Tangled Magazine

Tangled Magazine was at the red carpet for the Australian premiere of Kung Fu Panda, coinciding with the 2008 Sydney Film Festival at Sydney’s State Theatre. We chatted to director John Stevenson, talk show host Rove McManus and girlfriend Tasma Walton, Dreamworks Animation SKG CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and Po himself, Mr. Jack Black.

John Stevenson

From your previous work, it’s obvious that you like animation. What is it about it that draws you to it?
Because you can do anything, that’s the greatest thing about animation. There are other things you can do, the techniques you can use. It’s such a free medium. Anything you can dream of, you can create. You have to have patience and dedication, it’s a lot of work to do. It took four and a half years to do Kung Fu Panda so you better be prepared to dig in and work. If you can dream it, you can do it.

This movie appeals to kids and adults. Was that your original intention?
Of course. Every family movie should and we, I’m talking about my partner Mark Osborne who’s not here, but we could only make a movie that appealed to us. I can’t make a movie trying to figure out what a kid is going to like or what anybody else is going to like so we just made a movie that we would like and hope that other people would like it too.

Was Jack Black your first choice?
Only choice, first and only. If Jack had said I don’t want to do the movie then I don’t think we would’ve had a movie because there’s was no back up plan. There was no one else that we could think of that we’d want to be Po. We love Jack, we love Tenacious D, we wanted him in the movie and we wanted the whole film to be the star vehicle for him, not doing a voice, just let Jack be Jack. There was no back up plan so thank goodness he said yes.

Rove McManus and Tasma Walton

You’ve already seen the movie and you must’ve liked it to come back a second time.
Tasma: Loved it.
Rove: That would be the reason, hopefully yeah. No, good, very, very good.
Tasma: It’s an animation classic, I think. It’ll go down as an animation classic.
Rove: Well there you go, print that, hold the front page.

Are you both a fan of animation?
Tasma: I have because of Rove
Rove: Yes, I’ve introduced Tasma to a few favourites and this was one of them and we just absolutely loved it.

Who do you think you’re most like character wise in the movie?
Tasma: (looks at Rove) Of course you’ve got to go Po.
Rove: I’d like to think I’m a little bit like Master Shifu, who’s the Dustin Hoffman character, who wishes he had his inner peace but he doesn’t really and he’s little.

Jeffrey Katzenberg

What makes this movie appealing to all ages?
It’s funny [laughs]. It’s got an amazing sense of humour, it’s got some beautiful, beautiful style and look to it, and so much loving care has gone into it by the creative team. It’s a love letter to China and 4000 years of Chinese culture, and it’s got Jack Black and Po the Panda, which is the most huggable animated character any of us has seen in a long time.

Jack Black

What did you see in Po that you saw in yourself?
Po is a dreamer and I also had big dreams when I was a kid. Po looked up to his heroes and tried to imitate them then eventually realise that he had to find his own voice and I felt like I had the same journey in my road.

Would you do a sequel for Kung Fu Panda?
I could, I could. As long as everything is just as good. I wouldn’t want to do it if it wasn’t at least as good or better.

Kung Fu Panda is in theatres now in the US, while it’s being released in Australia on June 26.