Kung Fu Panda

I actually was busy with a bunch of tasks on writing articles when my son and daughters asked me to accompany them watching movie Kung Fu Panda. I was on the middle of writing when all ideas to write has just been flowing smoothly into the order of sentences that it felt like hard to interrupt. I prefer to complete all the stuff before going for Kung Fu Panda movie because I didn’t want my mind to be hassled by uncompleted work while I was supposed to enjoy the movie.
However, it has been two weeks since my daughters arrived in Medan to spend their holidays, and I haven’t had enough time to spend on outings with them. They will be going back to Bandung in three weeks. So I decided to leave that uncompleted writings for a while.

The movie title doesn’t sound interesting to me, and I imagined this movie as cartoon movie about Panda with its common Kung Fu story, something to do with a warrior and the like. I did not expect too much other than amazing Dreamworks animation movie, bright colors and off course a few laughs and smile. I was thinking about watching the audio technology, scene art and animation techniques developed in this Dreamworks animation movie rather than paying attention to the story; while my daughter was in the line to buy tickets when it was announced that the tickets were all sold out, so we have to buy for the next scheduled show tickets and have to wait for another 2 hours. The theaters were full.

The story is about a big and fat panda called Po, whose father is a noodle maker who wants Po to take over his business one day. In another place the Valley of Peace, the tortoise warrior called master Oogway has a feeling that a former student of his own protégé Shi Fu, who is an evil leopard Tai Lung will escape from prison and return to attack the Valley of Peace. Oogway needs to choose the mighty Dragon Warrior who can defeat Tai Lung. Everyone in the Valley assumes that the Dragon Warrior chosen will be one of the Furious Five : Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper, or Crane, a skilled martial artists trained by Shi Fu. No one expected that the Dragon Warrior chosen is Po, a fat panda with no Kung Fu skills at all. The way how Po was chosen is interesting; and this is when the main part of the story begins.

The tale of how Po was eventually chosen as a Dragon Warrior, humiliated by the Furious Five, trained by Shi Fu until finally defeated Tai Lung is full of fights and lessons. A lot of moral message is put in during the process of humiliate Po to become an honored Po. The film also had an authentic Chinese and Kung Fu feel, enriched with parody and comedy and, adorned with wise words from traditional Chinese philosophy. At last I did not pay too much attention on the audio, scene art and animation techniques, but more on the tale and the wise words appear in an appropriate moment of the course to becoming a factual warrior. I was impressed with the nice quotes in the story which are presented in a pleasant way, so memorable and also inspires lessons in life. The meaning behind the story is so great. A good message for kids in believing oneself; and a reminder that even one might not be the best among one’s peer, as long as he or she wants to learn, he or she can achieve to be the best. My favorite quote in that movie is “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mistery, today is a gift. That is why it is called the present”.

Very nice story, great animation techniques and scenery. I really enjoyed the movie after all.