Jennifer Yuh Nelson Quotes

#1. Lots of people support me and I forget. But sometimes things happen and I remember, and they say I encourage them, it makes me feel very happy.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#2. As quiet as I am I find it amazing I can stand in front of hundreds of people now and make a speech because i've had to do it so much. I've so much support from the people around me that I can achieve something like that, crazy introvert that I am, I never would have thought that would happen.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#3. Po's [Kung Fu Panda] unending enthusiasm is something we wish we could have. We can't help but root for him because of his geek energy.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#4. Oriental DreamWorks did a lot of the surfacing of the village [in Kung Fu Panda 3] and you know all the little paintings on all the gables and everything? They have meaning, and they could do that because they know what that means, we don't necessarily know about that over here.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#5. We go for our own reality. I remember some of our guys saying it is way harder to make stylized art directed explosions of jade rather than a regular explosion of shrapnel.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#6. Talking to actors is the same as talking to any other artists; it's getting into the moment for them, and making sure they can lose themselves in the performance!

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#7. We did two films [Kung Fu Panda], because the first two films were so embraced by the Chinese audiences we wanted to make something we could push further and since this is a co-production, it seemed like the perfect time to create something that felt native to Chinese audiences.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#8. It's like being the general of an army [directing a film]. You send people out to die.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#9. Usually they have to deal with a dubbing situation or subtitles, and it takes you out of the experience. That's why we wanted to make something that felt really immersive for Chiniese audience, but it takes a lot of work to make 2 versions of a movie!

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#10. I'm not aggressive by nature and it was tough for me to make the transition to directing.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#11. We had Chinese artists that would put in elements for the Chinese audience like the calligraphy actually means something so the audience when they read it they'll understand. So there were definitely little things we were able to do that specifically leveraged the artists' talents.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#12. I'm a very soft-spoken person. I don't throw furniture. I don't throw tantrums.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#13. The story in that particular spot was an ancient history story, and we wanted to give it a historical feeling, which was why we used a historical calligraphy scroll come to life.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#14. A lot of the time in animation is spent getting the story right - that's something you can't rush.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#15. You're right, we both have been working on these films [Kung Fu Panda] forever and we know these characters so well that literally we will react to the same note in the same way. We will have the same answer most of the time.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#16. Tigress is my alternate personality, especially with children. I love animation because you get to do things you don't normally get to.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#17. I think the one thing specifically that is most consistent, is that we want to harken back to martial arts movies because that's kind of the genre we're paying tribute to, so there are some similarities to a lot of films, because they all feed off each other!

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#18. If you only do what you can do, you'll never be more than you are now.I never thought i'd be where I am now, but the fact that I am is pretty cool.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#19. When people feel safe, they can come up with ideas. It's important to listen to the actor who is there on the stage and living it.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#20. Sometimes, you just have to go in there and bowl people over with your sheer force of will.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#21. We want to be proud of our work and make sure it's worth the talent of the animators, who spent four years of their love, sweat and tears on it.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#22. I've been drawing my whole life. My mom says my sister and I were drawing by age 1. Animation seems a real, natural extension of drawing as a way of telling a story visually.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#23. I think it's really nice to have an authenticity, it's a huge source for us to be able to lean on people who have that knowledge.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#24. When you make a movie, it's just so personal and then you put it out in front of people and it becomes something else.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#25. You have to make sure that people are still motivated and happy and creatively challenged so that it can all be stitched together. The voice acting starts after a lot of the storyboards are done.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#26. I think it's because Po [from Kung Fu Panda] is such a geek, and he is so relatable. He is so excited by life and is excited to learn new things. I think that accessibility is something that we all can relate to, there are so many things we wish we could do but don't have the means to achieve it.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#27. As I said, i'm very quiet, i don't go around saying "I'm awesome!" but when I brought in my portfolio into DreamWorks and showed them what I could do, my art style is a lot wilder than I am.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#28. We went to a remote Panda Base which was insane because inside there were several cribs which held about twenty baby pandas. They were all different sizes and they were all lying there in a long row. It was so cute, I could hardly stand it. I wanted to take them all home with me.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#29. One of the things we love about Po [Kung Fu Panda] is that he's vulnerable. He's someone that we can all identify with because he has those insecurities. He's an outsider feeling guy.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#30. I think the best thing I have is the introvert's ability to listen when you're working on something as complicated as this and you have to really be aware of everyone's specialized skills.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

#31. We always try to make the very best movie when we're working on and we can only think one at a time. We want to make this a perfect jewel, and then we'll see what happens after that.

Jennifer Yuh Nelson