Kung Fu Panda Comparisons are Valid and Intended

[StationaryHawk]

Remember guys. Kung-Fu Panda invented Pandas, Kung-Fu, and ancient Chinese culture. That movie alone influenced China to follow in its footsteps exactly.

[Netherspark]

I will say that what they showed at Blizzcon looked more Kung Fu Pandaish then previous concept art would have indicated. I was hoping for something "darker".

It's all liable to change. Look at the Worgen for example, they were changed heavily between the initial preview and release.

[Boarwood]

If you want to nitpick, Spyro: Year of the Dragon had anthropomorphic pandas in it, and it was released in 2000.

[nycnyc88]

THANK YOU

I haven't read the rest of your thread yet, but I'm sure the drooling Blizzard-can-do-no-wrong fanboys have somehow missed your obvious points, and have resorted to non sequitur and strawman attacks. Whatever, what you've said is perfectly on the money.

+1.
Strawmen, wedging and non-sequiteur is getting tiresome from many people on these forums.

[Nelle]

Samwise wuvs his pandas.

Why oh why does he have to be named Samwise, always reminds me of that scary Clown from "IT" named Pennywise

[Deepone]

I think it's pretty obvious what Blizzard is doing here, and I'm kind of surprised it's not as obvious to everyone else. KFP came out after the Pandarens were first described publicly. That gives Blizzard a tremendous amount of freedom to make Pandarens very KFP-like and cash in on their popularity without fear of retaliation in court...

So why wouldn't they do so? It's basically free money.

[StationaryHawk]

I think it's pretty obvious what Blizzard is doing here, and I'm kind of surprised it's not as obvious to everyone else. KFP came out after the Pandarens were first described publicly. That gives Blizzard a tremendous amount of freedom to make Pandarens very KFP-like and cash in on their popularity without fear of retaliation in court...

So why wouldn't they do so? It's basically free money.

You're the first to suggest that.

It's ridiculous.

[mvaliz]

Blizzard has had Pandaren since before Kung fu panda came out and they've always been invovled in food, beer, and kung fu. They weren't just "some panda in WC3", they had quite a bit of associated ideas. Samwise wuvs his pandas.

Chen Stormstout was never involved with Food being a factor in his character, nor did he ever express his enjoyment of it.

[Menismyforte]

Jesus , you guys ok? Might need prescription meds after all the wrong doings of blizzard. LOL.

[ShaftyMcShaft]

Doesn't matter. You show 99.999% of people who own a TV or have been to a movie theatre in the last 5 years a clip of a video game in which an anthropomorphic panda does karate and ask them what they think it is, they'll tell you "Looks like a Kung-Fu Panda video game."

WoW is now the Kung-Fu Panda MMO.

[Roose]

Remember guys. Kung-Fu Panda invented Pandas, Kung-Fu, and ancient Chinese culture. That movie alone influenced China to follow in its footsteps exactly.

My first good forum laugh in a while Spot on.

[Destruktion]

This thread isn't meant as criticism of the similarities or to judge the value of the Pandaren to WoW. It's simply meant to point out how blatant the similarities are between the two and how these new Pandaren are far more similar to KFP than they are to the WC3 Brewmaster.

1. Pandaren reveal trailer

Here is a comparison of the Pandaren reveal and an international poster for Kung Fu Panda 2:
http://imgur.com/a/kF3gN

The only major difference in stance is that the left leg is back instead of forward. The sun is in the same location. The temple is on the right instead of directly behind, but uses the exact same coloring (which is far from the most common, especially for temples). The environment is likewise similar. Obviously it's not identical, that would mean lawsuits. But it's undeniably similar.

A company like Blizzard does not *accidentally* make a major product preview so similar to another major product preview of a similar theme. They have entire departments devoted to ensuring that does not happen. Unless you believe that Blizzard is utterly incompetent, you realize that - at the very least - they were aware (beforehand) how similar their reveal would be to KFP and decided to keep it that way.

"The sun is in the same location?" Do you know a goddamn thing about photography? All of that is related to aesthetic quality, and there's only so many ways to skin the cat, so to speak.

Otherwise, I was surprised how dissimilar I actually saw those two pictures. I thought for sure that this time there would be some reasonable argument.

2. Racial traits remove any doubt

Gourmand/Epicurean: Po loved food and ate in excess (which is the exact definition of Gourmand). He was also a cook. There's really no argument here. Blizzard did not pull those traits out of thin air and just happen to have them match KFP exactly while having nothing to do with the WC3 Brewmaster.

