Critique: Kung Fu Panda 2 (Film) 2/2

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Questions

 

It’s easier to label these as problems. However, there are ways to justify them. It’s just problematic because they aren’t clear-cut.

Mr Ping notes that Po is trimmer than he used to be. In that scene, he definitely is trimmer. But in the rest of the film, his stomach is as big and round as the first film. This could be due to the fact that the viewpoint is looking straight on at Po, meaning that the change in wideness can be seen but any depth can’t be seen, and Po being slimmer sideways is possible even if he’s as deep.

When Po and the Furious Five travel to Gongmeng City, they cross snows and a desert. Considering the journey only took three days, snow with hot desert within such a short period seems counterintuitive. Some deserts do have snow, but from the shimmering air in the desert we know it’s a hot one, so it wouldn’t have snow. However, mountains in hot Africa do have snow: the masters’ journey is feasible.

Gorillas work for Shen. They agreed to work with Shen? The options: they don’t know what Shen and the wolves did to the pandas; they do know and they’re okay with it; or they only found out after the agreed to work with Shen and their honour means they can’t go back on their word to serve Shen.

Seeing gorillas with Shen was, at first, odd because gorillas don’t live in Asia. But Shen has been away for thirty years: that’s definitely enough time to travel to the gorillas, employ them, then come back to China.

In his memory, Po sees his panda dad use a sledgehammer to fight off the wolves. But in the next film, Po’s dad doesn’t know how to fight. So either this is an inconsistency or Po’s mind is elaborating memories, a known phenomenon in people’s minds. Thus this mistake can be waved away by a legitimate reason, even if it was an accidental inconsistency.

 

 

Problems

 

There were many problems. The wolves had no idea about the Dragon Warrior. Po asks for a hat for a gag. The Valley of Peace should be shocked Po’s alive but they’re not. Toy Mantis was in the cage but he shouldn’t be. Plus some problems with smaller discussions.

 

Some problems don’t require much analysis.

Po tells Tigress he just found out he was adopted. When Tigress says, “That must have been a shock,” Po agrees. But before Po left, he told his dad he knew he was adopted. Maybe it was the fact Mr Ping told Po out loud, that he was shocked to finally have confirmation?

In the jail, we only see three prisoners. Considering there had been a hostile takeover, one would expect more prisoners. Maybe there have been executions, in which case Po and the Furious Five should have been furious with Shen (pun entirely intended). Or maybe the animators couldn’t be bothered to animate the inmates because the angles of the shots within the prison definitely allowed the audience to see inside loads of cells.

When Tigress whispers to Po during their hug, she speaks in the quietest voice in whole movie. That would be fine if the sound difference wasn’t so drastic: I don’t like having to rewind, turn the volume up for a little sentence, then remembering to turn the volume back down so the film doesn’t give me a headache.

Shaping the canons like dragons seems clever because both shoot fire from their mouths. But the film’s based in China and Chinese dragons have nothing to do with fire.

Master Shifu says that the day Oogway chose Po as Dragon Warrior was the worst day of his life. However, one would think that his adopted son Tai Lung turning on him, Oogway and the Valley of Peace would be the worse day of his life.

 

The wolves had no idea about the Dragon Warrior, acting like they’d never heard of it as a concept before. This doesn’t make sense.

There are only three days between the Valley of Peace and Gongmeng City. That’s plenty close enough to know what important concepts the other holds. As the Dragon Warrior is important to the Valley of Peace, Gongmeng City residents (which include the wolves) would know about the concept of the Dragon Warrior.

Also, Gongmeng City was run by the Kung Fu Council once the peacock king died. This means that kung fu is important to Gongmeng City. Considering the Dragon Warrior is important to kung fu, the wolves of kung fu-loving Gongmeng City should know the idea of the Dragon Warrior.

 

Po told the Soothsayer that he needed a hat.

When he goes to Shen, he throws the hat shouting, “Disc of Destruction” so we expect a successful attack. It falls off course and fails completely. Whilst this is funny, it seems like Po only asked for the hat for this gag (explaining why the creators did it, not the character).

In Po’s memories, a few pandas wore hats. So maybe he wanted to wear a hat to be closer to his people? But the only ones wearing hats wore those in the background. When people see or remember something for the first time, their attention is almost always on the foreground, not the background, so the chance of Po noticing that some pandas wore hats is low.

