Friday, January 13, 2006

Kung Fu ... Gecko?

Here comes the next Antz vs Bugs Life, Shark Tale vs Finding Nemo, The Wild vs Madagascar... Kung Fu Panda vs Kung Fu Gecko. Thanks to www.cgchar-animation.com for the alert. I wasn't even aware of this film until I slinked over to that site this morning.

I know very little about this production. Upon first look, the quality is probably higher then any other CG production I've seen from that part of the world. The animation is far beyond Hoodwinked and the visuals seem better than Valiant. However, there is something off. It has a certain feel to it that seems too glossy and comes across slightly amateurish. Still, this is surprisingly well done.

Picking "Kung Fu Gecko" as a title was a complete mistake considering the film releases in 2008, the same year as DreamWorks karate-kicking-flick, "Kung Fu Panda".

I will have to do some investigating to see what the history is for this film. Who financed it and whether it has distribution (doesn't appear so). If anyone has any information, please share in the comment section.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

the name of the animation production house is egg story and the CEO's name is nickson fong. he was involved in the production for matrix.

Anonymous said...

the guy doing the voices is james andrews. he is amazing lawwl

Anonymous said...

Saw the short/pilot for "Kung Fu Gecko" at the Ojai (California) Film Festival waaaay back in 2006...and, I'm thinking, so did SOMEbody who started thinking hard about how to rip it off. The Singapore short was also already on the web back then, with the KF Gecko name attached, long before I heard word one about the big-budgeted American project. If there's a copycat, I'd say there's a good chance it's the Paramount people. Sure seems to me like a case of those with the money bullying the little guy...once again. Makes ya proud to be an American, eh?

Anonymous said...

hi i must say i have been keenly waiting for kung fu gecko since about 2005 when i first saw the trailer im dying to see it

Marcus Ng said...

well i do agree with the above mentioned. well the company is a small company unlike dreamworks which hires alot more people. initially it was reported that the cast of KF gecko would be international, but no names were released. said to say dreamworks has been ahead of the race... and i personally think that the dreamworks characters are alot more impactful as they are varied in designs and colours compared ones from KF gecko. i'm afraid the little david can only beat Goliath if the story is compelling.
-mnyc

Anonymous said...

It is actually that the Panda was probably a copycat. From some things I know, it seemed Eggstory revealed too much information on its movie KF Gecko, and Dreamworks took the concept and made Panda.

Anonymous said...

the production for kfg is still going and long wait shall pay off! we are working on it. its getting even better and bigger. wait and see.