Inner Peace: Inner Peace plays a large, mentioned-by-name role in KFP, with Po told that if he finds it, it will lead to a drastic improvement in the speed of his training. Herp derp, rested exp. Again, exact reference to KFP, yet has absolutely nothing to do with the WC3 Pandaren Brewmaster. Unless you consider a drunken haze to be Inner Peace.

Bouncy: Some may have initially thought that this was some sort of reference to cuddly bears or something, but think back to how much bouncing around Po did and the actual source of the name becomes clear. This also has nothing to do with the hardy, drunken-brawling, never-falling WC3 Brewmaster.

Do you know anything about Pandaren? Stormstout was gluttonous, and he came waaay before KFP.

Inner peace is a common Eastern Asian theme. So no shit you can find it in both

Nobody said Pandaren would be bouncing around like Jack Black in KFP, they simply take less falling damage because they are big and fat. Pandaren are considered big and fat because PANDAS are considered big and fat. You will never see a skinny anthropomorphized panda, and that I fucking guarantee.

Merely having a Panda-like creature in WC3 does not get Blizz off the hook for the similarities, especially not when the Pandaren revealed have much more in common with KFP than the WC3 Brewmaster. Again, this thread is not meant to be criticism of that fact, just to point out how the similarities are blatant, and too many + too exact to be coincidence. I don't know if it's a marketing tactic (pop culture reference = instant wider appeal) or if they were just looking for inspiration to flesh out the idea, but it's there and it's undeniable.

Please stop saying that the comparison isn't valid unless you can explain the above similarities without arguing that they are a series of big, logic-defying coincidences that Blizzard's legal and PR departments mysteriously missed.

I don't see enough evidence to convict.

A hate post filled with derp, nothing new.

[pizzathief]

It could have been worse, they could have tapped the Twilight demographic - yuk

[volraths]

MoP suxs cuz.. everybody was kung fu fighting!!!!

[StationaryHawk]

Chen Stormstout was never involved with Food being a factor in his character, nor did he ever express his enjoyment of it.

He doesn't need to. Considering the fact that the Pandaren are a race based off of Pandas, an animal known for the amount of food it consumes, it's understandable that the Pandaren eat quite a bit as well.

Stop making that argument. It's flawed.

[Knownastemplar]

Movie divided by Game=Some people will play it+Some people won't.....hmm that sounds about right......you're welcome

[LordRayken]

Chen Stormstout was never involved with Food being a factor in his character, nor did he ever express his enjoyment of it.

You poor guy, haha. Here we are again.

The similarities are because they are both Pandas, dude. Not because Pandaren specifically took from Kung Fu Panda for this expansion. You really need to quit proffering that idea.

[Deleted]

I thought everything ever has a kid comparison?

Don't Wolves have like kiddy versions in puppies?

Why would a friendly Panda movie for all ages that got a 88% on Rotten Tomatoes mean Pandaren are stolen from it?

Also I'm not sure why martial arts mean anything either.

What's wrong with Kung Fu Panda, btw? Everyone keeps attacking it for some reason but all the reviews say its a good movie.

Why would there have to be something wrong with it? What Blizzard is doing is creating some "hari puttar" or whatever the Indian Harry Potter was called. These things usually suck and suck hard unless they're parodies. Point is, it's bad either way, Uldum bad. If it's serious, it's some lame bootleg ripoff, if not it turns WoW into a complete comedy.

[LordRayken]

Why would there have to be something wrong with it? What Blizzard is doing is creating some "hari puttar" or whatever the Indian Harry Potter was called. These things usually suck and suck hard unless they're parodies. Point is, it's bad either way, Uldum bad. If it's serious, it's some lame bootleg ripoff, if not it turns WoW into a complete comedy.

Why would Panda-men that teach Martial Arts turn WoW into a comedy? Because it's such a blatant stereotype?

[Deleted]

Why would Panda-men that teach Martial Arts turn WoW into a comedy? Because it's such a blatant stereotype?

Because Blizzard is the king of pop culture ripoffs since Cata(Uldum and most of the new "old" quests). If you had read what I wrote then there is only 2 options with it. 1) It's serious - then it's a really lame Kung Fu panda ripoff (although KFP itself was good) and those are usually painfully bad and embarrassing or 2) It's a parody, which means WoW will be turned into another Uldum-like pop culture reference mess.