HWI 435

Hollywood What If Chapter 435

Kung Fu Panda is an animated film. The story was about a fat panda, Po, who dreamed of becoming a Kung Fu Master.

Unexpectedly, Po was chosen as a Dragon Warrior and was taught by Master Shifu. He learned his true strength and accepted himself.

When the Furious Five and Master Shifu were defeated by Tai Lung, Po stepped up and fought the villain to protect the city.

The movie was about self-acceptance, action, comedy, perseverance, and self-belief.

Being a master of Comedy and Action, of course, Kazir used his strength to come up with the plot of Kung Fu Panda... Erm, he copied it from the real creator but who cares... He had been doing the same thing since 1995. There was nothing to be guilty about.

For the project, 20th Century Fox invested $130 million for production costs.

The Big Six realized the profitability of 3D animation movies and they also understood how much money it needed to be done.

So why is 20th Century Fox ready to spend money on 3D animation movies?

Because, unlike live-action movies, 3D animation movies had strong merchandise-selling power.

Their toys, t-shirts, key chains, and any merchandise related to 3D movies were mostly sold out.

Blue Sky Studio experienced it when Ice Age was a massive hit. All of the toys on their shelves were gone in just a matter of weeks. As for how much money they made, it was definitely 9 figures.

This fact alone was enough for 20th Century Fox to invest money in Kung Fu Panda. The profit they could make might be twice or thrice their investment.

There was a reason why Walt Disney was so strong. Despite many setbacks, they were known to be family-friendly, and they had their signature products, which were animated movies.

And now, most of the Big Six were trying to copy Disney's accomplishments.

Walt Disney had Walt Disney Animation Studio and Pixar under its banner.

Warner Brothers had Warner Brothers Animation(responsible for Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and DC animated universe), Cartoon Network Studio, and Hanna-Barbera Studio.

Universal Pictures had Illumination Entertainment(which would be created in 2007) and DreamWorks Animation(NBCUniversal acquired the company in 2016).

Paramount Pictures had Nickelodeon Studio.

Sony-Colombia had Sony Pictures Animation, which was known for Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, The Emoji Movie, and Hotel Transylvania.

20th Century Fox had Blue Sky Studio.

See what happened there? Most of the famous cartoon/animation studios were under the Big Six. This showed how strong their influence was even in the animated media.

Even Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon were under the banner of Big Six. They dominated the entertainment industry for a reason.

Now that traditional hand-drawn animation was getting less popular, 20th Century Fox knew that investing in 3D animation like Blue Sky Studio was a must if they didn't want to be left behind by their competitors.

Kazir entered their workshop and found more than hundreds of people staring at their respective monitors, animating the scenes that were given to them.

It was a tough job, these people had to stay in their seats for hours to create the scenes that the audience had to watch for a few seconds.

Although not going to lie, the animators in Western had a better situation compared to the average animators in Japan. Japanese animators were the epitome of corporate slaves. Truly a cruel world we live in.

Kazir and Carl Ludwig talked about the progress of Kung Fu Panda which was around 80-90% in completion.

Perhaps because of 20th Century Fox's confidence in this project, the money was moving smoothly, which made the production faster.

Kung Fu Panda was expected to be released next year. This project has been in creation since last year, around the time of Pirates Of The Caribbean. So it was not a surprise that the movie was close to completion.

The voice actors that were cast in this project were actually celebrities.

Po was voiced by Jack Black.

Tai Lung was voiced by Ian McShane.

Master Shifu was voiced by Dustin Hoffman.

Master Tigress was voiced by Angelina Jolie.

Master Mantis was voiced by Seth Rogen.

Master Viper was voiced by Lucy Liu.

Master Monkey was voiced by Jackie Chan.

The cast was stacked by A-list actors. This showed how important this project was.

Kazir smiled when he saw a recorded clip of Angelina voicing her character Master Tigress. She was having fun. He was happy that the woman seemed to be doing well. It showed that their separation was the right thing to do. They were not compatible.

Carl felt awkward because he knew that Kazir was the one who helped Angelina acquire the spot for Master Tigress.

Anyway, the conversation went on and Kazir and Carl confirmed that the production was doing great. Once the production was finished, 20th Century Fox would find the best schedule to release the movie. Another millions of dollars would be spent to promote Kung Fu Panda.

After meeting with Carl and checking the progress of Kung Fu Panda, Kazir had another meeting to attend.

The next projects of Grey Pictures were important because they would determine how the whole Continental Cinematic Universe would advance. Obviously, Kazir was the mastermind of CCU so he needed to attend the meeting.

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[Author's Note: The new technology nuclear weapon is the main plot of the CCU for the moment. For the sake of the plot, do you want this nuclear weapon to be stopped by the main characters or not? Perhaps you want the nuclear weapon to explode to improve the plot of the CCU and some character development(I can cook some interesting stuff)? You can type yes or no in the comment section.]