Kung Fu Panda franchise, a worldwide hit that made extensive inroads into the coveted Chinese market, is an example of market/culture integration done right. Given today’s global trends, companies throughout the world all seem to be vying for their share of the global market pie, often eying the markets of such countries as Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Jumping on the globalization bandwagon, Hollywood too has turned to such market-driven tactics (e.g. Iron Man 3, Looper, Skyfall). However, not all movies are made equal, and neither are their attempts to infiltrate global markets, highlighting the importance of entertainment and film translations.
The Kung Fu Panda franchise, developed by the US studio DreamWorks Animation, has been wildly popular in China since the release of the first movie, Kung Fu Panda, in 2008. Its sequel, Kung Fu Panda 2, which opened in 2011, smashed records and achieved the rank of China’s highest opening weekend gross of all time. Regarding Kung Fu Panda’s success in China, DreamWorks CEO Jerry Katzenberg stated, “I would love to tell you that we did this as part of a very shrewd strategy to gain entrée into China. It wasn’t. We just liked the idea of a film about a panda who wants to do kung fu.”
Concurrent with the praise, however, the clumsy giant panda’s adventures also induced an outpouring of other sentiments in China, ranging from anger (“they are stealing our culture!”) to self-analysis (“why didn’t we come up with this?”). The Oriental Morning Post phrased it as follows: “From Mulan to Kung Fu Panda, how come others can take our culture, turn it into a tasty meal and sell it back to us at a profit?” The issue even prompted generous government investment into the domestic animation industry. However, its designated showpiece, The Legend of Kung Fu Rabbit (2011), a title not exactly teeming with originality, turned out to be a disappointment – to put it mildly – both in box office returns and in terms of critical review.
From a commercial perspective though, the Kung Fu Panda franchise is an undeniable success story. The first movie grossed a total of 631 million USD globally, greatly exceeding critics’ expectations. Despite a decrease in US revenue, Kung Fu Panda 2 surpassed that lofty bar, leaning primarily on the record-breaking returns in China – now the world’s second largest movie market. Both DreamWorks productions were also embraced in the rest of the world, doing especially well in Asian countries like Korea, Vietnam, and Malaysia.
Evidently, the movies have succeeded in breaking down national, cultural, and linguistic barriers. Harmoniously bringing the Chinese setting to the tune of American humor, the films deliver universal entertainment. Although the movies have harvested laudatory reviews worldwide, Chinese audiences have expressed particular acclaim with regard to the Chinese translation and the many spot-on cultural references (which non-Chinese viewers will likely remain oblivious to), testifying that the folks at DreamWorks did their homework well.
As we’ve ascertained, Kung Fu Panda’s popularity in China owes largely to the fact that it draws so heavily – and accurately, for that matter – from Chinese culture. Interestingly, this is an all but novel strategy to the animated film industry. For instance, when Disney had to cope with dwindling markets in Europe during the Second World War, it set its sights on the markets of Latin America. José Carioca, a vagabond parrot and resident of Rio de Janeiro, and Panchito Pistoles, a trigger-happy rooster from Mexico, were pushed forward to appeal to Latino audiences. To this day, Carioca and Pistoles appear on screen and in print in Central and South American countries, as well as in many other countries around the world.
One thing’s for sure, like Carioca and Pistoles, the Kung Fu Panda legacy is set to continue. The series’ third movie, scheduled for release in December 2015, is being developed partly in China at DreamWorks’ newly established Chinese joint-venture, Oriental DreamWorks, symbolizing DreamWorks’ commitment to the Chinese market and film translations.
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