Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Jennifer Yuh Nelson Interview -- Part II

Early sketch of the villain from "KFP2"

Jennifer Yuh Nelson spent a long time working on the first Kung Fu Panda. She describes the first picture's development as the more difficult of the two KFP features because they were developing the characters from the ground up, getting to know each one ...

TAG Interview with Jennifer Yuh Nelson

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

With Kung Fu Panda 2, most of the major players were in place. But there was still a new villain, about which Jennifer relates this:

... Lord Shen was one of the first things we thought about when we began work [on KFP2 three years ago. A small group of us gets together. We get a lot of snacks, and we get in a room and start spitballing ideas. In the first movie, we had Tai Lung—a guy who could walk into a room and punch someone in the face. We thought, Why don’t we go in the opposite direction—somebody who is devious, sharp, and dangerous in a different way? We made him into a peacock, a character with speed and flash. ...

She is now at work on a new project, about which she is (understandably) mum.

The interview with JYN took place in her office on the DreamWorks Animation campus. So ... audio only. The video interview above? It's a different one. (Like you couldn't tell.)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tai Lung was the REAL star of the first movie. If he returns for the third one, maybe I'll go see it.

craig clark said...

Very enjoyable interview Jennifer. Congratulations on all of your success!

cwyatt said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
cwyatt said...

Congratulations! And an even bigger congratulations on inspiring female film makers and animators!! Jennifer Yuh Nelson is the highest grossing female director, surpassing Mama Mia's numbers. The feminist mags out there are so busy focusing on the live action stars they are ignoring a HUGE development in the film world. This is a big achievement and I look forward to more success from Jennifer Yuh Nelson.

Anonymous said...

And about Kung Fu Panda 3 ?They are making?

Steve Hulett said...

No comment from Jennifer. She's working on a new feature, but hasn't revealed what it is.

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