1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME:PARHAM FARHADPOOR
STUDENT ID NO: 0313698
FILMS SELECTED: ‘’KUNG FU PANDA’’ & ‘’THE LION KING’’
WORD COUNT: 707
ENGLISH 2 (ENGL 0205)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA
SUBMISSION DATE: 5TH DECEMBER 2013
CLASS: THURSDAY 1PM TO 3PM
(No reference is used for this essay)

2. Animated films has always attracted people attention by using different methods of
animation, genres, story lines, characters and others. In this kind of movies
producers try to pace with animation arts to provide pleasant and enjoyable
moments for watchers. Many experts believe that the animation revolution began in
1937 with the release of ‘’Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’’, but since those days,
technology has changed very fast in this industry which helps producers to make
animated films easier, faster and also with higher quality, however many people
thinks that older animated movies were more effective. Two of the most famous films
in this industry are ‘’The Lion King’’ and ‘’Kung Fu Panda’’ and they have been very
successful movies in history of this genre, but these two products have some
similarities and many differences such as producing process, scene, atmosphere,
and storyline.
First of all it’s obvious that these films are produced in different ways and that’s
because of the year that they released. ‘’The Lion king’’ came to the cinemas for the
first time in 1994 which means that the technology of making animations on that time
was not as strong as year 2008, when ‘’Kung Fu Panda’’ released, so the process of
making them. The other thing about ‘’The Lion King’’ is that all character movements
are based on real animals in nature which is not the same in the other film, so the
producers started to create this unforgettable animation after many researches on
animals.
In these kind of movies producers try to attract attentions by making their animation
funny for people who watches which it is obvious in ‘’Kung Fu Panda’’. This film is full
of funny scenes that makes everyone laughing, such as the final part when Po fights
with Tai Lung which is really hilarious. However funny scenes in ‘’The Lion King’’ is

3. less and watchers cannot experiencethose fun moments as they experience in
‘’Kung Fu Panda’’. So ‘’The Lion King’’ is more serious than the other movie, for
example one of the scenes at the beginning that Simba’s father is death and he asks
for help but no one answer him which even makes sensitive people crying. So the
scenes are different in these animations.
Next factor is atmosphere in animated movies which enact an important role in
storylines, and these two films have two different atmospheres. In ‘’The Lion King’’
watchers can see kind of real wild life where all animals are living in jungle without
any construction and many other terms, but this means that it’s only more realistic
than some other animated movies about animals. However ‘’Kung Fu Panda’’
doesn’t show this atmosphere to watchers, and in this film characters have some
human characteristics such as Po who works in a restaurant and the Kung Fu club
where those legendary animals train.
Furthermore, the other difference about these two films are their storyline. In ‘’Kung
Fu Panda’’ the main character, Po is a fat panda and a Kung Fu lover who always
dreams about becoming a Kung Fu legend and be called as dragon warrior and at
the end his dream comes true. This animation’s message is that if you want to
achieve something you have to believe yourself. However the storyline in ‘’The Lion
King’’ is different and Simba is a little lion who lives in a royal family of lions, but he
lost his father because of his uncle, then when he grow up, he decides to take
revenge and at the end he becomes successful, so this film try to say that badness
doesn’t stay forever. These are the things that separate these films’ storyline and
messages.

4. Finally after contrasting ‘’Kung Fu Panda’’ and ‘’The Lion King’’ and trying to find
differenceslike storyline, atmosphere and others that separate these two products in
animation world, it should be mentioned that these are just general differences and
there are many of them after going through each point. Of course there is not any
two animated film that look exactly the same and at least they have few things that
make them different and this is also true about these movies, however they are both
placed as two phenomena animation works in the history.