 

No-one in the Valley of Peace seems surprised that Po exists.

Gongmeng City is three days away from the Valley of Peace, so one would assume the Valley’s residents would hear some news of Gongmeng. The heir to the throne committing panda genocide and being banished for it (along with his army), meaning the city had no heir at all, seems like pretty big news. There’s no way the Valley didn’t hear about this. So how come no-one seems surprised that Po exists?

Yes, the residents could have agreed to be silent about it in order to protect Po, but there’s no way that many people could be silent for so long. Po must have asked about where the other pandas are. Any travellers to the Valley must have voiced their curiosity, too.

Shen’s banishment happened thirty years ago and Tai Lung was imprisoned twenty years ago, so in the last film even Tai Lung would have known about the genocide. Yet he doesn’t seem surprised Po’s alive. Yes, when he discovers Po’s the Dragon Warrior, he says, “A panda?” On the surface, this might look like Tai Lung’s shocked that there’s a living panda. However, he says this a while after meeting Po and in none of the space between does he show shock (seeing something people thought extinct would elicit some sort of expression). The way Tai Lung says this is clearly in reference to everyone underestimating Po because of his species.

The only way this makes sense is if there are other panda villages out there. But considering how shocked the wolves and Shen were when they found out about Po, this seems unlikely. Why would they think Po’s existence was impossible if there were other pandas out there?

 

Po puts Mantis in the cage. When we next look in the cage, it’s Po’s toy of Mantis. So either Mantis got out or Po put the toy in the cage in the first place.

The former is dismissed because we should have either seen how or be told how, maybe with Mantis bragging. The latter is also out because as Mantis is being put in the cage, many different parts of his body were moving at the same time: there’s no way Po’s figures could have managed this, especially as the movements were lifelike.

But where did the toy even come from? At this point, Po didn’t have his backpack with him, meaning the mantis toy was in his trousers. I doubt there would have been room for a single toy in there so that’s unlikely. Also, Tigress is clearly his favourite of the Furious Five, so if he were to pick a toy to bring, surely he’d pick the Tigress toy?

 

 

This film remains my favourite in the Kung Fu Panda series. It gave me unexpected nostalgia many times, like how the way the wolves howl is exactly how the wolf in the Rugrats Movie howled. To have a peacock as a main character is fabulous for me personally so I guess I was always going to love this. My subjective opinion aside, there are objective facts: it was clever, beautiful, funny and thoughtful.

Critique: Kung Fu Panda 2 (Film) 1/2

Po, both Dragon Warrior and panda, leads the Furious Five to save Gongmeng City for leucitic peacock Shen. Shen had been kicked out decades ago because he and his wolves committed genocide against the pandas, preventing the prophesised ‘warrior of black and white’ from defeating him.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Clever Details

 

Many smart details were included in this film. Lord Shen and Tigress are developed as characters, the film really makes the audience emotionally invested, and the idea of inner peace is played with in a relaxing way (the idea isn’t shoved down our throats).

 

Many of these details relate to Lord Shen.

Lord Shen’s genocide on the pandas is interesting. Their decimated numbers would reflect panda’s endangered status in real life.

Lord Shen, the peacock prince that uses fireworks as weapons. Peacock fans are explosions of colour that are thrown into the air: both these traits are easily attributed to fireworks. ‘What had brought colour and joy could bring darkness and destruction.’ Darkness is the absence of colour, as is white; Shen took the original purpose away from fireworks.

The symbol the wolves wear on their sleeves is very similar to the symbol on the palace’s ceiling. Their design is simplified, more jagged, and follows a different colour scheme. It matches the eyes on Shen’s peacock fan. The similarity gives Shen legitimacy to rule there whilst the differences marks his stamp on Gongmeng City.

 

This film worked hard to make the audience emotionally invested in the characters.

As such, there were fewer funny moments to accommodate this. This change was handled well: this film definitely makes the audience emotionally invested and laugh.

The ending makes the audience happy for Po on two counts. Po returns to Mr Ping and says, “I found my past. I found who I am. I’m your son.” So touching. As the films end, we see a whole bunch of pandas farming. Po isn’t alone!

