WALL-E and Kung Fu Panda: A Rant about Characters

My video review of WALL-E is up!



Today is about characters in animations. And yeah, you can't have a good story without a good character. I would say as a giddy fanboy is that one thing I really admire Pixar more than Dreamworks is they know how to create good characters. Its not they have to make a character's personality realistic, but the idea of making a good character is to make their personality believable.





As Pixar were starting out, their earliest short film, Luxo Jr, features a table lamp as their character with no mouth, eyes, arms or even legs, yet its the use of movement and pose that narrates the short's simple story. That same lamp is part of the company's logo, not only because historically its was one of the first characters they created, but because its their philosophy that creating a good story and character comes first than anything else. Looking at what they have done after Luxo Jr, their teachings have been demonstrated on the likes of Woody, Buzz, Mike and Sully.





Not that Dreamworks don't know how to create a good character. Their first good character is the green orge, Shrek where the creators have given him a great personality. So great his personality and so lovable by everyone that we get to see him in five more films, probably doing the same things he's doing in his last films. Dreamworks may have created something of a secret formula to a successful film after Shrek became a instant hit: make over-exaggerated characters (ingredient of humor) voiced by A-list celebrities (ingredient of star-power) and filled it with movie references (ingredient of pop culture). In fact that formula is no longer secret as many animation studios have use it to make the same financial profit as Shrek did, which few worked and most didn't.





The only animation studio to not rely on the "instant-money fool-proof" formula is, you guess it, Pixar. While their other method of profiting lies in their merchandising(which is Disney's department), their production of animated movies isn't fueled by money, which is kind of rare in the money-making film industry. Thats what defines them as artists more than businessmen. They are finding new ways to challenge themselves, to bring out something new and unique every year rather than producing the same thing over and over again. Not that its a bad thing to do the same thing over and over again, but we always admire the people who are moving forward. You would that Pixar employed the use of celebrities to voice their characters with some cases like Tom Hanks as Woody and even Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen. However their use of celebrities don't come in the first phase of production, its not also their selling point. Pixar don't sell their movies based on the big names of Hollywood. They don't have the names of actors who are starring in the films on their posters. Their selling point are their stories and characters. Its a matter of taste where people are looking forward to a good story or whatever they look forward to hearing a voice of a celebrity, even if they won't see them. And there is nothing more perfect to illustrate my point than these two fine examples: WALL-E and Kung Fu Panda.





Having seen both of them, I'm glad to say I don't hate one of them. Its just that I really really enjoy one of them more than the other and no, its not Kung Fu Panda, its WALL-E. I did not just enjoy it, I marvel it! I fell in love with it. While Kung Fu Panda was like watching a fun Saturday Morning cartoon, WALL-E is like experiencing a theatrical opera directed by Shakespeare himself while Michaelangelo is painting a beautiful canvas in the background and Mozart is playing beautiful music with his full-scale orchestra. All at the same time. I know I may be exaggerating, but in short, it was art. So how could a little robot like WALL-E be more interesting than a panda who does Kung-Fu? Both of them are underdogs. Both of them are determined to reach their goal. Both of them gets into pratfalls and misfortunes. Both of them are funny, well one of them is slightly more funnier than the other and no, its not Kung Fu Panda again. In fact just by watching these movies gives you evidences why WALL-E is more interesting than Kung Fu Panda.





The selling point for Kung Fu Panda isn't the panda itself but Jack Black. Even though you won't see Jack Black in the film, his characters resembles his physical feature and his attitude. In which you're going into the theater to see a Jack Black movie with Kung Fu. Even though Jack Black is awesome, its nothing new. And really as much as I like Jack Black, as Po I wouldn't think of being around him as long as WALL-E. I would end up being more annoyed by Po than actually liking him. For the other, Pixar's selling point isn't a celebrity, but a character. We don't see another celebrity in disguise, we actually see a robot named WALL-E. He's an entirely new person in existence. And what makes him even more unique is that he doesn't have a actual voice actor and his speech is all engineered by sound designer Ben Burtt, who gave R2-D2 his own voice. WALL-E is possibly the most cutest and most lovable character Pixar ever created, he's bankable. Everyone will be flocking and paying to actually see this guy. Wall-E has the potential to be in more films the same way Shrek and Po has, yet Pixar won't make any movies of him. His story has come full-circle, its done. As much the movie have made a decent amount of millions, there is no way Pixar can continue the story of WALL-E. Its perfect in its way and there is no way Pixar will ground WALL-E out of its dignity the same way Dreamworks did to Shrek, the animals of Madagascar and even Po.





Kung Fu Panda did what it was created to be, being a fun animated film and I had fun watching it. Its a good film to have fun watching, even though I was so annoyed Jackie Chan didn't get to say much in the film. Especially when Jackie Chan is the one of the pioneers of kung fu, he should have been more than a one line cameo. He is freakin more important than Jack Black and even Angelina Jolie. Still it was a fun film. WALL-E was just a marvelous experience. It achieves much more than being a fun little family film. Within the film, it has a deep and important message that will affect you as you leave the theater. You can take these message into your account or you can just leave as you just witness a wonderful love story. I know I'm writing this as a raving fan boy and I'm not a teacher. My words are not final and I welcome anyone who give more insight in this. But in my words, Kung Fu Panda was fine and WALL-E is a masterpiece.