Culture Shock: Kung Fu Panda

[athelind]

Dreamworks is Really Tyrell Corporation: Kung Fu Panda More China Than China

Excerpt:

Chinese animated films tend to be more educational in nature and heavy with significance, but short on entertaining detail, "Kung Fu Panda" viewers say. Local directors would not have had the imagination to make Po's father a duck. Nor would they dare to portray a panda -- a cultural icon in China -- as lazy and fat as Po when "Kung Fu Panda" begins.
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Foreigners who make cultural missteps are often accused of hurting the feelings of the Chinese people.

"If you asked a Chinese to make this movie, the panda needs to be lovable but in a perfect sense," said Sun Lijun, a professor of animation at the Beijing Movie Institute, in the July 10 issue of Oriental Outlook magazine. "In the end, he would be so perfect he would be unlovable."

This intritgues me. I was wondering how the movie would play in China -- if it would be dismissed as just a big ball of stereotypes. The best-case response I foresaw was amused tolerance.

I did not expect waves of enthusiasm combined with a shocked awareness that barbarian outsiders had made a better movie about China than China could.

This is, incidentally, one of those movies that could only work because it's furry. Yes, the Cute Talking Animals genre has been overplayed in CGI -- but that doesn't mean it's anywhere near tapped.

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Comments

[rustitobuck.livejournal.com]

I went to see Kung Fu Panda mostly as a diversion, and was quite impressed with the storyline. Much deeper than I'd anticipated.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, Kung Fu Panda's basic plot has been done quite a few number of times without furry anything. Indeed, in martial arts movies the story of the bad student overcoming adversity to defeat the bad guy is a virtual staple of the genre. The career of Sammo Hung was basically built on this premise.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. Elements are even older than that.

To clarify:

A live-action American version of this movie would not have have received nearly the success, acclaim, and insight in China, and probably would have been perceived as a vaguely insulting parody. A good potion of its success is due to the iconic, Everyman nature of anthropomorphic characters.

A lot of the humor comes from the anthropomorphic characters, as well -- humor that would either not have carried over, or come off as vaguely insulting (jokes about Mantis's size, for instance).

One of my favorite bits of visual humor is the fact that Po is obviously adopted, and there are several scenes in which his father seems to be on the verge of telling him so... but always winds up diverting the conversation.

[paka.livejournal.com]

I think that is because of the basics. People trying to make a film for x purpose and y purpose and reviewed by z committee will probably make something un-fun. Similarly, regardless of country, all people relate to the flawed hero who does well. Look at Sun Wukong or "Pigsy" from Journey to the West and those are perfect examples of Chinese characters, created by Chinese, who fuck up.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I can agree that an American movie that used live actors in this way could have very easily been deeply racist and offensive. Indeed, Forbidden Kingdom did come off as racist and offensive, hehe.

[stalbon.livejournal.com]

That very 'verge of telling him...' part near the end almost put me over, as if they were catering to those in the audience wanting to hear he was adopted. Nonetheless, this movie, in many ways, is an animated Sammo Hung flick. It portrays martial arts training in a revered way that makes the kids happy, but not the parents bored. It was, overall, an absolutely wonderful film. I find it somewhat sad that it almost certainly won't win an award with the masterpiece that is Wall-E out there as well.