I Love Movies - Tumblr Posts

every so often i remember this is supposed to be my "pretty" blog and then i watch a movie and just HAVE to spill about it for the next 5 weeks

I wanna have a aesthetic account but I won't stop posting dumb stuff 🪽

two of my fav movies/books { i havent read dps book tho}

Evil. swedish tv series, ondskan {Swedish}, 2023!

{if it wasn’t obvious I’m swedish and I’m obsessed w the show}

Daisy Randone, girl interrupted! & Layla, Buffalo 66!

“I check it, I wreck it, and I’ll explain. I gave you all my money, gave you all my money, gave you all my money, gave you all my money

I don’t wanna live, I don’t wanna give you nothing! Cause you never give me nothing back, why can’t you be good for something”

Kung Fu Panda 2 - A Master at Blending Different Forms of Animation

Kung Fu Panda 2 is my favorite animated film. I think it managed to take all of the already fantastic technical aspects of the first film and improve upon them without losing the heart of the original. One of the things that sticks out the most in the second film is the fact that it uses 3 distinctly different art styles for their animation chinese shadow puppetry, classic 2D animation, and 3D animation. Each of these forms of animation play a role in setting apart their portion of the story and representing something about the characters and the world that they portray.

The 3D animation is the main form of animation used to portray the world that the main story takes place in with the shadow puppetry and 2D animation showing personal details and backstory about the villain, Shen, and the hero, Po, respectively. The shadow puppetry is used to establish the setting right away and also expand on some of the culture of China that wasn’t seen in the first film. The story begins on a wide shot of the city with bright lighting and ends on the doors of the palace closing behind Shen with much darker lighting of the frame. The first shot inspires a sense of openness and possibility whereas the closing shot makes one think of the sealing of one's fate and confinement or journey to a darker future. It could also be the closing of the possibility of a better future for Shen because the doors block out light and make the frame darker. The way lighting works in shadow puppetry played a large role in establishing tone. Shen is mostly framed with red lighting near him. When he is first introduced the red tinting is not very prominent, but overtakes the screen when he makes the decision to get rid of the pandas. Red is also the color of the fireworks he uses whereas the fireworks used by his parents and the people don’t contain red. The red lighting is seen again when Shen is walking towards the setting sun before the doors to his parent’s palace close behind him. The red is much more muted with black and white within the frame, outside of his appearance, foreshadowing that his tragic fate and demise are ultimately cause through his own choices and actions. He wouldn’t give up his quest until the very end. His parents are also not shown in frame with him until they banish him showing the divide and disconnect between them (This doesn’t have much to do with the use of animation style but I really liked the directorial choice). The movement of the character’s is not as fluid as that of the 2D and 3D animation which can make it feel like going through the motions and all a part of destiny/the plan which plays a large role in Shen’s story. He thought he was going against fate and changing it when he killed the Panda’s, but in reality he was only sealing his fate.

This use of shadow puppetry is meant to juxtapose the 2D animation used in Po’s flashbacks. The 2D animation during Po’s backstory has much more fluid moments and that is used to great effect when the whole story is shown. Everything happens so fast and the attack seems to come out of nowhere because the shift from peaceful to destruction was jarring. To the panda’s this was something that they never could have seen coming. So using the fluid and quick transition that the 2D animation provides shows the way the Pandas must have felt about the whole predicament. There is also the shift of animation from 2D to 3D at the end of Po’s story, when his mom puts him into the box of radishes and leads the wolves away, that provides the real meaning behind the 2D animation of Po’s backstory. The 2D animation was meant to symbolize Po’s feelings towards these specific memories, he feels like they’re dreams. That’s why up until this point Po’s dreams were still animated in 2D, like in the first film, while other flashbacks like the ones told to him by Mr. Ping were still in 3D animation. Until that point Po could brush these tragic memories off as dreams, but in that moment they became real to him.

I am no master of animation, so I may have missed some points and symbolism about the art shifts within the film and how they pertain to the specific characters. I am just someone who finds the filmmaking medium to be fascinating and loves writing about certain aspects of films that I enjoy. I hope that people appreciate this and that more people will have active conversations about film as a whole.