Kung-Fu Panda(monium)!

Pandas aren't known for their dexterity and they surely aren't known for their prowess in martial arts. But Po isn't just any panda, he's the star of DreamWork's latest animation venture, aptly titled, Kung Fu Panda.

Real life panda lookalike Jack Black plays Po, the enthusiastic, big and a little clumsy martial arts obsessed panda. His obsession leads him to constant daydreams during his job as a waiter in the village noodle shop, run by his father, who happens to be a goose, Mr Ping (voiced by James Hong).

Po is a big fan of Kung Fu, but working at a noodle shop doesn't exactly allow him to practice his growing desire of becoming a Kung Fu expert. His interest is piqued when he hears that Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), the thousand-year-old turtle, will be choosing a Dragon Warrior at a prestigious ceremoney. Abandoning his day job, Po stumbles and disrupts his way into the ceremony where one of the Furious Five will be chosen as the savior from an approaching evil.

The Furious Five are the champions of Valley of Peace (the setting of the movie, modeled after the ) and under the tutelage of Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), it is hoped that one of them will become the Dragon Warrior and defend the valley from the evil snow leopard warrior Tai-Lung (Ian McShane), a former pupil of Shifu, gone rogue.

The Furious Five could have been named the Famous Five – and not because they solve any mysteries – it's because they're all famous actors. From the Crane (David Cross), Viper (Lucy Liu), Mantis (Seth Rogen from Knocked Up and Superbad), Tigress (Angelina Jolie) and Monkey (Jackie Chan) these five characters/actors are more or less help Po along on his hero's journey, a journey that will teach him much about life and more importantly that he needs to be their own hero.

It was a theme that was very important to the directors (John Stevenson and Mark Osborne) and the producer (Melissa Cobb) of Kung Fu Panda, right from the start. "We wanted the film to have something children could take away: 'Be your own hero,' which means don’t look outside of yourself for the answer. You are empowered to achieve anything you want, if you set your mind to it," says director John Stevenson. And to shape that message they needed the right kind of writer, or writers in this case. TV writing duo Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger helped shape the world of Kung Fu Panda and brought its characters to life.

It was obvious from the very beginning that title character would be voiced by Jack Black. Black's previous outing as a shark in Shark Tale, impressed DreamWork's executive Jeffery Katzenberg . "One day, Jeffrey came to me and basically said, 'Hey, let's make another one.' I had done a character voice, more of a nebbishy, New Yorker, kind of a Woody Allen-type of voice as Lenny (from Shark Tale). So I assumed I’d be getting back into the character voice thing. But Jeffrey said, 'This time you're the big cheese, and it's called Kung Fu Panda," states Black.

Dustin Hoffman as Shifu (Po's teacher) was not such an obvious choice but it was the right choice. Hoffman found Osborne and Stevenson's direction to be quite liberating, "They promised me at the beginning that anything I didn't like I could re-do — which you can't do on a regular film. These guys have spent four years on this, and they've always said that it's constantly something you can change, you can re-animate. I allowed myself to be guided by them. Because otherwise, I would come in with some kind of predetermined idea that would be nowhere near as good as theirs."

What character is complete without his idol or in this case, five of them? The animals chosen to represent Po's idol weren't randomly picked up. In fact, Kung Fu enthusiasts will note with glee that each animal represents each of the fighting styles in the martial arts technique.

Angelina Jolie plays Tigress, a play on the tiger fighting technique, and stated, "They explained to me that there are all different styles of kung fu, and hers is attack. There’s no defense. It’s just attack, attack, attack…so that makes her a very interesting character."

The monkey fighting technique is by far the most fluid moving character of the lot, he just doesn't fight with his limbs, and he's got his tail to swing around too. It was clear that only Jackie Chan would do justice to this character. Chan remarks, "I think the writers and the animators have watched my movements, my characters, my…everything! It seems like they copied me, which is nice. Monkey is acrobatic, playful and confuses the enemy very easily."

Whilst the Monkey confuses, Viper shocks through stealth and obfuscation. Lucy Liu didn't need too much convincing to take on the role of the serpent, "When I first came onto the project, they had a computer version of what they had in mind for the different characters, including Viper. When I saw the drawings of Viper, she had these two beautiful lotus flowers on top of her head. They didn’t really have to sell me hard on it, you know?"

If Viper is all about stealth, then Crane is all about grace. Comedian David Cross brought his signature dry wit to give the elegant bird a distinctive voice among the Five. His comic timing is wonderfully put to use, playing a slightly perturbed kung fu warrior. "I think Crane represents the Everyman," says Cross, "or in this case, 'Everycrane.' I would admit that Crane’s voice is distinctly similar to mine. He’s very cool. So, I guess in that way, we’re alike."

Finally, fellow comedian Seth Rogen portrays the most wound up of all the characters, the Mantis. Proving that size doesn't matter, Mantis is extremely precise and very quick, in wit and in fight. "When they called me, I thought, ‘perfect.’ I’ve always wanted to play a mantis, so I thought it was oddly coincidental that they had called," Rogen jokingly states.

And finally what cast would be complete without the villain of the story? Enter Tai Lung, menacingly voiced by Ian McShane. The Englishman played the epitome of evil on HBO's Deadwood and didn't try too hard in his portrayal of the evil snow leopard which often mimics George Sanders' portrayal of Shere Khan in Disney's Jungle Book animated movie.

