Episode 08: WALL•E, Kung Fu Panda - April 30, 2008
We face off Pixars newest artistic endeavor WALL•E against Dreamworks Jack Black vehicle Kung Fu Panda. Which is the victor, in this ANIMATION CREATION blowout? Greg and Joe defend the merits of animation against the relentless assaults of Derrick. We wrap up with reactions to listener feedback! Download this Episode! ~17MB 36mins.
- Wall•E releases June 27, 2008 - TRAILER
- Kung Fu Panda releases June 6th, 2008 - TRAILER
- Pixar’s upcoming movie list
- Dreamworks’ upcoming movie list
Tags: Animation, Trailer, Trailer Review
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May 3, 2008 at 3:38 am
Derrick- you were very *animated* during this episode… does this mean you now will hate yourself?!?!
Seriously though it was an interesting discussion on the current (and recent) crop of animated films. Pixar of course is the cream of the crop. This is in large part to the fact that as a studio they do what ole Walt Disney himself set out to do- create timeless films or at the very least films that have a heart. Obviously some are better than others but I think that they all have something in them that speaks to the human condition. Dreamworks (with the exception of the short-lived Aardman Films distribution deal) is the total opposite- the animated fare they create is designed to get butts in seats, sell Happy Meals and give people a few forgettable laughs along the way. Their biggest problems are overkill (Shrek Infinity) and trying to shoehorn in a ‘moral’ at the end of the movie. If they purely went for laughs they’d probably make slightly better films. I can’t agree that ‘Madagascar’ was as bad as Joe thought- yes as a story there was little to nothing there but to me its worth watching for the penguins and Sasha Baron Cohen as the lemur king.
Though Greg tried his darnedest to keep inserting Miyazaki into the discussion the mention of the name seemed to fall on deaf ears which has been my experience in the general outside world. A shame really but Americans are extremely conditioned to both not expect much depth from animation as well as to think animation is automatically for kids. The only time this isn’t the case is when the few animated films ‘for adults’ (such as Heavy Metal) come out and then the animation seems to only be a vehicle for boobs and violence (not that I’m against boobs and violence mind you!). There has to be a happy medium reached some day when a filmmaker can use animation to tell a good story with a target demographic above 20 years old. Some day.
May 3, 2008 at 2:26 pm
It is sad that Miyazaki is overlooked. Perhapshe will get the large theater seatings in America that he rightly enjoys in Japan.