Alicia Malone
On Friday I was lucky enough to attend a DreamWorks Animation presentation, where I was not only treated to a sneak peek of ”Kung Fu Panda 2” and ”Puss In Boots”, but also got to have lunch with Jack Black, Antonio Banderas and director Guillermo del Toro of ”Pan’s Labyrinth”, who is Executive Producer of ”Puss In Boots”. We got to see 45 minutes of unfinished footage from ”KFP2” and 15 of ”Puss In Boots”, and while I can’t give too much away, I can tell you they will be fantastic.
In the sequel to 2008’s ”Kung Fu Panda”, Po (again voiced by Jack Black) is struggling to discover who he is, while trying to battle a new enemy with a weapon much more powerful than kung fu. New voices include Michelle Yeoh, Gary Oldman, and Jean-Claude Van Damme, and it seems Po has more kung fu skills this time around (as does Jack Black, who showed off his skills on-stage!)
”Puss In Boots” centres around the very popular (and cute) character from the ”Shrek” franchise. It’s an origin story, set well before Puss joined Shrek’s merry men, with Puss desperate to prove himself as a furry ginger swordsman. Guillermo del Toro said there will plenty of spaghetti western references and classic fairytale characters with Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris voicing Jack and Jill, Selma Hayek re-teaming with Banderas as the voice of the sexy but deadly Kitty Softpaws, and the hilarious Zack Galifianakis will pop up as Humpty Dumpty, described by DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg as a “bad egg”.
I cant wait to see the rest of these films, when ”Kung Fu Panda” hits cinemas in May, and ”Puss In Boots” around November.