Tigress tells Ping that Po will be back, “before you can say noodles.” Ping waits for ages as the shot slowly zooms out before sadly whispering, “Noodles.” Heartbreaking.

 

Shifu performs a movement, allowing him to control a falling water droplet.

Po does the inner peace raindrop technique to access his memories. They have a golden hue to them, just like Ping’s memories. It’s a nice shared detail. The fact the technique worked this time felt like an achievement because Po’s attempt to do the inner peace technique on the boat failed miserably.

Po this same technique to control the direction of cannon balls. When Shifu did it, the water ended up exactly where it would have done if not for Shifu’s interference; when Po does it, the cannon balls are redirected. This shows inner peace looks different for everyone, enables different people to achieve different things, that inner peace allows people to respond to different situations in the best possible way.

 

In the first film, Tigress depicted as disciplined, emotionally distant (aside from the odd spark of anger) and focused on kung fu, not fun. But in this film, she comes out her shell.

Po and the Furious Five are having fun. Even Tigress joins in! Having Tigress enjoy life was great to see.

Tigress punched ironwood trees for twenty years so she feels nothing (physically). Po makes a joke about her feeling anything emotionally, either. This made Tigress look sad.

Po says, “The hardcore don’t understand.” Then Tigress hugs Po, saying, “The hardcore does understand.” The feels!

 

Three miscellaneous details must be mentioned.

Grand Master Oogway, who died in the previous film, isn’t forgotten. Master Shifu now holds the staff of, and wears green like, Grand Master Oogway did. Oogway is used as the Dreamworks fisher. A lovely way to bring him back.

The Soothsayer says to Po, “You know so little. Mind, you were little.” Using ‘little’ in both sentences but with them meaning different things is always great work.

Po says, “Skadoosh” when he does the final attack that stopped Shen’s armada in their tracks. He said this when he did his final attack on Tai Lung in the first film. A small callback to let the audience know that the good guys have won, that their struggles have been worth it.

 

 

Animation

 

The way movement was animated was top-notch.

In regards to Shen, there are two points. The first is that Shen, whilst fighting, sweeps his train to trip people and spreads it out as a fan to shock people: both are great, creative details. The second is the animation of Shen’s history is moved by cogs, seen underneath their gauze-patterned objects.

Viper’s fighting animation was awesome. It was good in the previous film but this film elevated it to another level. Considering she’s the forgotten member of the Furious Five, seeing her receive this attention was great.

At the musician village, the movements of the fight were timed with the rhythm of the music. Usually background music is made to work around the noises of the fight, but this music was enhanced by the fight which in turn enhanced the fight.

 

There are also purely visual details to appreciate.

            Some are subtle, like how Shen’s blades are engraved so that they look like feathers. Some are beautiful, like how Thundering Rhino’s horn and sledgehammer are carved with the same beautiful pattern.

When Tigress growls, her nose wrinkles in the same way a real tiger’s would. So that’s an excellent detail on the animators’ part.

When Tigress goes to life Po out the water, we can see all the individual hairs on his body. Plus the hair was clearly wet. To achieve either of these things in incredible in animation.

Both films start with a legend animated in a different style from the rest of the film. Also, the intro styles are different in both films. It gives each film a unique flavour. In the first film, it is a dream of a fictitious legendary event; in the second, it is recounting a historical atrocity that would go down in legend. So even how these intros are classified as legends in different.

 

 

Humour

 

Master Shifu, whilst being largely absent from this film, has many funny moments. Like when Master Shifu’s busy looking for inner peace, a quest shattered when Po comes crashing in. Shifu slumping in utter defeat was hilarious.

When Shifu says some seek inner peace by not tasting food, Po worriedly begs, “OR?!” Yes, it’s funny because Po loves his food, but it’s more than that. Po learnt kung fu via food so for him to learn an advanced kung fu principle (inner peace) without food would be difficult.

Shifu says some people learn inner peace through great pain, going into great length about how terrible his pain was when Po was chosen as Dragon Warrior. This rant is funny. He goes as far as to say Po’s chosen day was the worse day of Shifu’s life.

 

There’s plenty of word play.

Shen tells the kung fu masters guarding Gongmeng City that “It’s your parting gift. It will part you. Part of you here, part of you there.”

