DreamWorks Animation SKG

[DarkLight]

TBF, trailers for KFP2 didn't really showcase the film's best humor either (the 'eating the bad guy in the dragon costume then "pooping" him out' gag? Yeah...)

But I do agree that KFP2 was an exceptionally great film and sequel, so it'll be a hard act to top what it already topped from the original.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I'm really hoping it keeps up the strong themes of family that the second film did. I wasn't a particularly big fan of Ping because of the shit he pulled on Po in the first movie, with him desperately trying to stop Po from being anything more than a noodle shop owner, but once again, the second film utterly redeemed him for me because we saw the backstory of Ping and Po's father/son relationship, and it really does show us that despite Ping not ever wanting a son, and Po just popping into his life without warning, Ping still loved Po as a son with all his heart, and wanted nothing more for him to be safe. That last scene in the movie where 

Ping has a mental breakdown right in front of a customer complaining about not seeing "The Dragon Warrior" only for Po to return and reunite with him was especially heartwarming

. So seeing Po's real father randomly appearing and trying to take back Po after the years between Ping and Po should work for some really good drama.

[DarkLight]

While not necessarily a 'carrying the theme of family' thing, another character I feel the sequel truly redeemed was Tigress. Yeah, she had very right to be upset about not being picked as Dragon Warrior and some random fat panda did, but she was taking it out on the wrong person. Nobody could really blame Po for something he didn't really have a say in. And it's not like he was all smug and rubbing it all in their faces about it either, he was just as confused as they were about it. She gains some respect for him by the end after defeating Tai Lung though, but it wasn't much to redeem her earlier behavior towards him.

The sequel however? She cares very deeply for him as a teammate and friend. She was the first to notice Po was troubled by knowing he's adopted, which she could relate to since anyone who's watched Secrets of the Furious Five knows she lived in a orphanage and was eventually adopted by Shifu. In a later scene, when Po reveals Shen knows something about what happened to his parents when he remarks about "the hardcore wouldn't understand" to which she refutes with a hug and says "the hardcore do understand." She then feels it's best to leave Po behind so he won't try to get to Shen and endanger himself.

Tigress's greatly improved characterization is one of the many things I love KFP2 for.   

[Ryannumber1gamer]

So after rewatching Shrek 2, I can easily say this is still one fucking spectacular movie. The animation is still pretty damn great, and holds up so well for a film made over 10 years ago. The story is still unbelievably touching and really shows how well written these characters are. There's always stupid memes, and shit that make it that Shrek's simply a joke character, nothing more, and honestly, it annoys me, because this movie really does show Shrek as a sympathetic character who's always pre-judged and hated when really, he's a kind but grumpy soul who wants nothing more but to be accepted for who he is, and be able to live in peace with his friends and family. 

Seeing the lengths Shrek will go in order to make Fiona happy is just amazing, to the point where he'd give up every single thing he loved about life all just to make her more accepted. The humor is still as great as ever, and most if not all jokes hit, ranging from good to complete bullseyes. The soundtrack in this movie is also pretty damn great, between Ever Fallen in Love, Holding Out for a Hero, and Viva La Vida Loca.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

A new clip's been uploaded, revealing Mr.Ping journeys to the Panda village with Po and his father.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPvzHaDPt4Y

 

[Nepenthe]

Here's the International trailer for the film. Energy attacks!!!:

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Here's the International trailer for the film. Energy attacks!!!:

This animation looks more and more beautiful with the more I see it.

[DarkLight]

Groaned a little over the "I peed a little" joke at the end, but otherwise a good trailer.

[Gabz Girl]

Hey everyone, who's hyped for the other DreamWorks film coming out in November...TROLLS?! =D

Meet the cast of Trolls!

Eurgh..I know I shouldn't judge this before a trailer comes out, but I don't think this looks appealing at all. Except for Justin Timberlake and maybe James Corden the rest of the cast is token celebrities. And the Troll designs are gross. I didn't like the original Nightmare Fuel Trolls dolls anyway but these look like a mix between the Smurfs and the trolls from Frozen. ><

Interestingly enough this is going to be a musical! Hopefully it won't be too mainstream pop-style music, but with that cast attached to it I'm not sure.

[Johnny Boy]

I'm getting a smurfs vibe from those trolls. And I don't mean that in a good way...

[MightyRay]

Oh dear those designs are just bleh... I think Russel Brand's character is the best looking out of all of them. 

[DarkLight]

Huh, they got another Big Bang Theory cast member for this one. Like Jim Parsons in Home wasn't enough. Never was big on the Troll dolls toyline as a kid but you bet they'll make a whole lot of merchandise for this because of that. Passing on this so hard.

