Kung Fu Panda

I did not watch “Kung Fu Panda” until 3 years after its release in preparation for the sequel. I knew that Jack Black, Angelina Jolie and Jackie Chan were in the movie and that it was a good show but that was all I knew about the film. After watching it for myself, it is truly a hit as opposed to a “miss” that DreamWorks tends to release every other movie. There are other big stars in this movie that I did not recognize until their names appeared during the end title sequence. This demonstrates how good this movie is because the characters and story were the focus of the film and not the all star cast. The “edge” that Jeffery Katzenberg usually asks for in these movies was not there and that made a lot of difference. It works in “Shrek” but it wouldn’t work here. The film obviously follows the story archetype of “The Hero’s Journey” as illustrated by Joseph Campbell. Anyone can follow this story pattern in creating a movie but when it is done sincerely, it works like a charm. The film also contains a powerful, applicable message. It is cliché but again because of sincerity, it is feels original.

The hero that we meet when we first sit down to watch a movie must be appealing and represent the everyman. Sometimes the hero starts out as a jerk like on “Titan A.E.” or “The Emperor’s New Groove” and while that tactic works too, there is nothing like a Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter or, in this case, Po to cheer for. He is established as a Panda bear with hopes and dreams. The opening sequence is amazing in establishing those desires of Po and instilling them in us. I like how Master Oogway is a tortoise because it follows the tradition of wise leader being in a form that we wouldn’t have expected like Yoda. As with most wise people or leaders, they cannot stay forever. The hero must learn to go on without their mentors and thus Oogway must leave Shifu and Po so they can grow together. One great line in the film that I love comes from Oogway: “One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.” The quintessential example of this is the Greek tragedy, Oedipus. In the tale, the characters try to stop a prophecy from happening and by doing so, they end up fulfilling the prophecy. Modern day characters such as Anakin Skywalker and Voldemort continue this classic story model. “Kung Fu Panda” has Master Shifu attempt to stop Tai Lung from escaping but in doing so, he provides the “key” that Tai Lung needs to escape. After the escape sequence itself, Tai Lung appears completely unstoppable. His vengeance and obsession are powerful weapons. Thanks to the montage concerning Tai Lung, we now know the back-stories of many of the characters, even Tigress. We now understand, feel and care for them all. They become more real, not just names on a script. I love when Po makes that face at the end of the montage. It is very hilarious because it comes out of nowhere and relieves the tension that we feel. There is also a great bonding moment when Po feeds the Furious Five and impersonates Shifu. This was needed story-wise. Another important plot point in “The Hero’s Journey” is the main character rejecting his call once it is given to him. Po wanted to learn Kung Fu with all his heart but there is no desire in him to fight Tai Lung. It was easy for Po to take the punishment in training because it was better than his old life. I love the scene when Po tells Shifu why he didn’t want to leave training until now. It is so dramatic how suddenly Shifu is trying to stop Po from leaving when only a few scenes earlier, he was doing everything to get him to leave. What is even more inspiring is that Shifu wants to believe but there is no logical reason to do so. Another reason Po suddenly decides to quit is that he doesn’t want to be taught to do something impossible by someone who doesn’t believe in him. I love later however when Shifu passes on Oogway’s council to Po that there are no accidents because even though we should have seen it coming when watching the movie the first time, we didn’t. This is because of great direction. Shifu now has hope in Po because he knows how to train Po. The training sequence of Po is quite impressive. As the climax approaches, I love how the secret ingredient soup plotline between Po and his dad comes to affect the whole movie. Here is the great message of the movie and the meaning of the Dragon Scroll. There are various reasons as to why Po is able to defeat Tai Lung but I will mention two. The first relates to an aspect of “The Hero’s Journey”: the hero is a rookie while the villain is the powerful veteran. The hero has the advantage however of learning from the mistakes of others such as those of the villain himself. Because Po has less experience than Tai Lung, he must rely on belief and that is another characteristic that he has in common with other heroes: they are usually naïve and unfamiliar with the path they must follow. God prepared both Moses and Samuel from the Bible but at the time of their calling, Moses was “slow of speech” and Samuel was a young boy. Similar prophetic callings even happen in our day and in our modern stories such as those of Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins and so on. Po can defeat Tai Lung because he knows the “secret ingredient” is belief in yourself. Once Tai Lung sees the blank Dragon Scroll, he cannot understand its message given the 20 years of obsession he has undergone. The villain’s mind is so clouded with anger and revenge that when the scroll is blank before him, his resolve is gone and he has nothing to fight for. While the fight between Po and Tai Lung was a little more comedic than I would have liked, it is still climatic. At the end of the film, we get more hilarious moments that relieve the tension very effectively. First there is the line, "or we're both dead" and afterwards, “I’m not dying you idiot…uh…dragon warrior.” It is way too funny thanks to the direction. Had I not seen trailers for the sequel, I would have believed that Shifu was dead.

As mentioned, the cast supports the story. The big names we see as the voices of the characters were chosen so as to tell a story and not just because they were famous. They are type cast in a way and that helps create realistic characters. Jack Black’s performance differs and is way better than his work in “Shark Tale”. Watching the film for the first time, I did not recognize Dustin Hoffman and his work is the best in this movie. That is not a surprise considering his two Oscars that he has won over the years. I also didn’t recognize Lucy Liu or David Cross and they did well also. Angelina Jolie’s persona was perfect for Tigress and you can’t have a movie like this without Jackie Chan. Filling up the cast is Randall Duk Kim from “The Matrix Reloaded” and James Hong from “Mulan” and the famous "Chinese Restaurant" episode of "Seinfeld".

The filmmakers did their homework in order to tell the good story that they had created. Recent history has proven that research can do wonders for your animated movie and such examples include “The Lion King” and “Frozen”. Elements of “The Hero’s Journey” were used to great effect in the story of this movie and the cast members were all chosen in support of it. As good as “Kung Fu Panda” is, “WALL-E” was too wonderful to be denied the Oscar that year. I feel that this movie helped DreamWorks in understanding how to better compete with Pixar and thus came “How to Train Your Dragon” and the sequel “Kung Fu Panda 2”.

4 Stars