Po says, “Thundering Rhino… the Valey of Woes.” Shifu butts on, “He’s dead.” Po whispers, “Woah.” The use of homonyms for comedic affect is always appreciated.

 

Po and the Furious Five his inside a dragon costume provided much humour.

Po pulls in wolves via the mouth, they get a beating all the way through, and then they roll out the tail-end: it looks like they’re eaten, digested then passed.

When Po and co are in the dragon costume, the shot takes an arial view. The dragon moving around the streets, gobbling some things but avoiding others, looks like Pacman.

 

Prison many funnies.

If the wolves entered the prison, Monkey was meant to make a bird call. The wolves come in and Monkey doesn’t warn them; when Po chastises him, Monkey quietly does the bird call.

Po always gives dramatic metaphors, like ‘prison of fear behind bars of hopelessness’. Clever. But in this case it was hilarious because he was talking to people behind bars in an actual prison.

Po trying to get Master Croc and Ox out of jail with the shoving and spinning door was a fun scene. The fast pace, combined with the constant shifting of viewpoint character positions, added an adrenaline to make the scene more intense.

 

Other examples of humour outside of a broader theme also exist.

Mantis says, “I never had problems with my dad. That’s probably because Mum ate his head.” Mantis says, “I didn’t think I’d die like this. I thought a nice girl would eat my head.”

The Soothsayer is my favourite character in this film. She predicts Shen will get hurt before plucking a feather; she predicts Shen will get angry, then bites his expensive clothing. Pointing to the one-eyed wolf, she says, “Even with his poor eyesight he can see the truth.”

Some detail came from tiny details. Mr Ping turns Po being the Dragon Warrior into promotional material for the noodle shop. The big bad wolves made sounds like little dogs when they were hit (going against expectation). Baby Po ate all the bamboo furniture.

Critique: Kung Fu Panda (Film) 2/2

This post includes Tai Lung’s escape from prison, negative points, and an appreciation for humour.

 

Tai Lung’s Escape from Prison

 

As Tai Lung escapes the prison, he moves quickly and powerfully and large distances. He also demonstrates great dexterity and coordination as he picked a lock with his tail.

Someone’s muscles need to be incredibly healthy to do any of this, especially as it far exceeds normal healthy movement. However, Tai Lung has been immobilised for years. This would lead to muscle atrophy, where they lose size, strength and coordination. Tai Lung shouldn’t be capable of ordinary movement, let alone extraordinary movement.

An aspect of Chinese culture could explain this, however it’s based on another idea, and this other idea cannot be applied to Tai Lung. In Chinese culture, being great at martial arts requires being one with qi which keeps people beyond healthy. Tai Lung is great at Kung Fu so one might assume he’s one with qi, thus being beyond healthy.

However, to be one with qi, one needs to be a moral person. It is clear Tai Lung is not a moral person. So, if Tai Lung isn’t a moral person, he can’t be one with qi, so he can’t be healthy and thus cannot be capable of his extraordinary feats.

Yet in Chinese folklore, there are many tales of people misusing qi. Is this just because these stories came from the peasantry who, not having access to education, meant they didn’t have an accurate understanding of the philosophy? Maybe only the good people who don’t abuse qi can ever be one with it; Tai being bad, can’t be one with qi, but maybe this doesn’t mean he can’t abuse it to high levels?

This disparity can only be explained by tying arguments in knots. A far simpler explanation is that this is a misunderstanding of Chinese culture, something this film does a lot. (Although they got a lot right! Portraying another culture from one’s own is always difficult.)

 

 

BAD

 

Some decisions that the makers made are off.

The doors are shut when the Dragon Warrior is being selected. I don’t see why. What purpose does it serve? It seems like it was done just to facilitate the plot. Whilst this explains why the writers did it, it doesn’t explain why the characters did it.

In the Jade Palace, there are internal paper walls. This is indicative of Far Eastern culture. However, there are western style doors within the paper walls. This seems like a weird mix up.

The way Tigress runs on all fours is so weird. Instead of rolling her back like mammals do when the run, her back folds in half like a crease in cardboard.

When Monkey hits Tai Lung, the snow leopard makes a sound exactly like a brown bear that’s warning something to stay away. This disconnect between the sound’s species and purpose was very weird.

