Art of Kung Fu Panda 2

I heard some pretty funny stories from Dreamworks friends about all the challenges they had getting this Kung Fu Panda property started. Certainly not funny for those who were working themselves to death to get it off the ground, but funny for me, from the outside, on the typical chaos that these animated features suffer through during pre-production and well into production itself. Ive come to see it's pretty common across all companies- orchestrating an animated feature dances along a razors edge of madness- but hey- lookit- Kung Fu Panda 3, I think is on the boards and this definitely looks like the strongest of the Dreamworks properties. And who doesnt like kung fu and those lucious fictional Asian environments?
This book picks up pretty much where the KFP1 Art Book left off- a handful of additional characters build off our returning cast with the addition of Baby Po and his parents (didnt they just do this same thing with Marty and his parents in Madagascar 2? Is this gonna be the Dreamworks go to formula?).
Id say this book, a little thinner feeling than the first, is more environment heavy than its older sibling- some really great painting in here and a few shots of actual mixed media maquettes of sets and locations- very unusual and cool! But mostly the brilliant character work by Nic Marlett steals the show and eclipses everything else in here- and thats coming from a real serious fanatic of environmental art. Yup- his character design is that strong. This is a pretty good book, especially for fans of anthropomorphic characters, or for someone who likes to imagine a fantastical caricature of ancient China. I have Art of Kung Fu Panda 1 up on my shelf- not sure why I choose to talk about this one first but stay tuned for a review of that one too- soon, soon....

Art of Kung Fu Panda 2
Tracey Miller-Zarneke
Insight Editions
156 pages (HC)
ISBN-10: 1608870189
ISBN-13: 978-1608870189
10.4 x 11.4 x 0.9 inches

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