thedriveintheatre

If there’s one thing they share, it’s that ‘Dreamworks’ smirk…

Note: I have tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible, but I still advise you watch both films first before reading the following.

About a fortnight ago, I went to see one of my most anticipated films of the year, Cars 2, with a friend. You can read about my thoughts and opinion about the Pixar sequel here. After the show concluded, we snuck into another theatre to see Kung Fu Panda 2. I have supported Dreamworks with a rather pricey entry ticket for the Australian premiere (but it was worth every cent) and you can read about my experience in another post. For my friend, it was his first time viewing, and for me, it’s a rewatch in theatres, something I only do once in a blue moon (ie once-twice every year) and that I usually reserve for the best. I am going to rewatch Cars 2 in IMAX tomorrow, but I want to take the opportunity to compare these two very different films from the biggest rivals in the animation industry.

Now, I’m aware that comparing a panda on an existential quest with a tow truck embroiled in international espionage is like trying to compare rice with ‘bangers and mash’, but just for the sake of those who are considering which film to take their kids to this summer break, as well as for my own personal amusement, I will perform this little exercise anyway. My arguments will be structured under ‘similarity headings’, but I may mention where they differ when necessary.

1) Both are sequels to huge franchises for their respective studios.

Cars TWO and Kung Fu Panda TWO. Both generate huge amounts of tie-in merchandising for their parent companies. I was walking through ToysR’Us on a recent trip to Adelaide and the aisles were just filled with Cars merch, from talking Finn McMissile figurines to Lightning McQueen poster beds. There were a couple of Kung Fu Panda 2 figurines too, and McDonalds Australia is running a Happy Meal toy campaign (I got Mr Ping this week!).

The strange thing is, many people enjoyed the first Kung Fu Panda movie, because it represented something bold and pop-culture-references-free from Dreamworks, but many didn’t appreciate the first Cars movie, because it wasn’t ‘bold enough’ (I thought it was pretty touching, but most professional and amateur critics thought the theme was quite cliched) and had a few pop-culture references. Which is kinda sad, I feel, for Pixar, cos’ Cars is better than most of Dreamworks’ movies around that time.

2) Both feature accidental hero protagonists.

For Kung Fu Panda 2, Po was the accidental hero in the first movie. Here, he’s much more of a bad-ass, but he’s still prone to slip-ups, which makes him all the more flawed and emphathetic. This is due to any lack of intelligence on his part, but because of his physical shortcomings and rather boundless appetite (for food or adventure). Many nerds (including Yours Truly) can emphathise with his struggle for acceptance and his utter devotion to his passion. Some might feel his constant warcries and posturing annoying, but I feel that this is because he truly love what he does and this is how he expresses his enthusiasm. Besides, he is not arrogant, and he reveres his idols and is eager to learn from them. This is especially more pronounced in the second movie, where he finds his boundless optimism challenged by his idols’ (Master Ox and Croc) defeatist attitude in one memorable scene (where we actually see him being visibly shaken and speechless). And for once, his strength (ie Kung Fu) is rendered useless by Lord Shen, making him all the more vulnerable. By the end, he harnesses the ‘go with the flow’ technique of acceptance and non-aggressive combat in his final showdown with Lord Shen.

For Cars 2, Mater is the protagonist in a ‘North by Northeast’ plot of mistaken identity and reluctant heroism. Or rather, he’s not so much reluctant as blissfully ignorant of the dangers of being a secret agent. Although he tries to tell Finn and Holley many times throughout the film that he is not a mere “tow truck”, he still goes along passively for the ride (pun unintended) because he’s “always wanted to be a spy”. This, of course, leads to many misadventures and his incompetence almost cost his new spy partners their lives (although this is thankfully adverted). Some viewers found his constant pratfalls frustating, and while I, personally, found them endearing (in a Goofy or Mr Bean sort of way), I felt that he could’ve proactively tried to behave himself during the Tokyo dinner party or when he was pretending to be a spy instead of bumbling around aimlessly (he actually does try to be serious when infiltrating the lemons’ casino, but this doesn’t gell with his silly antics before). The way Mater ‘solved whodunnit’ at the climax is out-of-character for a guy who didn’t realize he wasn’t the one who was ‘leaking’ a few scenes ago, and this sudden burst of deductive reasoning seems a sudden and illogical character progression.

