Dreamworks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda finished in second place in the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert for the week ending November 9th, but all of Hollywood is marveling at how the martial arts-themed animated feature sold 90% as many copies in just one day that the first place Get Smart sold in its entire first week of release.  Dreamworks' innovative Sunday release was timed to take advantage of a major advertising campaign in retail inserts in Sunday newspapers across the country.

By eschewing the typical Tuesday DVD release Kung Fu Panda also managed to put a few more days between its debut and that of its toughest competitor for the animated film-loving family audience. 

 

Along with a top flight vocal cast that includes Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman and Seth Rogen to name just a few of the big name actors who acquit themselves very well, Kung Fu Panda features the best visuals yet produced by Dreamworks animation.  Using traditional Chinese art for inspiration, director John Stevenson has created a richly-textured, brilliantly colored backdrop for his slapstick-filled saga.  The visual richness of Stevenson’s vision, which makes Kung Fu Panda by far the most striking film yet created by Dreamworks Animation, comes through brilliantly in the superb Blu-ray transfer of the film.

 

The Blu-ray edition also includes exclusive extras that just happen to be the best on any of the Kung Fu Panda DVD versions—interviews with the animators and a collection of the storyboards used to create the film.  The extras that the Blu-ray edition shares with the other versions, which mostly center on the film’s twin obsessions, the martial arts and food, are a lot of fun, but not all that consequential.  The real reason to pick up any DVD version of Kung Fu Panda is the film itself, and it has enough crowd pleasing elements that it doesn’t make a lot of sense to bet against Kung Fu Panda becoming the #1 animated DVD release of 2008, especially since it has a ten day head start on its chief competitor.

 

That competitor, Pixar’s Wall-E, which just barely managed to outperform KFP at the box office, may well be the better film.  Wall-E, which is due out on November 18th, is in fact a quiet masterpiece with far stronger themes and subtler animation, but many folks are likely to find Kung Fu Panda funnier, though since the Wall-E DVD contains the absolutely hilarious short “Presto,” the laughs are about even.  Animation fans will want to have both films in their collections, but Wall-E is definitely a “must-have.”  Its innovative use of sound is the equal of its brilliant visuals, and together they carry the story without dialogue for most of its first half.

The extras on the Wall-E Blu-ray are clearly a cut above—they may well be the best on any DVD released in 2008.  They include a hilarious all new animated short, the aforementioned and even funnier “Presto” short, a superb Cine-explore feature with director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo), deleted scenes, a feature on the film’s exquisite sound design, and “The Pixar Story” documentary by Leslie Iwerks.  All this plus cool video games for the little ones, a digital version of the film that can be used on computers and iPods, and the innovative “Geek Track” series of pop-up commentaries make the Wall-E Blu-ray one of the best releases in the high-def medium yet.