oh I should have done this, I should have done that, but still when you compare it, it’s much more fun to make a regular film, this is – I doff my hat to these guys, there’s no other word for it, it’s painstaking.
Q: I want to ask you about finding this character, because it’s obviously a performance although we’re not actually seeing you, it’s still a performance, so you’re putting all your energies into your voice, I wanted to ask you how you set about portraying him, because he is an old guy –
Dustin: And I’m not, thank you. I met Mark and I knew Jeffrey, Jeffrey’s the one who asked me to do it, and I went to DreamWorks and I met Mark, and the producers and Jeffrey, and they showed me sketches of the character, and I said, ‘What is he?’ I didn’t know what it was. And they said that’s a very rare panda.
Mark: Red panda
Dustin: Red panda, thank you. Isn’t there a name for the red panda? People have asked me that.
Mark: Red panda. There is a scientific name I guess
Dustin: That’s like saying you have the pox, what’s it really called? We don’t know, alright, red panda. And I said, ‘Tell me about this guy.’ And they started talking to me, because I did have a concern that I didn’t want to – you know, I come from a generation who sees these things as cartoons, which is almost a pejorative today to call these things cartoons, because they are in their infancy of being their own art form. We ain’t seen nothin’ yet. It’s extraordinary what you can do. To get highfalutin, if you look at the caricatures of Daumier, animation is going to enter that era any minute now where you can do an essence of human beings and classes, politicians or whatever, and do them in extraordinary [detail].
Mark: It was great, because it was important to us to ask Dustin to take it seriously, we wanted him to take the role seriously, we wanted to take the movie seriously, the world in the movie where we’re trying to make a true classic kung fu film that honored the genre and honored the traditions of animation. There’s a great tradition of very classic storytelling, so that’s what we were asking Dustin to do, and actually in our first meeting, I don’t know if you remember this, but you had just gone to your acupuncturist the day before, who had explained the idea of Yin and Yang –
Dustin: He kept hitting my yang though and it killed me.
Mark: So we were like, this is perfect.
Dustin: I was concerned that it would be two-dimensional, that’s what I didn’t want to do, and so we discussed what a third dimension is, and a character and a human being. I said, ‘Well, insight, introspection,’ there are few two-dimensional people in our administration, but we won’t get political, and suddenly my little red panda ears went up when they said, ‘He’s an arrogant guy, he’s all knowing at the beginning, and he doesn’t think he’s ever been wrong, and he has an arc.’ And I said, ‘Oh that starts to be interesting.’ You can’t print - in other words, he’s a prick, he’s a little prick. And they said, ‘Yes.’ And I said, ‘I’m in.’ (he laughs) And I do - for what it is I do appreciate that by the end of the film he reaches a point where he realizes that a portion of his life he’d been living as a lie. So you just try to get as much human qualities in as you can.
Q: How much do you have to always consider that this is going out to a very young audience as well as regular viewers, for lack of a better term, and does the studio ever have to make you dial back on the violent scenes?
Mark: We take the approach that we’re just sort of making the film for human beings, we’re just trying to make the film that we want to see. We have to constantly check in and consider, just as filmmakers, the audience, and we try to think about the kid audience, but we don’t tailor the film, we don’t try to talk down to kids, because kids don’t necessarily respond to that I think. What we try to do is just take the job of telling a story seriously and, as far as the studio goes, we never dialed anything back because we were disciplined as filmmakers ourselves to consider the fact that – I have a seven year old son and a ten year old daughter, and I watch movies with them, I watch through their eyes and it’s a big part of how I learn as a filmmaker to understand how they see the world too. So I think it’s something that we do, and even when we tested the film, we did test screenings, we were always trying to push the envelope a little bit, we have a very scary villain, we wanted to have a very scary villain, we have a prick at the beginning of the movie –
Dustin: Not a scary prick though.
Mark: But there’s some intense emotional stuff in the film, and for us that was important for the storytelling, and audiences never complained about any of it, even the most dramatic sequences in the film. And so we knew early on that we were striking the right balance, we mentioned yin and yang, the whole film is about the yin and yang of – there’s violent kung fu action, and then there’s a soft cuddly panda. So we were constantly trying to find that right balance, and it seemed every time that we were hitting it, so we never had to dial back.
