I love kung fuuuuuuuuuu… panda!

I just finished watching Secrets of the Furious Five on tv. This is a bit like a prequel to the film, albeit a very short one.

I really loved that film, and adored all the characters in it. It would definitely be one of my favorite animated feature-length films.

I thought I’d go for a trip down memory lane… I watched this film in January as part of the Sydney Festival 2009 (which I’ve talked about previously). They were playing movies for free on a giant inflatable screen at Homebush Olympic Park (yep, where the 2000 Sydney Olympic games were held). Did I mention it was free? I wanted to see that movie anyway so took advantage of the generous offer.

From the moment the movie started I was already in love. I guess the atmosphere was amazing with the big crowds and happy people, and the lovely outdoor summer air (which actually wasn’t that hot at all, but not cold either).

I was in awe of the animation and the jaw-droppingly gorgeous scenery and backdrops. I haven’t seen that many parts of China but I’ve seen enough to know it does look like that in real life, except obviously in the movie it looks more ‘perfect’, colorful and vivid.

I loved the cute cartoon animals, I loved the choice of actors/actresses used to voice them, I loved the simple but action-packed storyline. Everything about it was… perfect.

It reminded me of all the great things about China: the history, the culture, the scenery and landscapes, martial arts, the animals, the food even!

Finally, I loved the message which was something like: ‘Believe in yourself’, or ‘It’s what’s inside that counts’.

In the Furious Five prequel, the storytelling scenes were animated slightly differently. They were not 3D looking and were more flat. Also, they didn’t have the smooth texture and had a painterly feeling. I found myself noticing this mainly because I am currently working on a new site and I thought the banner I designed for it was too smooth and perfect looking so I texturized and jazzed it up a bit (see pic below for ‘before’ and ‘after’). I did this about a week or so ago and suddenly realized it was very similar to the effect they had going on as well (but of course theirs was much more complicated!).

Anyway, here are the photos from the event:

Giant inflatable screen

Crowds

ANZ Stadium (formerly Telstra stadium) in background

And one last cute picture of the main characters (coincidentally the sky looks similar to the photo above!):

Trivia:

• ‘Kung fu‘ (pinyin: gongfu) literally means ‘achievement through great effort’ or simply ‘virtue’.
• Oogway, as in Master Oogway, the turtle.. his name actually means ‘turtle’ in Chinese (pinyin: ugui). It was pretty funny when I realized straight away.
• Shifu means ‘master’ so Master Shifu is Master Master! (btw he is a red panda).