So I had a little musing regarding whether or not KFP3 will have some continuity with the last one. Since we are going to see Po's dad, Li Shan and other pandas meet up with Po, you'd think they'd bring up the reason why they had to stay in hiding for so long because of Shen's attack on their village. It'd be extremely odd if it wasn't even given a passing mention. 

[Big Panda]

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/katzenberg-plan-make-chinese-people-see-kung-fu-panda-3-againand-againand-132624.html

Huh, interesting idea.

[ElectricAngel]

Um, so, Dreamworks uploaded this trailer for Trolls.

 

I'm officially now turned off from this movie. I had hope, hearing it was a musical and the fact that Anna Kendrick would voice one of the two main protagonists. But looking at this trailer.. just isn't giving me much hope. They used that stupidly annoying "nae nae" song, they had a troll twerk (which you can see in the thumbnail) and I was just cringing the entire time. I hope this doesn't turn out to be a movie filled with obnoxious pop songs. I know it's just a teaser trailer, but would it really hurt them to do simple ones like Disney? Their Zootopia teaser just gave us the basic premise, and showed off some characters. That's all you need. You don't need to follow what's hip and cool to get people's attention. If the concept is interesting enough, people will pay attention and people will want to see it. You know what this trailer shows me? It shows that Dreamworks has no faith in this project. To me, it says that they are desperate to get kids' attention, because they're not confident the setting will intrigue them enough. And when you've gone to that level, the project should just be scrapped. Ugh. Why couldn't they stick to Me and My Shadow? That movie looked so interesting, with so much potential! Trolls is just sad. 

 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Reviews are in for KFP3! REDEMPTION!

Quote

Kung Fu Panda 3 has received generally positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 81%, based on 37 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10.[37] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 67 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[38]

 

[DarkLight]

I'm happy about this despite doing my best to keep expectations in check. Most of the reviews I've read so far generally match what my thoughts on what the movie will turn out to be pre-movie watching. Might not be as good as the sequel or first, but still at least a good movie on it's own and worth a watch. That's just fine by me. .

Will go see it on Saturday with my parents. I'm sure it'll be fun!

*Continues to ignore Trolls trailer* 

[Nepenthe]

I'm going to watch the fuck out of KFP3 tomorrow. I don't even much care that the reviews aren't super glowing; I've been waiting years for this. xD

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Speaking of which, when is this due out in the UK? 

[ElectricAngel]

Seeing all the positive reviews for Kung Fu Panda 3 has me very excited. But I'm sad most of the world won't be getting it until March. What is with animated movies having release dates so far apart overseas?

By the way, Ryan. UK gets it March 11. Where I live it's coming March 17. *sigh* Such a long wait. :/ 

[Milo]

KFP3's review consensus and score giving off the sentiment that the film is a step down from its predecessors was what I was kinda nervous about leading up to its release. That said, reviewers seem to generally criticize the KFP films in general feeling too familiar and the second film having a noticeably lower review score than the first (despite it generally agreed to be on par with the first, if not better)... so in light of that, I'm considerably less inclined to take the critic's word for it. :v

I'm still willing to go see it anyway, especially it still looks to be a great film, and because it honestly looks to be the last new DWA film I'm interested in seeing for a while.

And speaking of which, that Trolls teaser.... :|

That teaser seemed executive mandated from start to finish, like it was supposed to checkmark every tired teaser trailer cliche for modern animated adaptations in the book.

I don't have much confidence in this one, though given I've been rather weary about the project since I first heard about it, that probably isn't saying much.

[ElectricAngel]

Hm okay, since this is a Dreamworks thread I guess I should post it here.

I just finished watching Turbo after completely forgetting it existed for 2 years (it's seriously been that long, huh?). For some reason I forget a lot of Dreamworks movies exist. Not sure if it's because they aren't popular or if they are considered bad or anything. But Turbo was quite enjoyable. Much better than recent efforts. Though it seems Kung Fu Panda 3 will be great too.

I was surprised by how much my opinion of this film changed from beginning to end. At the start it was a really stupid, weird movie that felt like a Rataouille rip-off. Or at least it felt it was going that route. But once Turbo got his powers, the writing got a lot better. It's like they changed writers once they hit that part. In terms of characters, I can't say I enjoyed a lot of them outside Turbo, Chet, and Tito. Gange was an okay character, but fell victim to a certain stereotype I'm not too fond of, which I won't say in case anyone hasn't seen it yet. The character development, on the other hand was quite good, especially with Chet. 

