Inspirational Opening Sequence Analysis

Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny

In Tenacious D The Pick of Destiny the song ‘Kickapoo’ is played throughout the opening scene. The opening scene is effectively telling the viewer about the backstory behind the main plot, about how one of the main characters, Jables, ended up in Hollywood. It begins with an establishing shot of a house with subtitles telling us that it’s in the town of Kickapoo, Missouri. It cuts from different camera angles rather quickly in the first part of the intro where it shows us his family sat around the table but Jables is nowhere to be seen. A pan of music posters, upstairs in Jables’ room, shows bands that would seem rebellious to a Christian family.  Jables jumps out behind a wall downstairs. The camera pans to him and a spotlight is put on him as he plays to his family. Many close ups and medium close ups are used to show his families reactions to his music. His father stands up, drags Jables out of the room. Whilst being whipped with his fathers belt, the music stops and you hear him whining. The music then has a change of tempo as his father grounds him for what he’s done.

KickAss

Starts with an establishing shot of the city with background music playing as the camera pans down. A voiceover of the main character starts as the camera pans further down and a character in a superhero costume comes into view. The camera then starts moving towards the character, getting closer and closer then finally being above them, with a bird’s eye view of the drop from the building. This is done with a crane shot to get all the angles used. A low angle shot from street view to show where the character is. A few wide/medium shots of people staring up. A close up of the characters face. A bird’s eye shot of the street below. A close up again and then switching back to a bird’s eye view of the character falling from the building. Low angle and medium shots of people applauding as the character falls to the ground. Long/medium shot of the character falling, pov shot falling towards the earth. Medium shot with pan as he crashes into a car. Wide shot shows peoples reactions. As this happens, the dramatic music stops and new music starts playing. A tracking shot with pan shows the character lying on the car as the voice over continues. It ends with a close up of the license plate KICK-ASS.