Recent Q&A with co-directors Kung Fu Panda 4 It was revealed that for some reason, an early version of the film was planned to be a live-action hybrid.
It’s really difficult to make a movie that mixes live action with animation – Who Framed Roger Rabbit is probably the only movie to date that has actually managed to do that. You have to work hard to be convincing, which is why I’m glad to hear that Kung Fu Panda 4 isn’t quite as much of a hybrid as originally planned. Stephanie Stine, co-director of the recently released sequel, recently participated in the Kung Fu Panda Reddit community’s Discord server, where she answered a series of questions about the film. One of the strangest revelations was that, before she was cast, the film would feature real people in a mostly animated film.
Talking to the co-directors of KFP 4 probably yielded the most information about the making of the KFP films. I made a transcript with 48 questions and 8,200 words.
byu/Object-195 inkungfupanda
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“The original story… Jane and Chameleon were actually humans (she was actually called the Collector before we gave up on the idea of humans). They came from a city called… Human City,” Stine explained. “The original story was supposed to be a hybrid live-action/animation, which is why there were humans. For some reason, the leadership team gave up on the idea of a hybrid live-action before I came on board. They kept the humans going for a while, though, until I If I remember correctly, our second animation screening.”
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This is obviously very different from the final result and is an absolutely baffling creative choice. Donald Glover looks weird in his Spider-Verse cameo, and it’s really only a few seconds, so I can’t imagine the entire movie being like that.
The entire interview is actually conveniently transcribed, with Stine providing a lot of behind-the-scenes details, like (again confusingly) Po’s plan to be trapped in a box for 20 minutes, and why Fast & Furious Five didn’t make the look great , so if you’re a Kung Fu Panda fan, it’s worth a read.