The action sequences are breathtaking, intricate and initially very amusing. Though actors give voice to the characters, it is the animation that makes them spring into action, and they do a lot of that in Kung Fu Panda. Head of Character Animation Dan Wagner was charged with establishing the style of animation for each character — how they move and how they behave. "Having furry animals kick each other’s butt is a fun idea. We brought in someone with zoological training, a bio-mechanist named Stuart Sumida, who’s very knowledgeable on how animals are put together and how they move. We had a few classes with Stuart, going over each of our specific animals, just how they operate and how they behave."

And the homework clearly pays off in each of the fight sequences. But it's not just that homework that pays off, after four years of hard work, each of the movie's elements, characters and actors create a world of wonder, excitement, funny movements and genuine message.

Kung Fu Spielberg?

In February 2008, Steven Spielberg pulled out of his role as creative advisor to the 2008 Beijing Olympics in response to the Chinese government's involvement with the government of Sudan.

Spielberg issued a statement, stating "I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue business as usual ... Sudan's government bears the bulk of the responsibility for these on-going crimes, but the international community, and particularly China, should be doing more."

It was of course, Spielberg's work that would ultimately have to face the brunt of the backlash. Being a partner at DreamWorks made its latest venture Kung Fu Panda face a myriad of quick jabs and roundhouse kicks from the Chinese.

Chinese critics slammed the film and asked moviegoers to boycott it. Another group, backed by Chinese artist Zhao Bandi, who uses pandas as an inspiration for his work, also called for a boycott, saying the animated film is exploiting a national symbol.

But it's been two weeks since its release in China and already the movie has become a runaway success, generating some $12 million and becoming one this year's biggest hits. Kung Fu Panda has clearly dodged all attacks and conquered Chinese cinemagoers.

Although he isn't part of the Olympics, it's pretty clear that Spielberg has bagged the gold on this one.

Most Wanted

It seems that Hollywood has fallen in love with comic books all over again. Ever since Spider-Man swung his way into the box office, Hollywood has set its sights on bringing each and every comic book to the big screen.

Wanted is the latest in a string of Hollywood comic book adaptations and it has big stars and even bigger explosions. The story tells of a young man Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) living a life of misery and despair. His employer is an abusive and overbearing woman, his girlfriend is having an affair with his best friend and to top it all, poor Gibson suffers from frequent anxiety attacks that prevent him from taking control of his life.

The film is based on the comic of the same name, written by Mark Millar and illustrated by J.G. Jones and follows very little from the original. The film reads through the first few pages of the comic and a couple of issues later Hollywood decides to dictate the action, story and everything else in between. However, it’s refreshing to know that co-creator Millar was deeply involved with the film’s production and approved of the changes.

Millar expressed his view on the film and his doubts on the initial script to Wizard Magazine, “I wanted the film to basically be the opposite of Spider-Man, the idea of someone getting powers and realising they can do what they want, then choosing the dark path. The (script) I read was just too tame. It just seemed a little bit Americanised. But Timur came in with his Eastern European madness, and he really made it nasty. He went closer to the spirit of the book.”

Director Timur Bekmambetov makes his Hollywood debut after his fright fest horror movie, Night Watch. Bekmambetov was clearly hired for his intricate action sequences rather than his ability to draw the character out of the actor or set the pace of the plot. Speaking of characters, this film has some pretty interesting characters and actors.

It’s strange to see James McAvoy in this film. Not that you don’t expect him to be here but strange because some of the film he starred in were more character driven and had considerably less bullets. Atonement and The Last King of Scotland brought the young Scottish actor into the limelight, but it will be Wanted that will make him a familiar face in Hollywood.

Angelina Jolie plays Fox, mentor to Gibson, and a member of the Fraternity of Assassins. Though Jolie is a considerably good actress she often does roles where her characters often end up without their garbs (Beowulf, Original Sin) or always comes out guns blazing (Tomb Raider, Mr and Mrs Smith). Her role in Wanted is part Gone in 60 Seconds and part Tomb Raider: Smart-talking, gun-swinging and generally pouting towards the direction of the camera.

The leader of the Fraternity of Assassins, Sloan (Morgan Freeman) offers a two-fold revelation to the young Wesley that will change his life forever: His father was a deadly assassin and he is supposed to exact revenge on the murderer. Freeman is at ease with this kind of role, you can clearly tell he’s hardly flexing any acting muscle, yet at the same time he’s doing a good job about it — kind of like that Mr Universe bodybuilder that flexes for all show.

Rounding up the cast are Common, the rapper-turned-actor who plays The Gunsmith and the token-coloured character of the film, and Konstantin Khabensky as The Exterminator. He was cast so the director would have a familiar face around. Khabensky also starred in Bekmambetov’s Night Watch.

Wanted has had its share of writers. Originally written by Derek Haas and Michael Brandt, screenwriter Chris Morgan was hired to revise the third act of the script. And when Angelina Jolie joined the cast, screenwriter Dean Georgaris was brought in to tailor the role of her character for her.

This film is all about action sequences. Though we’ve all seen it before a la Equilibrium, The Matrix and Transporter, Bekmambetov does pull in a few interesting twists to the tried and tested formula of Bullet Time and Gun Kata action sequences.

Hollywood is mining these comic books for all they’re worth, while creators Mark Millar and J.G. Jones have said they won’t write a sequel to their comics, director Bekmambetov has already worked out a second outing, much to the delight of the studio executives.

Will Wanted be what fans want? Judging by the initial trailer downloads and the buzz it’s been generating, yes it will be — but comic book film adaptations are a tricky art. Judging by the current trend and rave, however, fans will definitely get what they want.