I’d also like to briefly mention the villains. Of the two, Lord Shen is pretty much the more fleshed-out antagonist. Dr Z has some pretty good motivations, but they were more of the ‘Freudian’ “I was bullied as a kid, therefore I have to take out my frustrations on innocent civilians” reason. He stood nothing to gain other than personal self-satisfaction. The real villain, I felt, had a more ‘Bond-ian’ reason of “It’s all about the money and to rule the world”, but that’s just my opinion. Lord Shen, on the other hand, had a more credible reason to destroy Po, and without giving away too much, the Panda poses a threat to his existence and supremacy, and that it was largely because of a prophecy predicting his arrival that Shen dug the hole into which he is now in at the start of the movie.

3) Both have incredible animation, sets, action sequences, and special effects.

Many have raved about Cars 2’s water and explosion effects during the spectacular opening sequence, and while I wholeheartedly agree, I find it interesting that the end of Kung Fu Panda 2 had equally amazing water and explosion effects. There was one shot where we see an explosion barrel down a canal from side-on and it looked stunningly real. It is also interesting how both Cars 2’s beginning and Panda 2’s climax take place at night.

Kung Fu Panda 2 had some pretty intricate detail in their architecture of Gongmen City, from the design of Shen’s pagoda to the little streetboard signs that Po smacks into during the rickshaw chase. But Cars 2 blows the panda’s rather static single set out of the water with not one, not two, not even three, but four different cities. I was amazed by the rendering of Rio de Janerio earlier this year in Blue Sky’s Rio, but Pixar managed to recreate FOUR cities, and ‘Cars’-ified each of them. From the multitiude of neon billboards in Shibuya, to the coastal cliffs of Porta Corsa in the shape of classic cars, the amount of attention to detail is staggering.

Both have great character animation. The first Cars succeeded in giving cars individual personalities and mannerisms, and this without conventional human hands or faces! In the sequel, they take it to a whole new level with the plethora of cultures and their own ways of expression and body language. You can ‘tell’ a kei car geisha is bowing, or that the Queen is knighting someone. Panda has it easier with anthropomorphic animals, but the animation is much sutbler and evocative than the first movie. We see how pained Mr Ping is at Po’s depature, or the thoughts going through Lord Shen’s mind when he is reminded of his bitter past. The most remarkable thing about Panda is that it has a very theatrical air to it; you feel you are watching a stageplay instead of a motion picture.

And of course, both have standout action sequences. Both films suffer from attention deficit in an attempt to keep the audience interested; at times I wish the characters would stop chasing each other and actually stop to have a meaningful conversation or reveal more of their character. Of the two, I felt Kung Fu Panda 2 devoted more time to character development, despite having the shorter running time. Cars 2 is a much better ‘action’ movie than Panda in terms of sheer quantity of action setpieces, but it suffers from a lack of poignant or contemplative scenes as a result.

4) Both have decent soundtracks.

Of all the reviews I’ve read, professional or amateur, I’ve seen few who mentioned the score or music of either of the movies. This either means I need to read more reviews, or that people simply found nothing to write home about. This wasn’t the case last year when it came to Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon.

Again, Kung Fu Panda 2 is the better of the two. With two of the titans in film soundtracks (John Powell and Hans Zimmer) collaborating, I was worried that it would be a case of too many cooks ruining the stew. Thankfully, the soundtrack manages to stay cohesive, although I struggle to remember any ‘main theme’, unlike HTTYD or the first Panda, where I can hum the theme off-hand. But if there’s one track to redeem the entire soundtrack, it has to be ‘Po Finds the Truth’, which is a tour-de-force of raw feeling and emotional carthasis.

