Kung Fu Panda!

This is what it took to kick me out of my blogging lull.

I've seen Kung Fu Panda twice in two days and I have a feeling I could watch it again tomorrow, and the next day. There are really only a handful of movies that share that quality for me. The Incredibles, The Producers, Singin' in the Rain...and others. Okay, honestly, I probably couldn't watch all of those every single day, but you get my point.

Kung Fu Panda has it all...beautiful scenery, awesome character design, brilliant animation, exciting cinematography, simple endearing storyline, and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Of course it's not very hard to make me laugh, but everyone else seemed to be laughing at the same parts with me, so there!

Some of the things that struck me the most were pretty subtle...stuff like the animation of Oogway, the old turtle. He doesn't just stand perfectly still, he has the slightest tremble in his head and hands when he's talking...that sort of unsteadiness that comes from old age. I just haven't seen that little detail incorporated in any other elderly 3D animated characters before. Not only that, but anytime there's a moment where a character doesn't say anything, but you can tell exactly what progression their emotions are taking, I'm just floored. That's masterful animation right there.

And since seeing stills from the movie, and the official website, I've been in love with the scenery. I want to find an image of just the backgrounds used in the movie, because they're gorgeous. The colors! I wish I could see places in real life that had colors like that.

I'm gushing, I can't help it. I expected this movie to be entertaining, but I didn't expect it to be THIS entertaining. I know some people will probably be very critical of the movie, but oh well. Who cares if the storyline isn't completely groundbreaking? Its beauty is in its simplicity.










See?