Sunday, June 8, 2008

Kung fu Post

Been enjoying the lovely weather which has finally come to Oregon--after a fair amount of rain, it's nice to have 70-80 degree weather with lots of sunshine(sorry Ethan, had to bring it up--hope CalArts hasn't melted with the crazy heat!) Anyhow, went out with some friends to a local and very classic rollerskating rink---having not skated in about 10 years it was a steep and painful learning curve, gravity was an unavoidable companion--but it was lots of fun circling to tunes that ranged from "I Saw the Sign" to "Thriller" and beyond. No one reached the skating equivalent of Charlie Chaplin, but at least we all worked our way off the encircling carpet walls by the end of the night. The rink hasn't changed since I went as a kid, except for an increase in the population of cracks in the floor and abandoned gum. Good times.

And then today went out and saw "Kung Fu Panda" with my Mom and I really enjoyed the movie, lots of sweet animation---the initial escape, the bridge with the 5 masters against the villian, and then the chopstick fight being my favorite sequences for fight action. The 2d animation at both the beginning and at the end of the movie was really refreshing to see. Lots of great camera work, lighting, and the backgrounds-- all very inspiring. NO pop culture references! HOORAY! And while the cast were all celebrities voices, it didn't bother me(though Tobias Fuke stuck out to me the most.haha). Anyways, go out and see it, the story was a bit cliche and I kind of felt there were one too many slow-motion scenes(wouldn't cut them out entirely! The film NEEDED those moments, just should have held back in a couple spots) it still is an fun movie. Po is a very loveable panda and hey, the movie inspired this drawing of the day:

Annie with her signature move "Rolling Thunder" and then Kiwi demonstrating his practice of foot wrestling, however if his claws arn't enough---he has a beak as a back-up.

4 comments:

Matthew said...

Haha, I love the sketches!

Just saw KFP as well, wuite enjoyable.

Cindey said...

the 2d stuff... AHHHHH
i LOVED the opening.
but i mean, i hear james baxter did it so.. go figure!

Anonymous said...

The best part about the opening is the fact that james baxter did it using the new puppet tool in after affects. when things turned or needed a stronger pose he would do a new drawing, thats how he animated it. word on the street is that, that is how he started animating a long time ago, with paper cut outs. go figure the man who can draw anything in any direction and perspective started using paper cut outs. any who great movie and thanks for finally updating the blog.

Blake Clark said...

Thaanks great blog post