Cars 2, on the other hand, has a stronger theme running through the film. In fact, the hook is very catchy. “Da-da-daaa… da-da-daaa…” You’ll know it when you hear it. Giacchino interestingly chose to go with a British surf music theme, and while this is a very courageous move on his part, on a personal level, it is not really my cup of tea. I’m more of the David Arnold grand-orchestra or Harry Gregson-Williams synthesizer variety, but others might find the 70s-inspired groove more to their taste. What I don’t like though, is how often the hook is repeated, with very little variation. With his other albums like Up or Incredibles, he has various version of the theme, ‘light’, ‘dark’, etc. Here, it feels like a video game soundtrack from the 90s in its simplicity, but again, I must say, that hook is pretty darn catchy. “Dadadadadadada da-da-daaa…”

5) Both expand and improve upon their predecessors.

What both Cars 2 and Kung Fu Panda 2 manage to achieve is be fantastic sequels in their own right. In the case of Cars 2, it turned the first film’s themes and setting on its head. Instead of the city slicker being held against his will in a long-forgotten roadside town, it is now the country bumpkin who voluntarily goes on a trip around the world. Mater, who has never ventured beyond Radiator Springs (except for the last Piston Cup race and his occassional adventures in his ‘Tall Tales’), now finds himself a stranger in strange lands. The inclusion of a spy plot doesn’t really mesh with the first’s sedentary setting, but it makes for an interesting contrast. I had a problem, though, with the ‘Broken Aesop’ of Cars 2. In the first movie, Lightning has to change his character to be a better person (or car). In this one, we are told that Mater doesn’t have to change who he is to suit others, even though he is incredibly ignorant of (although charmingly eager to experience) other cultures’ customs. But, I liked how Lightning and Mater’s friendship is put to the test. In the first movie, Lightning needs a best friend in the form of Mater. In the second, Mater has to learn to ‘let go’ of Lightning and give him space by finding new friends in the form of Finn and Holley.

Kung Fu Panda 2, on the other hand, expands upon the first film. Po is now less of a klutz and more ‘awesome’, but he is not indestructible. He gets beaten (both figuratively and literally) many more times in this film, and at one point, he even undergoes a ‘Christ-like’ resurrection and enlightenment in time for the third act. We also find out more about his backstory, and one of my favourite scenes is Mr Ping telling Po how he came to be his ‘father’. In many ways, Po and Shen’s stories are parallels; both were abandoned by their parents (for different reasons), both have to find ‘inner peace’, both’s past and futures are intertwined… it makes for a very engaging dualistic tone to the film. We also get more developments between Po and Tigress, long the hotbed for fanshippers. We don’t get an outright declaration of romantic-love here, but there’s one heartwarming scene where Tigress does something to Po which reveals the depth of her friendship at this point. If there’s one thing I didn’t like, it’s that the film felt a little too short for a story of this magnitude. And the first had more setting-variations, while in this sequel, two-thirds of the film take place in Gongmen City.

So having watched both these films back-to-back on the same night, which one would I recommend? Well, on that night, I was pretty ‘high’ from Cars 2, so if you asked me when I finally left the theatre, I would give ‘two thumbs up’ for the Pixar film. But upon further contemplation and reflection, I have to say KFP2 had a more cinematic and theatrical sensibility that makes it storytelling more powerful and meaningful. If you’re looking for a good time and more ‘bang for your buck’, go see Cars 2. It is the epitome of popcorn-blockbuster fun and excitement, and it is Pixar’ best action movie since ‘The Incredibles’. But if you’re looking for grand, mythic storytelling with profound themes about forgiveness and redemption, then go see Kung Fu Panda 2. It will make you laugh, move you to tears, and warm your heart like the greatest of movies.