From 2008's Kung Fu Panda, to 2011's Kung Fu Panda 2, to 2016's Kung Fu Panda 3, the trilogy grossed $1.8 billion worldwide and is one of the most successful franchises in DreamWorks' history.
What is even more surprising to Chinese film fans is that Hollywood's understanding of Chinese culture is definitely not covered by the growth history of a panda with fists and legs, and the grass and trees in the film, action design, and scene layout can be called a love letter to China. Wrapped in a gorgeous animation blockbuster, it is a tribute to 5,000 years of Chinese culture. On the occasion of "Kung Fu Panda 3" blockbuster detonation of BesTV Cinema Line, today I bring you an exclusive plan: Why is Kung Fu Panda so hot?
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In 2008, the Beijing Olympic Games, the eyes of the world were on China. At this time, DreamWorks Animation "Kung Fu Panda" was released on the spot, focusing on strong martial arts culture and Chinese style, which was well received by the industry and swept the global box office with the trend of destruction and decay.
Three years later, in "Kung Fu Panda 2", the panda Ah Bao, who became the "Dragon Hero" by chance, and the master and the five heroes of the Gestapo repelled the story of the peacock Shen Wangye, setting a new high in the series: 660 million US dollars. With the rapid rise of the Chinese film market, in August 2012, Oriental DreamWorks was officially established, and the Sino-US co-production of "Kung Fu Panda 3" was released in the Spring Festival this year, with extremely fine details that can be called the best in the Hollywood animation industry in recent years, and finally cut the global box office of $510 million. Below we will analyze the past and present lives of the "Kung Fu Panda" series for you.
A. Rich Chinese style Sichuan Adventure
The reason for the success of the "Kung Fu Panda" series is the precise use of Chinese cultural elements. As early as 2008's "Kung Fu Panda 1", just the opening with the original Chinese ink painting dream to win the people, Ah Bao incarnated as a dragon hero in his sleep, with a bucket + cloak of chivalrous style domineering debut, ink painting style mixed with sharp and cool martial arts scenes, creating a visual effect is extremely wonderful. Behind the scenes of the first part, except for 2 people who have seen pandas at the American Zoo, no one in the entire core creative team of DreamWorks has seen pandas.
They checked materials and watched videos on the Internet, referred to books on ancient Chinese art, architecture, totems, costumes, food and landscapes, and also found ancient Chinese cultural scholars as consultants, super learning ability and rigorous data research, so that these animation designers even if they could only build behind closed doors, they also built an incomparably perfect "Kung Fu Panda". No wonder, the first director John Stevenson once said: "'Kung Fu Panda' is a love letter to China." ”
In 2011's "Kung Fu Panda 2", the main creative team led by Korean director Jennifer Yu started from the giant panda base in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, and started the "Journey of Chinese Style"
They will find experts to find out all the internal structures of an inconspicuous ancient pagoda on Qingcheng Mountain, and they will also choose the qianzhuang that is 400 or 500 years old to live in, and try their best to experience the real life of imagining mysterious ancient China.
Therefore, the Chinese scenery in the sequel is more specific than the previous one, and the Sichuan flavor is full of flavor: the structure of Phoenix City in the film is exactly the same as the Jinli and Kuanzhai Alleys in Chengdu; Dandan noodles, chicken buses, shadow puppet plays, dragon and lion dances, Sichuan hot pot... We are like following the panda Ah Bao on a big adventure in Sichuan.
In this year's "Kung Fu Panda 3", due to the 4 years of intensive cultivation of Oriental DreamWorks, the bright-paced Hollywood narrative plays with a large number of traditional Chinese cultural elements, so it is also the most Chinese flavor in the series. In the film, the master and his disciples go through many scrolls in the Emerald Palace, one of which records the feud between the turtle and the heavenly fire in Chinese calligraphy, and the four words in it are like a flash in the pan, but they are extremely subtle: "Brothers' Walls".
The word comes from the Book of Poetry, Xiaoya TangDi, and the original text is "Brothers on the wall, outside the royal insult". Refers to internal strife between brothers. And the fat beauty of the panda village beautiful stunning ribbon dance is undoubtedly another highlight of the film, in China, the ribbon dance can be traced back to the Han Dynasty, after the inheritance and development of successive courts and folk artists, the ribbon dance is innovative, in the film, Meimei in the easy laughter with Ah Bao, the dance posture can also maintain a very high professional standard.
I don't know if it reminds you of Zhang Ziyi in "Ten Faces Ambush"?
What is more worth mentioning is that in order to make the Virgo audience who strive for excellence not play, Oriental DreamWorks specially produced a Chinese lip-sync version of the dubbing version for the whole process of "Kung Fu Panda 3", and Teng Huatao, the director who served as the Chinese coordinator of the film, gathered an all-star luxury dubbing lineup that can attract audiences of all ages, including Huang Lei, Jackie Chan, Yang Mi, Bai Lily, Jay Chou, etc., which is very grounded.
