Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Director – John Wayne Stevenson, Mark Osborne

Kung Fu Panda, well when I had heard the name of this animation film, I had my own reservations of what to expect. And as it has happened with me not once but many a times; like before Kung Fu Panda completely changed my perspective of the film after I saw it…

Anyways, the plot is known, what would have happened is also obvious. But what I really liked about the whole film was the mysteries and lessons for life being shared in the most unexpected ways and at the most unexpected places. ‘Illusion of Control’; ‘Today is present’, ‘There are no accidents’, ‘There is no such thing as good or bad news’…and so on…

I really like the shot when Shifu asks Po –‘Do you want to learn Kung Fu’ and when Po says Yes, he says ‘Then I am your Master’…

500 days of Summer (2009)

Director - Marc Webb
Cast - Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Claire Deschanel

My friend from Columbus, Ohio had recommended this movie at least 500 days back, it was after so long that I finally got around to see it. This is something which I call as a clean and neat movie. You know what could happen, you know what could not happen, you start to like the characters, you somehow feel you can predict what they can do, but then you may not be…The narrative weaves the story so well, I can think of Juno and High Fidelity, where the narration really changed the way how the movie came out…

I remember Zooey Claire Deschanel from Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy, and I know she was there in Almost Famous, but do not remember her so well from there. She somewhere does not reveal why she does what she does in (500) Days of Summer…

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, though he was there in Havoc, right now, I can’t recollect him at all…

Marc Webb – this is his directorial debut…

A lovely soundtrack, and interestingly I had heard ‘Sugar Town’ very recently and when Zooey sings the same in the movie, I was like wow!!! The other track which I liked is the one which plays with the end credits – ‘She’s Got you High’.