Kung Fu Panda (2008)

I notice in a lot of media, China as a culture and place, is hardly ever used despite it making up about an 8th of the earth’s total population and being 2nd to India in the most populated country in that world, so I find it rather good that someone put 2 and 2 together and made something worth while out of that culture and place.

Kung Fu Panda is a delight to watch, having both a sincere, deep story while also balancing houmour at the same time. It has an ability to have both dramatic scenes with serious weight to them, and then following those scenes with a goose whacking himself on a pillar.

Po was a well-written character, and him developing his relationship with Master Shifu was really good to see, and Shifu finally discovering how to teach Po was just as rewarding as seeing Po practising the art of kung fu.

On the matter of the character’s relationships, I would like to see the other characters develop deeper and richer relationships with Po in the later sequels.

I also appreciate that Kung Fu Panda has a certain magic realism, there are magical forces out there in the world of Kung fu Panda but the story feels grounded and real, inspite of it’s natural absurdism.

(Spoilers by the way)

There’s a thing I noticed that I’ll talk about, Kung fu Panda has themes of believing in yourself, during the 3rd act, Po talks to his adoptive father about the noodle shop.

He mentions the secret ingredient soup, and the secret ingredient… is nothing. Not even love, nothing.

The point is that you believe that there is a mystery, you believe in it, that gives it meaning beyond the soup, while absorbing this, Po looks at the golden Dragon Scroll. At this point, Po starts to believe in himself, and now knowing this, he can now defeat Ti Lung.

Furthermore, when Ti Lung gets a hold of the scroll, he notes, “It’s nothing!” I note that this could mean that Ti Lung think he’s nothing. After all, not becoming the Dragon Warrior was a massive blow to his self-esteem.

I hope to see Kung Fu Panda 2, I saw it a while back, but I don’t have it on DVD.Anthropomorphic beings fighting each other