Despite calls to boycott "Kung Fu Panda," the animated movie about a bear named
Po with a passion for martial arts, is a huge hit in China. The film, from DreamWorks
Animation and Paramount Pictures, has already grossed more than $12 million after less
than two weeks in release, making the opening of the film one of the strongest in China in
recent years. Globally, the movie has brought in $275 million, Paramount said. Some
Chinese critics had asked consumers to protest the film because Steven Spielberg, a top
executive at DreamWorks , had resigned last February as artistic adviser to the 2OOB
Beijing Olympics after failing to persuade Chinese officials to do more to help the Darfur
region of Sudan. Another group , backed by the Chinese artist Zhao Bandi, who uses
10 pandas as an inspiration for his work, also called for a boycott, saying the animated
film was exploiting a national symbol.
But the film opened June 21 to huge crowds in Beijing, Shanghai and other big
cities. Chinese audiences have praised the quality of the animation and its colorful and
clever depiction of various aspects of ancient Chinese culture, architecture and
scenery.
The release of the film was postponed in Sichuan Province, the largest panda-breeding
center in China and the site of a devastating earthquake that killed more than 69,000
people in May. One reason for the delay was the sensitivities involved in a region that was
still in mourning. But after the film opened there last week, theater operators said their
houses were packed. "lt is the most successful animation movie in our cinema
history,"
said Li Jiquing, general manager at Wagfujing Cinema in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan
Province.
The American producers of "Kung Fu Panda," which is set in the Li River Valley in
the Guangxi Province of southwestern China, have called the movie a salute to Chinese
culture and to Hong Kong martial arts films. News shows and lnternet bloggers in China
are now debating the merits of the film and asking why Chinese film-makers and animators
cannot compete with foreign producers.