(based in part on... every cat I've ever had, but especially our young deaf cat Harmony who it turns out is allergic to grass but on the rare occasions she's allowed in the yard, she dashes quickly over to any grass that has sprouted up, ignoring all the actual edible herbs and veggies we have for her, binges on grass, and then purges said grass. Repeat until she's put back inside.--Craig)
© 2016 Craig Phillips
Reposting a piece I wrote for Movies.com giving some background on the boy reporter/hero and inspiration for the new Spielberg film. [I give the film a B+, for "Blistering barnacles," I really enjoyed it, to be precise. There are some really excellent Herge homages at the film's start, and then the spirit of the comics lives throughout. The writers may have tried to cram too much in (3 comics into one story) but changes otherwise seemed good, kept humor but added more.--cgp]
With the big-budget, CGI The Adventures of Tintin film hitting the world in a big way -- directed by one of the most famous of directors and produced by another no stranger to blockbusters -- it's hard to imagine a time back in my childhood when I innocently clutched faded reprints of Hergé's comic books and dreamed of a movie.
The year Raiders of the Lost Ark came out was when I first discovered this series, which shared many elements with Spielberg's crowd-pleasing adventure: A brave, young, globetrotting hero battles nefarious crime syndicates and villains over artifacts and heirlooms—though Tintin, a boy reporter instead of an archeologist, was younger and more innocent (and asexual, though this thought didn't occur to me as much as a lad) than Indiana Jones; and at times Tintin got into trouble more by sticking his nose into other people's business when things struck him suspicious, rather than venturing forth for his own gain. But these beautifully illustrated comic books captivated in much the same way as Raiders, and the stories took Tintin from England, the character’s home base, all over the globe: from South American jungles to Tibet, from fictional countries to, yes, the moon (before anyone really set foot on it).
Hergé
Belgian artist Hergé began Tintin as a serialized newspaper strip, before segueing to comic book form. Quite a few of the best stories were written before, during and right after WWII, so Hergé, an anti-fascist who tried to remain apolitical due to worries about Gestapo censorship—and worse—in his occupied country, certainly knew the territory. In that period Tintin was more an explorer like Indy, rather than a reporter (lest he sniff out something the real-life ruling fascists didn't care for). The earliest Tintins, in the 1930s, also had elements of discomfortingly dated racial portrayals, though now it seems clearer that Hergé's work tended to be a sign of the times without much maliciousness to the caricatures; as a judge recently ruled, Hergé's intent was not racist in Tintin in the Congo even if some of the drawings sure seemed that way. But you can trace his progression as an artist and observer reading through to his later work (the last, Tintin and the Picaros, was published in 1976).
In the 1970s and 80s, Tintin had more of a cult following in America than a widespread audience, even though he'd been popular around much of the rest of the planet for decades.
Kung Fu Panda
***
I expected a certain level of cuteness in Kung Fu Panda, perhaps some good voice work given the nicely eclectic cast and a few good jokes, and little more. What I saw instead was a beautifully animated, often very funny cartoon that rivals anything Pixar's done the past few years. Sure there are cliches here and the main plot has some "don't think too hard about it" elements to it; in which Tai Lung, the evil former pupil of a Kung Fu master, escapes from prison and seeks the title of "Dragon Warrior" that he believes rightly his, a title instead, seemingly mistakenly, given to the bumbling, blubbery panda Po (voice by Jack Black). If that plot builds to a predictable face-off, the film takes off in unexpected ways and uses smart characterizations and a sly wit to gain plenty of good will. It doesn't hurt that the supporting characters -- the five pupils, Crane (comedian/actor David Cross), the confident Tigress (Angelina Jolie), the plucky Mantis (the now ubiquitous Seth Rogen), Snake (Lucy Liu), and Monkey (Jackie Chan! who has very few lines), and particularly the story's two Yoda characters, the ancient turtle Oogway (wonderfully voiced by Randall Duk Kim) and master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), as well as Po's father (who is, for reasons that are never explained but poked fun of, a goose) and the villain Tai Lung (a perfect Ian McShane) -- are so beautifully realized in design and performance - each tweaked a bit to fit the respective actor.
Kudos, too, to the filmmakers and writers (Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger wrote the script, from a story by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris) who refrained from inserting the anachronistic pop cultural references and easy modernist jokes that many of its peers (including Dreamworks' Shrek) have been unable to resist (there is some modern lingo used but even that is playfully handled).
There is a great deal of slapstick in the film, and your tolerance for slapstick may ultimately decide whether or not you enjoy Kung Fu Panda, but much of these comic action set pieces are expertly handled, with inspired timing that Chuck Jones would be proud of. And the animation, all CGI except for a dream sequence and the closing credits, is rich, colorful, well-detailed. If it offers up expected, even stereotypical Chinese landscapes-- mystical, misty, mountainous -- and style reminiscent of Chinese classical paintings, it's still pretty beautiful to look at, and even better the makers are smart enough to use the "sets" for many of the films visual jokes (including the running joke with the ridiculously high stairs that Panda has to climb) and for the film's fight sequences. And even if Po's training sequence is an entirely expected event, it's surprisingly amusing {TINY SPOILER} -- an inspired, food-based training that will, if nothing else, make you rather hungry for dumplings.
Again, it's no masterpiece, but Kung Fu Panda exceeds expectations in many ways, is always a treat to look at, and is likable throughout. And, much as with the classic Warner Bros. cartoons, offers plenty for both adults and children to appreciate together.