Dustin: You know, it’s interesting for those of us who have kids, the shock of recognition when you start reading children’s books to your kids, and you’re reading Pinocchio and you haven’t pre-read it before you’re reading it to your kids because you read it long ago, and suddenly you’re at that point, ‘And Pinocchio is in front of the fireplace, and the fire starts to burn his legs up.’ And you just stop talking. [He laughs] And I remember the first film I think I saw was Bambi, and the trauma stays with me, they were all killed in the fire in the woods. The amount of children’s literature that has violence in it is extraordinary. I’m not saying that it’s right, but it’s amazing.
Mark: It’s an important part of storytelling. It’s an important part of being a kid is to be scared in a safe environment, and there was a promise that Disney sort of used to talk about – Walt Disney used to say, is a promise that we make our audience, we say we’re going to scare you, but everything’s going to be okay. It’s kind of like riding a rollercoaster, it’s thrilling but you know you’re in a safe environment, so it’s that kind of important storytelling – the thing that’s important to us in telling the story.
Yesterday, Today …
July 31, 2009It is a manic Saturday, for mommy.
End of crib
January 26, 2009It is been a long time since I wrote a blog post, The reason being that I have been trying to find some inner peace. At least to change myself rather than the outside world.
Some of my posts would have been just rants, raging about the quality of service which I expected. Things have changed now with the bad economics
I happened to read a few lines of Andrew Matthews, “Happiness in a nutshell” it is an eye opener.
One such lines are these which made me think
“Your mission in life is not to change the world.
Your mission is to change yourself.
There are no “outside” solutions
only “inside” solutions
So is the change in myself. End of crib, could be my last blog post.
Technorati Tags: self realization, life, happy, chennai, India
Kung Fu Panda – A lesson for teachers
July 24, 2008
Kung Fu Panda
I had written a post long back A perfect Teacher, until recently I watched the movie Kung Fu Panda, my whole perception changed about teaching.
Lesson 1: What ever happens is not a mistake
Lesson 2: Believe in the person you want to teach
Lesson 3: Identify, what the candidate is interested on, find a new method and teach
Finally Lesson 4: There is no special ingredient.
The final lesson about the special ingredient is the most important one.
Imagine you are on the 100 meters dash, competing with a world record athlete , what is the difference or the distance between you and professional athlete while winning the race.
It can’t be 100 meters for sure, the difference is nothing but impact of lesson 3, and lesson 2
Lesson 3 is nothing but practice, dedication on what you want to achieve.
Practice makes a man perfect, that involves failures. Those are the stepping stone to success.
Lesson 2 is Believe in yourself first, and never give up, even when the whole world is totally against you. When you start believing in your self first, rest of the world will start believing in you.
No one can inject knowledge, Unless you wish to acquire them.
Lesson 1 may seemed incidental, but not true. Unless you wanted things to happen the way expected.
No one can stop your growth, unless you wanted to.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – 7+ star ratings
June 2, 2008
I am a fan of Indie, The latest movie “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” did live up to the expectation.
To tell you the fact I was excited when they planned for this new movie but I didn’t set any high expectation, as Harrison Ford was already old. After seeing the movie, Man this guy still seems to rock at this age. Hats of to you sir.
I have seen the previous sequential, With a great director like Steven Spielberg, how could the movie fail, at the same time I felt bad, that the story of this movie had to do with the interest of Steven Spielberg. If you have seen all the Steven Spielberg movie you could predict this one too. The one liners and those punching dialogue are not that notable like the older sequential, very few.
The set, special effects and sound is excellent. Worth watching with the family.
I watched this movie at Satyam Cinemas, Chennai, India last Saturday noon show.Technorati Tags: Movie, Indiana Jones, Chennai, India, Satyam Cinemas, Theatre, Review, Movie Review
College Students, Bee a smart Lender – use LendBee
May 20, 2008
Photo Courtesy: Rosie Hardy
Imagine countless books for reference on top of your semester books, Carrying them, taking care of them is a much pain. Here is a cool solution which will make you feel better
Lendbee is a system which allows you to share books, CD, DVD, Movies, Magazines, Ebooks and those online manuals which you can actually share with a closed group of friends and college juniors. The best part is no ones else knows what materials you share except the ones on your group.
Bee a smart Lender and let some one take care of your materials and how to place them in their apartments, when you need them back, the lendbee allows you to track the materials on who currently has them.
So check the lendbee today, remember knowledge is power, so can even expect your friends to share materials which you can get them for free.
Technorati Tags: free, books, CD, DVD, Movies, Magazines, Ebooks, lendbee, social networking
Are we still Indians?
April 29, 2008The question which raises in mind, because of two issues which I came across the “The Times” daily, seems to be better than “The Hindu”. Content is the King.
- Hogenakkal dispute – border for Tamilnadu and Karnataka
- IPL – Indian Premier League
There is no dispute in this world which cannot be solved by just talking
All it takes is members from both sides to talk about their issues and come to a conclusion for the wellness of the society.
This is not the first time in the NEWS about Hogenakkal, Tamil people residing in Karnataka have under gone the troubles, Vandalism to Tamil people’s property is outrageous, with cops being on their side and the political system adding fuel to the fire.
Whom are we fighting against?
Aren’t we brothers and sisters, fighting is good for good relations. We have seen them with siblings. But destroying your own brother’s/sister’s property is not tolerable. Parents have only one thing in mind, their children well being. So what is the political parties behaving as parents do?
So coming to the IPL – Dravid remarked that after hitting a four in his own country, India, there were no cheers from the crowd. What a shame being brothers and sisters. Well about Sreesanth and Harbajan Singh I would say that happens in Cricket, I have got the beating from my friends and some times have given blows to my close pals, players have the right spirit – sportive ones.
I feel Political systems in India have turned us in to enemies in terms of borders,landmarks, divisions,caste, creed for their own benefit of making money and remaining in power.
What can make politicians run for their lives or at least change them to do some thing good for people of India?
People refraining to VOTE
The current political motives is exposing to the outside world about our own unity. There needs to be significant change in the way we think about being Indian. Were is all the taxpayers money getting into. Just wishing if some money put to educate people t
TODAY !!!
Posted by yohaneswibowo on August 26, 2009
“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift, that’s why it is called the present.”-Eleanor Roosevelt-
Masa lalu adalah sejarah, hari esok adalah misteri. Hari ini adalah berkah, itulah sebabnya disebut “present” (present bisa berarti “hari ini” juga bisa berarti “hadiah”)
Ungkapan ini kita pasti pernah mendengarnya kalau kita pernah menonton film kungfu panda yang super kocak itu 
meski kalimatnya pendek tapi sangat dalam maknanya.
Seringkali kita sering mengasihani diri sendiri (self pitty) dan hidup di masa lalu kita, terus meratapi hal2 yang sudah berlalu. Memang wajar sebagai manusia tetap memiliki rasa penyesalan, tapi hendaknya kita jadikan masa lalu sebagai motivasi untuk lebih baik hari ini dan hari depan.
Tapi juga sering kita memiliki mimpi tapi lupa untuk meraihnya! kita harus memiliki mimpi tapi ketika mimpi hanya menjadi angan2 di siang bolong maka itu konyol namanya. Butet K. pernah mengatakan bahwa ternyata yang butuh kaki itu ga cuma meja dan kursi saja, tapi gagasan, mimpi, dan ide2 juga butuh landasan, kalau ga ada itu namanya membual. Seringkali kita hidup di masa depan, bermalas2an dan beranggapan bahwa mimpi kita akan terwujud dengan berjalannya waktu, dan mengharapkan durian runtuh dari langit (benjol berdarah2 dong hahahah).
So….. hiduplah hari ini, sekarang!! jangan hidup untuk masa lalu dan jangan pula hidup di masa depan. Hari ini kita menuai dari masa lalu, dan hari ini pula kita menabur untuk masa depan.
o unite.
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