COMPETITION between the Pixar and DreamWorks animation studios has brought them huge success.
Their run of critically acclaimed hits in the realm of three-dimensional, computer-animated movies is unprecedented in any genre.
Think of Pixar's Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, and DreamWorks' Shrek, Shark Tale and Bee Movie.
Both studios, it seems, have cracked the formula for fun, visually stunning family entertainment. But the latest DreamWorks Animation film, Kung Fu Panda, could have been otherwise.
Not because it's a bad film; it's arguably DreamWorks' most visually captivating since Shrek 2. But Kung Fu Panda, co-director John Stevenson says, could have been a mess of clever but ultimately incoherent ideas. The animator and department head had asked DreamWorks founder and chief Jeffrey Katzenberg if he could direct a feature film. After directing the animated television series Father of the Pride and "not screwing it up horribly", Stevenson was given Kung Fu Panda. "I can safely say it was the least attractive movie option available at the studio," Stevenson says with a laugh. "I was not being given a plum film, I was being given a slightly leaky ship."
He says there was the shell of an idea, that something funny could be made of kung fu and pandas. Beyond some story outlines and scripts, however, the project was in disarray.
It took some work to arrive at the result, a cute family comedy with Jack Black lending his voice to Po the Panda, a clumsy, wannabe kung fu warrior who becomes the chosen one, a warrior selected to protect the Valley of Peace from snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane). Indeed, the magnitude of the film's change in fortunes was clear before it earned more than $US60 million ($63million) in its first weekend at the North American box office this month.
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Their run of critically acclaimed hits in the realm of three-dimensional, computer-animated movies is unprecedented in any genre.
Think of Pixar's Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, and DreamWorks' Shrek, Shark Tale and Bee Movie.
Both studios, it seems, have cracked the formula for fun, visually stunning family entertainment. But the latest DreamWorks Animation film, Kung Fu Panda, could have been otherwise.
Not because it's a bad film; it's arguably DreamWorks' most visually captivating since Shrek 2. But Kung Fu Panda, co-director John Stevenson says, could have been a mess of clever but ultimately incoherent ideas. The animator and department head had asked DreamWorks founder and chief Jeffrey Katzenberg if he could direct a feature film. After directing the animated television series Father of the Pride and "not screwing it up horribly", Stevenson was given Kung Fu Panda. "I can safely say it was the least attractive movie option available at the studio," Stevenson says with a laugh. "I was not being given a plum film, I was being given a slightly leaky ship."
He says there was the shell of an idea, that something funny could be made of kung fu and pandas. Beyond some story outlines and scripts, however, the project was in disarray.
It took some work to arrive at the result, a cute family comedy with Jack Black lending his voice to Po the Panda, a clumsy, wannabe kung fu warrior who becomes the chosen one, a warrior selected to protect the Valley of Peace from snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane). Indeed, the magnitude of the film's change in fortunes was clear before it earned more than $US60 million ($63million) in its first weekend at the North American box office this month.
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