Thursday, March 28, 2024

Filmmakers Say ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ is ‘Perfect Premise For Creating Comedy’ [EUR Exclusive]

kung fu-panda-3

*Kung Fu Panda 3” opened in cinemas across the U.S. and Canada on January 29, taking in $41 million at the domestic box office. The film was made on a $145 million budget over the course of four years, and has earned an estimated $116.7 million in its opening weekend worldwide.

Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni, and executive produced by Guillermo del Toro, the film features the voices of Jack Black, J. K. Simmons, Bryan Cranston, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, David Cross, James Hong, and Kate Hudson. Also Jean-Claude Van Damme and Randall Duk Kim reprise their roles as Master Croc and Oogway from the first two films.

EUR/Electronic Urban Report visited the Dreamworks lot to screen what may be the final film in the franchise, and to chat with the filmmakers and animator Frank Abney, about their four-year journey to take the project from script-to-screen.

Abney has been working as an animator in the industry for almost 8 years, and he proudly worked on two Academy Award winning films for Best Animated Feature, Disney’s “Frozen” and “Big Hero 6.” He’s currently working on “Boss Baby,” slated for a 2017 release.

The third film finds Grand Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) in the Chinese Spirit Realm, fighting against Kai (J. K. Simmons) who steals his chi stolen, and vows to steal all that remains in the mortal world. Oogway warns Kai that Po (Jack Black), the Dragon Warrior, will stop him. Newcomers and fans of the first two films will be pleased with this vivid and whimsical tale that is inspiring and suited for all ages. The added star power certainly helps drive the story, which speaks to the human condition.

Kung Fu Panda 3
EURweb Associate Ny MaGee & Dreamworks animator Frank Abney

We asked Frank about the various phases of the film, most specifically, when the actors come on board to bring life to their characters.

Usually the story team will record what we call scratch. We’ll pull people internally to just do voices cause we’re still working out the story,” Frank explained. “Once we have the storyboards in a good phase, where we can record dialogue, we’ll grab other employees to record the voices, just so we’re not paying for big actors just yet.”

He continued:

“Once everything is nailed down, then they’ll call the actors in. They’ll do their recording and then editorial will cut all that together and animation will get our shots with the final audio in it. That’s what we use to get the performance. Sometimes we act out it, sometimes the performance is good enough where we can draw poses and go off of that, but I usually like to act it out myself.”

Directors Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni explained that there’s no esoteric meaning behind their computer-animated world of wise pandas and Kung Fu masters.

“It’s really because pandas are a very iconic Chinese animal. Kung Fu is a very iconic Chinese martial art, and so putting them together just made a very funny contrast to a big fat Panda and cool Kung Fu. Just hearing the title makes people laugh,” Jennifer said.

“Especially for comedy. It comes down to premise,” said Alessandro. “What will be a funny premise, and the notion of Kung Fu, the most rigid disciple in the world, and kind of the laziest, sloppiest, fat character in nature, just gives it such a perfect premise for creating comedy.”

Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Alessandro Carloni
Kung Fu Panda’ directors Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Alessandro Carloni. Image via Ny MaGee

The duo went on to describe that four years of arduous pre-production and the excruciating amount of detail required during production is “army level,” and way more “labor intensive than live action,” Alessandro explained.

“The first film took 4 1/2 years. The second took three years and this one took four years,” Jennifer said. “We try to make sure that each film is a self-contained, satisfying experience. So we spend four years on these things, and we don’t leave anything on the table. We put our best effort into making this movie great.

When asked if they’re hoping to continue the franchise, Jennifer told us “We don’t think about the next one,” as they work on each film, but Alessandro said he’s leaving it up to the fans to decide if they want more Po.

“This could be the end, and of course, should the fans love it and they want to see more Po… we’ll find out,” he said.

“At the end of the day, a lot of people have grown up with these characters and they love these characters, and they miss them. So we got a chance to give these people more time to spend with their friends, and myself too, cause (Po’s) my friend too now. So I’m very proud of that,” Alessandro said when asked to talk about his personal connection to the story.

“One of the things that Shifu tells Po is that ‘If you only do what you’re good at, you’ll never be more than you are now.’ In may ways, making an animated film is very difficult, and you face a lot of obstacles, but you push and try to grow through the process, and I think that model actually helped us make it through this one,” said Jennifer.

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