Other good impressions though is that the animation is really great, and the racing felt so intense. I really get excited with races, and the final act of the film did not disappoint. You can tell there's going to be a last minute conflict, but they execute it so well, that the cliche works. And I'm glad the writers and animators were able to make the viewer really connect with Turbo. He's a snail, yet I related to him, and I wanted him to succeed. I got sad when something went wrong, and felt happy when things got better for him. It was almost at Pixar's level of delivering emotions. I liked it a lot.

Oh and I really love the message they have in the film as well. It's displayed fantastically here. A snail wants to race, people say it's impossible because he's a snail, but he ends up proving them wrong. In this day and age, many people like to stick with society's norms and what's expected of people. Even in some families, if you came from a scientific background, you gotta do science. This movie teaches that everyone has their own strengths and the importance of following your dreams. I just think the allegory was well implemented here.

If anyone hasn't seen this movie yet because they forgot it existed like me, or they were turned off by the weird premise or just didn't think it would be good, I say give it a shot. You might be pleasantly surprised. 

[Enesephus]

3 hours ago, Inspector Gabe said:

KFP3's review consensus and score giving off the sentiment that the film is a step down from its predecessors was what I was kinda nervous about leading up to its release. That said, reviewers seem to generally criticize the KFP films in general feeling too familiar and the second film having a noticeably lower review score than the first (despite it generally agreed to be on par with the first, if not better)... so in light of that, I'm considerably less inclined to take the critic's word for it. :v

I'm still willing to go see it anyway, especially it still looks to be a great film, and because it honestly looks to be the last new DWA film I'm interested in seeing for a while.

And speaking of which, that Trolls teaser.... :|

That teaser seemed executive mandated from start to finish, like it was supposed to checkmark every tired teaser trailer cliche for modern animated adaptations in the book.

I don't have much confidence in this one, though given I've been rather weary about the project since I first heard about it, that probably isn't saying much.

Okay, I have to say, I've been rather curious about Trolls ever since I first heard about it, for a couple reasons. For one, it's just such an odd concept. Seriously, DreamWorks, a movie about the Troll dolls? Second, I've noticed that DreamWorks has slowly and subtly been moving in a more "child friendly" direction, with movies like Turbo, The Croods (which I actually really love), Mr. Peabody and Sherman (which is actually smarter than it looks), and The Penguins of Madagascar. With Home, which I haven't seen (though I plan to rent the DVD at some point so I don't have to risk talking out of my ass every time I want to say something about it), so I'm just going off of trailers, clips and reviews, it seemed they had finally completed their evolution into making cute, tame films without much substance. With the exception of sequels, this is what DreamWorks apparently wants to be now, if Trolls is anything to go by, just going by the concept.

Anyway, when you mentioned a Trolls teaser, I had to go check it out and get a taste of what exactly Trolls will be like. My reaction:

My mouth was hanging open throughout the whole thing. It's like they shoved every single thing they thought kids would enjoy, with the exception of some bodily function joke. We may actually have a movie worse than Shark Tale on our hands here, if this teaser is anything to go by. This teaser made me think of the stuff Sony Pictures Animation puts out. Is that really what DreamWorks wants to be? Then again, with all the money Home apparently made, I suppose it would only make sense for DreamWorks to continue on this path, which really disappoints me, since I was so proud of them with movies like Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon. Again, I haven't seen Home, so it may be at least somewhat enjoyable, but even if it is, surely we don't need any more movies like it.

[Gabz Girl]

No, just...no. I know it's only a teaser trailer, but Trolls doesn't look appealing at all. I bloody knew it! Horrible music choice too, my poor ears.

omg why do I have to wait until March to see Kung Fu Panda 3?! T_T

[Failinhearts]

Yeah.... I'm totally not digging Trolls at all. It's clear Dreamworks is desperately trying to pander to the modern "hip" crowd and ignoring everyone else, creating another "Home" it seems like.

This looks more like a parody than a legit movie. They really should learn from Norm Of The North, and that making a character twerk doesn't make them likable. It just makes them dated.

That's a huge problem. This movie looks like it's gonna try way to hard to be "hip with the times". Once one or two years pass, people will see Trolls as something extremely dated while movies that came out in 2007 like Kung Fu Panda continue to be timeless.

[Dr. Detective]

 

Before watching the Trolls Trailer:

What's this Trolls you guys keep talking about? I've never even heard of it. Might as well check it out. Can't be that bad. Besides, a trailer's a trailer and bad trailers are a dime a dozen. I wasn't liking the Kung Fu Panda 3 trailers but the positive reception towards the movie has me hyped all over again. It might not be too late to give this a chance too.

 

After watching the Trolls Trailer: