Lakewood Martial Arts Studio

It's Panda-monium

Jennifer Yuh Nelson may not have imagined herself sitting in a director's chair in Hollywood but the brains behind the latest Kung Fu Panda film certainly seemed destined for a career in animation.

Nelson was born in South Korea and emigrated to the US with her family when she was four. It was there, in Lakewood, California, that she spent hours sitting around the kitchen table with her two older sisters watching and learning from her mother as she drew.

Some 35 years on, Nelson is not only indulging her childhood passion but by doing so has become the first female to solely direct an animated feature from a major Hollywood studio.

"I used to love animation, what kid doesn't," says Nelson over the phone from Sydney, where she lived for five months some 14 years ago while working as an illustrator on the 1998 neo noir sci-fi film Dark City.

"Working on something like Kung Fu Panda where you can create an entire world and make a movie around it is really quite a joy."

The softly spoken Nelson served as head of story on the first Kung Fu Panda film and also directed the opening sequence - a two- minute hand-drawn 2-D segment inspired by traditional Chinese shadow puppets.

The 39-year-old says she would have been happy to work on the sequel in any capacity but was initially cautious when approached by DreamWorks' chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg to direct Kung Fu Panda 2.

"I didn't necessarily visualise myself as a director before they asked me," she says.

The pair worked together on Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas and forged a lasting friendship which continued even after Chapman moved to rival animation house Pixar.

"Brenda was the one who encouraged me to be head of story and to basically step into management," Nelson says of the woman many consider to be a pioneering figure in animation.

Ironically, Chapman was last year fired as director of Pixar's Brave - a movie about a Scottish princess, inspired by the director's relationship with her daughter - due to "creative differences" and is currently on leave from the animation studio, her absence making the void in female directors in Hollywood all the more pronounced.

tacoma: Martial Arts class in Lakewood

. My name's Chris and I started teaching a group martial arts class in Lakewood this last October, and it just occurred to me to try promoting it in this community. I checked w/ the maintainers and they said it's ok, so I hope I'll see some new members, or at least new faces trying out the class. The text from my flyer is below (normally I have my phone number there, but I decided to go w/ my email for the interwebs for now), but if you have more questions, feel free to reply to the post, or email/PM me.

Black Belt

Black Belt

Black Belt

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