 

There are two instances where characters say bizarre things.

Master Shifu regularly calls the Furious Five his students. But they’re legendary warriors with a famous reputation. They all have the title of Master! How can they still be classified as students?

Po says, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Master Shifu doesn’t want me here.” Considering Shifu already told Po this, I don’t know how Po can have any doubts.

 

When Master Shifu berates Grand Master Oogway for choosing Po as Dragon Warrior, we get some peach seed analogies.

Oogway says a peach seed will grow into a peach no matter what, even if you want an apple. So, the analogy is that something will be what’s it’s meant to be. Oogway then say that a peach can be guided and nurtured in the right way, an analogy for Po becoming talented if Shifu teaches him right. So, the analogy is that something can change into something else.

Individually these analogies are clever. But together they’re problematic. These analogies come straight after one another, that you can’t change something but you can change it? Oogway contradicting himself to prove his point doesn’t seem wise.

I can think of one solution, but it’s tenuous. Maybe there’s a bigger analogy in that Po is the Dragon Warrior no matter what, but he needs guidance to fulfil his role fully? Not all that convincing.

 

 

FUNNY

 

Po provides loads of funny moments.

The film starts with Po in a dream. ‘In legend, there was a legendary warrior whose skills were legendary.’

Po eats and the water buffalo says, “I see you like to chew. How would you like to chew… on my fist?!”

The scene of Po dragging up the noodle cart up the massive staircase takes forever. Yet, upon zooming out, we see that Po’s walked up very few steps.

Po is shut out of the Jade Palace, where the Dragon Warrior is being chosen. He bangs on the door, unfortunately in the same rhythm as the drummers beating their instruments. After some demonstrations, Shifu announces that, “You haven’t seen anything yet” and Po wails, “I know!”

Po’s tummy wobbles and won’t stop until he puts a paw on it.

When Po puts Tai Lung’s tail in the snow leopard’s own mouth, Tai Lung squeaks like a tiny kitten. That was so unexpected.

 

Ping, Po’s goose father, is another source of entertainment.

Ping says, “We all have our place. Mine is here.” Po says, “I know, I know, mine is here.” Ping then says, “No, it’s at tables” then rattles off a list of numbers.

Ping hugs Po which looks sweet. However, when Ping backs off, we see that he’d actually just put an apron around Po.

At one point, Ping says he has something important to tell Po. I fully expected him to tell Po he’s adopted because the preceding conversation was about Po feeling lost in himself. So when Ping tells Po something completely different, defying expectations, it’s fantastic. Considering this change in direction was related to noodle soup, it was even funnier (throughout the film, Ping turns every opportunity into noodle shop work).

 

The kung fu masters made for an amusing bunch.

Master Shifu easily fights of the Furious Five. “Well done, students. If you were trying to disappoint me.”

Oogway has many wise sayings and correctly predicts the future, so when Shifu asks him a question and Oogway answers, “I don’t know,” it’s rather funny. The fact Oogway does it with a goofy voice adds to the humour.

At one point, the Furious Five line up and monkey hops from foot to foot, arms in with limp wrists (much like primates walking through water). Very funny to watch.

Shifu tells Po that Oogway was wrong to choose Po as Dragon Warrior, threatening the panda until he agreed. Then they go to the training room and Shifu tells Po to start, unless Po thinks Oogway is wrong. Shifu actively uses threats and intimidation, as well as the cultural expectation to respect leaders and elders, to get Po to agree to two opposite statements within the same day.

Shifu tells Po that, “There’s no such thing as Level Zero.” After Po’s failed in training, Shifu says, “There is now a Level Zero.”

The Furious Five say of Po that “The very ground shakes as he walks.” This can of course be used to indicate great respect or terror for an individual. But the fact it’s said during the Furious Five teasing Po, it’s clearly about his weight. Whilst it’s funny, we see that Po is walking right behind them. There’s no way the Furious Five don’t know he’s right behind them. So that’s cruel.

 

 

Overall, this was a fantastic film. Good story, good animation, good music, good humour. It’s a film aimed at children yet isn’t childish, making it enjoyable and appropriate for all age groups. The message that everything can be special if it’s believed to be special, i.e. that anyone is special, is heartwarming.