Forbidden Kingdom

PASSING THOUGHTS
The key to making a children’s movie successful with adults is simple: put something in the film that adults can appreciate. Modern animated films achieve this primarily by incorporating adult-level comedic relief that is generated by a specific character or through clever dialogue that’s woven throughout the story. For live-action films, the draw is usually in the visual effects; “Wizard of Oz” had Technicolor, “Star Wars” had ILM, “Toy Story” had Pixar, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” had Jim Henson. The problem with “The Forbidden Kingdom” is that it’s a children’s story (originally written by Fusco as a modernized Chinese fairy tale for his young son) presented as an adult story with nothing new to draw the adult mind or eye.

The film’s dialogue is greatly lacking any sort of comedy or depth, and its story moves forward without continuity and focus; such shortcomings are of no consequence to children, but they prove to be a hindrance when it comes to engaging the older demographic. The main draw the film offers is the visual effects, only there’s nothing here that hasn’t been seen in films like “The Matrix” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”. The colors are nice and saturated, the costumes are fun, the sets are terrific, and the locations are fresh, but the action and plot that take place among these visuals is lacking substance.

A loose rule of thumb when considering whether or not to watch films like this is to figure that the target audience is the age of the youngest protagonist. If you see a 15-year-old in the previews, chances are the film is designed to appeal to 15-year-olds and younger. Some movies escape this limitation by surrounding the young protagonist with adult situations and/or the aforementioned mature comedy and visual effects.

More than anything, the special features on the DVD reveal why the story, dialogue, and characterizations (everything but the fighting) are awkward and lacking cohesion. Some of it has to do with the fragmented insertion of Chinese folklore into a Westernized film, and some of it has to do with the fact that some important decisions were either made late or not made at all.

All in all though, this is a great film for today’s kids. Adults in general may not appreciate it as much, but I’m sure parents will; it’s a great alternative to films like “The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl”.

BASICS

Your Cup O’ Tea:
If you’re a parent looking for a film that you can watch with your kids without wanting to renounce parenthood, or you’re 12-years-old or younger and haven’t been able to watch more adult Kung Fu movies. The director relates to it as a Chinese “Wizard of Oz”, and I’d say that’s pretty darned accurate. If you’re in the mood for flying monkeys (albeit without the bellboy uniforms), wobbly sidekicks, and magic artifacts sought by melodramatic villains, this is right up your alley.

Steer Clear:
If you’re expecting a typical Jet Li film or an authentic Chinese tale like “Crouching Tiger”. This is not a complex or deep story; it’s a fairy tale aimed at kids. Unless you are simply enamored of the sort of fight scenes seen in most action movies since “Matrix”, there’s no real draw to this film.

Nothing New Under the Sun:
Reminded me of “Last Action Hero” in that it’s a young child’s fantasy of being transported to a mystical land, being surrounded by his heroes, having swashbuckling adventures there, becoming someone greater than he was at the beginning, and of course saving the world. It also felt like Disney’s “Three Musketeers” or “Rookie of the Year” in that it depicts adult situations and events while somehow managing to take the edge off of them. There’s killing, but its kid-friendly killing. There’s drama, but it never gets too serious. “Hook” would be another example, though Spielberg managed to make that a little more appealing to an older audience. I would say it’s also like “Chronicles of Narnia”, but even that had a little more tension and subtext than this one did.

Buy or Rent:
RENT. Unless you’re a parent looking to replace any number of horrifically painful children’s movies, this one won’t spend much time off the shelf. If you haven’t already seen it, the seven minutes of outtakes almost make the $1 rental worth it, and the other bonus features are interesting enough to warrant a look. The whole DVD can be easily digested in one sitting though.

FEATURES

-Languages

-Scenes

-Feature Commentary by Director Rob Minkoff & Writer John Fusco

-The Kung Fu Dream Team
Approx 10.5 minutes. Essentially a praise session where everyone talks about how great it is to have everyone else working on the film. It focuses on the Chinese talent, which makes up most of the cast as well as a huge percentage of the crew. It has the typical documentary elements in it, though it doesn’t discuss the script, music, or story—most of those are discussed on other features. This is a collection of interviews and footage that explains why this movie has the true Kung Fu Dream Team. Aptly named, I guess.
DUH! FACTOR: 7 out of 10

-Dangerous Beauty
Approx 6 minutes. A featurette about the two female stars of the film. There are a few tidbits of new information, but a great deal of it consists of interviews with Jackie Chan where he simply praises the girls on their performances. There’s some good behind-the-scenes footage, and you get to see what the White Demoness looks like without white hair.
DUH! FACTOR: 6 out of 10

-Discovering China
Approx 8 minutes. Discussion and interviews regarding what it’s like to shoot in China. It reveals the real life locations of scenes from the movie. If you’ve actually watched the film already, there’s not a lot of new/exciting footage, although it is interesting to realize that even the Boston scenes were constructed and shot on a soundstage in China.
DUH! FACTOR: 8 out of 10

-Filming in Chinawood
Approx 7.5 minutes. This feature explores the vast Hengdian World Studio in China and what it’s like to make a film there.
DUH! FACTOR: 1 out of 10

-Monkey King and the Eight Immortals
Approx 9 minutes. This section focuses on John Fusco as he discusses his own experiences with Kung Fu and talks about the mythology of the Monkey King and the Eight Immortals on which the movie is based. There’s a lot of footage of John on the beach going through the Kung Fu motions inserted throughout as well. For anyone who doesn’t already know Chinese mythology, this is new, if not interesting, information.
DUH! FACTOR: 1 out of 10

-Storyboarding and Previz: The Movie Before the Movie
Approx 6.5 minutes. Rob Minkoff’s narration accompanies most of this feature. It covers the basics of combining green screen/computer effects with real life, and shows how crude 3-D models are used as a sort of animated storyboard (“Previz” or Previsualization). Nothing new really, just some particulars for this film.
DUH! FACTOR: 8 out of 10

-Blooper Reel
Approx 8 minutes. What’s a Jackie Chan flick without the bloopers? These are unusual in that the footage looks like post-production quality and features a lot of the music found in the finished scenes. You see what it would look like if a blooper actually happened in the course of the movie, as opposed to seeing shots that show mistakes on a movie set. There are some added sound effects and the music is stopped at key points to emphasize the jokes, all of which help to create an amusing, “America’s Funniest Home Videos”-esq cocktail of cinematic blunders.
DUH! FACTOR: 2 out of 10

-Deleted Scenes (With or without Commentary by Rob Minkoff & John Fusco)
Approx 7.5 minutes. Six total: “River Boat Escape”, “Jade Warlord Kick Warrior Down Stairs”, “Desert Trek”, “Moonlight Kiss”, “Li and Yifei in Caves”, and “Li and Yifei Take Out Guards”. Half are just throw away bits of action or movement with no real content, the other three involve a little more dialogue and action but don’t fill in any gaps. All of them are finished scenes (complete with subtitles during Chinese dialogue) however.
DUH! FACTOR: 6 out of 10

-Also from Lionsgate
Approx 5.5 minutes. Previews for “Bangkok Dangerous”, “War”, and “The Bank Job”.

Woulda Been Nice: If I was young enough to enjoy this.