With inspiration from Kung Fu Panda, more original and creative films can filter through. In one scenario, this situation can lead to many high-octane, predictable action movies that everyone everywhere can enjoy. will not always be dictating what the world sees in movies. In other words: the Chinese public is responding as positively as a movie executive could hope for.Īs China is set to become the world’s largest movie market within two years, soon enough, the U.S. It’s also grossed over $142 million in the three weeks since its release in Chinese theaters, more than what the most recent Mission Impossible movie made last year. Kung Fu Panda 3 made $51.3 million in its opening weekend in China, the largest ever for an animated movie there. The collaboration also paid off at the box office. The state-controlled media has even strongly praised the film for its comprehensive use of Chinese literature and cultural references. By trying to more personally appeal to Chinese audiences to make a bigger profit, the movie has also shown how genuine collaboration, even under the government’s strict censorship rules, shines through. This kind of collaboration has never been seen in any type of American movie before. Jackie Chan, for example, took over from Jack Black as the panda main character.ĬEO of DreamWorks Animation Jeffrey Katzenberg was the biggest proponent behind the collaboration in China of Kung Fu Panda 3. The script was rewritten in Mandarin, the characters’ lips were painstakingly reanimated to match the new dialogue, their movements and reactions were recreated in culturally appropriate ways, and notable Chinese actors were casted to re-voice the main characters. With over 200 employees working from Shanghai, the Chinese version of the movie is a completely new redesign. The story has always had obvious Chinese elements, but this time around, DreamWorks Studios used their new Chinese production company, Oriental DreamWorks, to collaborate on producing two separate versions of the movie: one in English, and one entirely in Mandarin. Kung Fu Panda 3 is a radical change from that model. But at the end of the day, Americans were still the ones telling the story with no Chinese input. Furious 7 and Transformers: Age of Extinction followed this model. In recent years, Hollywood has made successful but obvious moves to appeal to Chinese audiences, such as setting the movie in China or Hong Kong, using massive Chinese branding, and casting recognizable Chinese actors in roles.
What do cultural diplomacy and Kung Fu Panda 3 have in common? It’s not a set-up to a bad joke: it’s a lesson that public diplomacy should take note of in the blockbuster series about a bumbling panda in China learning to become a martial arts master.
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