B. The new core of martial arts tribute to kung fu films
Since it is called "Kung Fu Panda", the film interprets kung fu in a very meticulous and comprehensive way, and the setting of the main characters is closely related to martial arts. The black and white image of Panda Ah Bao is inherently in line with the yin and yang taiji diagram that highlights the theme, and his round, fat, elastic and soft body can not only absorb and dissolve external forces without hurting themselves, but also rely on the elasticity of the body to borrow strength to achieve both attack and defense, rigidity and softness, showing the subtlety of taijiquan.
The animal image of the Gestapo martial arts corresponds to the five pictographic fists in Chinese martial arts. The spirit snake represents the snake fist, which is characterized by the soft kegang; the praying mantis represents the praying mantis fist, which is small and broad; the golden monkey represents the monkey fist, which wins by speed and agility, and the three defeat the enemy by relying on a thousand pounds; the jiaohu and the crane symbolize the "tiger crane double shape" in the Chinese Southern Fist school, reflecting the indestructible strength and elegant and confident extraordinary temperament.
As an important philosophical embodiment of the ancient Chinese dialectic of yin and yang, the elements of Tai Chi run through the trilogy
In the first part, the turtle master understands the sacred tear pool of kung fu and the peach blossom rain after his feathering, in the second part, the black and white panda warrior mentioned in the prophecy told by Yang Xiangu to Shen Wangye, the taijiquan used by Ah Bao when he fights back against Shen Wangye's cannon fire, the cane of the turtle master in the spirit world when he fights against Tianxu, and the gorgeous aurora that Ah Bao returns from victory over Tianxu, all of which are presented to the audience with Taiji elements. Obviously, the Jade Palace founded by Master Turtle in the film is an authentic Taoist martial arts sect, and the master, Ah Bao and the Five Heroes of the Gaishi are all studying traditional Chinese Taoist kung fu. Taiji, on the other hand, vividly interprets the Taoist martial arts centers such as stopping water, harmonizing yin and yang, practicing both inside and outside, combining rigidity and softness, and being able to attack and defend freely.
The main villain of the third part, Tianxu, is undoubtedly the most comprehensive strength among the villains in the series, he is more fierce than the Snow Leopard Dragon, greater than the ambition of Shen Wangye, not only has the fierce combat power of destroying the decay, but even mastered the psychic magic that far exceeds the power of Shen Wangye's artillery. The image of a thick wild bison with dark muscles, thick brown hair, fierce eyes, a huge body, and a double knife with a chain is like a replica of the Bull Demon King in "Journey to the West".
Finally, let's choose the most classic action scene from each of the three parts of the series to see how the Dragon Hero is refined
"Kung Fu Panda" grabs buns to practice kung fu
Chopsticks, like martial arts, are the essence of China. This kind of pre-dinner skill is really full of "Chinese style". Speaking of this "unique skill" chopsticks gong also originated from Hong Kong kung fu films.
In the 1980s, in the nonsense comedy "Owl" concocted by the three brothers Qin Pei, Jiang David and Er Dongsheng, the crowd used chopsticks to fight quite well, and the classic kung fu film "Shaolin Thirty-Six Rooms" filmed by Liu Jialiang's team also chose such scenes.
If you don't practice well, you can't eat, and it also becomes a universal elixir that greatly increases the disciple's potential power in a short period of time. In "Kung Fu Panda", the design of the master and apprentice chopsticks has taken it to a higher level and become one of the classic bridge sections.
The cold weapon of Shen Wangye in Kung Fu Panda 2
Shen Wangye is the biggest villain of "Kung Fu Panda 2", with strong martial arts and inspired by the white-clad warriors of Chengdu's Qingcheng Mountain. His use of cold weapons is a must. The steel snake spear is a weapon that resembles a sword rather than a sword, a gun and not a gun, and appears many times in the film, known as the "steel snake spear". Peacock tail, when opened, can be used as a screen to block the opponent's attack, and can be used as an offensive weapon like Chu Xiangshuai's fan. His use of dark weapons is even more pure, and the use of a variety of cold weapons makes him unique.
"Kung Fu Panda 3" qigong through yin and yang
After experiencing the previous two parts of the past, Ah Bao has grown into a martial arts master who is familiar with the tricks of the various gate sects and integrates Taiji. Therefore, in "Kung Fu Panda 3", the screenwriter added the skill of "Qigong" for him, with this must-kill skill, Ah Bao not only killed the villain Tianxu in a second, but also used Qigong to penetrate the yin and yang worlds, met the turtle master who had returned to the west, and at the end of the film, this journey to the spiritual world separated by yin and yang was simply beautiful to suffocate.