Kung Fu Panda: two directors finding Po
Directors John Stevenson and Mark Osborne joined Kingdom of Dreams to talk about making Kung Fu Panda, a film whose comedy, action, and sincerity had to belong to the same character. Co-directing an animated studio movie means agreeing, early, what kind of hero Po is when he is not making a joke.
If the directors split those tones between them, the movie splits too. The craft is a shared compass: which shots are about appetite and clumsiness, and which are about a body finally meaning the moves it has been mimicking.
Their conversation is a reminder that a beloved animated character is not an accident of design. It is thousands of directing choices about how seriously to take him.
Go deeper on Kingdom of Dreams
- → EP 101: John Stevenson and Mark Osborne on Kung Fu Panda
- → EP 118: Tim Johnson on Over the Hedge
- → EP 122: Simon Wells on An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
Browse more director conversations in the Kingdom of Dreams archive.
Original Kingdom of Dreams craft take based on our conversation with directors John Stevenson and Mark Osborne (EP 101).