Your Friendly Local Geek

Someone needs to do an analysis on the way the Kung Fu Panda movies use old-fashioned vs. modern language ("Panda we meet at last"/"Hey how's it going") and old-fashioned vs. modern settings (forbidden-city-esque palaces/modern-ish Chinese restaurant) to indicate class differences in their characters, and how those class differences create underlying tensions and misunderstandings.

I will also add that, in the second and third films, both Tigress and Shifu start echoing Po's modern expressions ("That... was pretty hardcore" and "No. I'm saying, if you teach, I'll be able to do cool stuff like that"), symbolizing how they both have evolved and loosened up since the first film and how their view of Po has changed.

Only in the darkness can you see the light

The hardcore do understand.

DUCKVEMBER: Dad Duck Goose

Tigress - Early Concept [Nicolas Marlet, The Art of Kung Fu Panda, pg 62 - 3]

2021 Film Diary: 

i am once again thinking about Kung Fu Panda 2 and what an absolute fucking masterpiece it is

like the entire franchise in general really went hard on the animation with the way they portrayed the different fighting styles inspired by animals and the stylistic backgrounds imitating traditional chinese art and the entire soundtrack is an absolute banger

but im talking SPECIFICALLY about how KFP2 is markedly darker in tone compared to the first one, and even the third. The movie itself begins with the genocide of the panda village. And it only gets darker from there.

Like, a cartoon movie with talking animals who do kung fu and jack black as a fluffy panda DID NOT have to ask questions about self identity and healing and how our identity is ultimately tied to our past but it is not defined by it and what we choose to do now will always be far more important than anything that came before

And also the way Lord Shen and Po MIRROR each other. Lord Shen was a genius who believed himself destined for great things, committed terrible war crimes and was banished for it but did not atone and blamed everyone but himself and held on to years of anger and pain. While Po was this nobody who became the dragon warrior and whose past is tied to Lord Shen but DID NOT blame anyone for his past but instead moved past it to focus on the present and the future.

There’s also the fact that, and this is seen in the montage of Po’s past, every step of the way, someone was there to guide Po. Up until the climactic point where he comes to terms with his past, the old goat was there for him. While Shen, on the other hand, felt abandoned and shunned by his own parents despite the narrative insisting that they loved him. And it kinda makes you wonder about the whole nature/nurture debate.

It's a common theme in all three Kung Fu Panda movies: the villain believes they're destined for greatness, and is willing to steal everything from others in order to gain that greatness. Meanwhile, Po achieved greatness all on his own through confidence and skill and humility.

Tai Lung sought to be the Dragon Warrior because he believed it was his destiny- a destiny that Shifu instilled into him. It was only when Po revealed the secret of the Dragon Scroll to Tai Lung that he finally realized that the Dragon Warrior was not something one could become, it was something one was.

Shen was raised as prince of all China, and believed that he was destined to rule it all when he grew up. He believed that his ruling over China was the most important thing ever- and so when his family's soothsayer foretold that he would be cast down by a warrior of black and white, Shen ordered a genocide against his own subjects. He genuinely believed that his throne was more important than the lives of thousands of people.

Kai the Collector was a great warrior who fought alongside Oogway, but when he learned the secrets of Chi manipulation, he used it to steal chi from others in order to make them his slaves. He readily threw away the lives of everyone he met, growing in power by stealing the very souls of his victims.

Po defeats his foes not by being superior to them in body or skill, but by being superior to them in spirit. He defeats Tai Lung through self-confidence and determination; he defeats Shen through learning to accept what he can and cannot control; and he defeats Kai by learning to accept his past, present, and future.

*leans real close to the mic* THE KUNG FU PANDA TRILOGY IS LITERALLY JUST ATLA

so yeah, here's them as benders BYE–

If I had a nickel for every Dreamworks animated film trilogy that had a great first entry, an even better second entry, and a third entry that wasn’t quite as good as the second and didn’t have nostalgic memories to boost its reputation like the first but was still extremely solid, I’d have two nickels.  Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

Tigress from Kung Fu Panda’s backstory will forever fuck me up

To clarify - in one of the auxiliary shorts (“Secrets of the Furious five” I think?) it was confirmed that Tigress was an orphan who originally lived in an orphanage. at the time, she had anger issues and was destructive and aggressive which combined with how she’s a tiger the other orphans and the caretaker (all prey animals) feared her, so the caretaker would lock her up in a room all day. Eventually the caretaker couldn’t deal with her anger issues after she escaped one final time and called Shifu, who through hard work and Tigress’s own effort, was able to get Tigress to control her anger in a healthy way. And despite that, she was still rejected from being adopted cause she was a tiger and people were still afraid of her. In the happy ending of the clip, Shifu adopts her and it’s sweet and all. But then when you go back and look at the OG movie, they show how Shifu was so caught up with his failure and the loss of Tai Lung that he really never gave her much mind, at least, not like he did with Tai Lung.

The movie goes on to imply the reason why Tigress is always trying to impress Shifu and had that animosity towards Po was fueled by her desire to impress Shifu and get the same love and approval he had for Tai Lung.

like guh. It’s so sad. Wished the movies explored that more and we’d see that distance resolved between Tigress and Shifu.

this has been my Exact Same Mood for 200,000 years

When will any movie trilogy ever again be on the level of Kung Fu Panda…. the characterization…….the worldbuilding……the humor………the music……the animation….the cultural respect…….the stories about socially constructed disability….genocide….power……………nothing will ever come close to being like KFP………………

Rewatching the first Kung-Fu Panda movie after knowing what happens in 2 and 3 adds a whole new dimension to The way Oogway interacts with Po. Especially when they first meet in the Dragon Warrior selection scene.

Oogway points at Po, smiles, and says “how interesting”.

Upon watching this without 2 and 3, you think oh this wasn’t his intention but the universe had other ideas. He doesn’t believe in accidents, so the guy who just fell out of the sky directly in front of his pointer finger must be the true Dragon Warrior. Oogway finds this interesting because the selection wasn’t conventional, it just sort of happened.

After watching 2 and 3, his line gets so many new layers stacked on top of it. Now you’re like oh my gosh. It’s a PANDA. They taught him how to harness chi! They taught him SO MUCH about kung-fu and the balance of the universe. In this world, Pandas are naturally connected to chi kind of like how Jedi are more Force-sensitive than normal people in Star Wars. Everyone thought they were wiped out after Lord Shen attacked the panda village a couple decades ago. Po is the only panda anyone has ever seen. And Oogway most likely never even knew Po was in the village down below since he stays up in the Jade Palace. He’s gone several decades without even seeing a panda and for those last couple decades thought they were completely wiped out.

And then boom. Right when he’s choosing the Dragon Warrior, here lands a panda. Right in front of his finger.

How interesting.

@tyrantisterror

imma say it. “kung fu panda” did more for body positivity and saying that  you can be fat and still be healthy and liked than ANYTHING any beauty companies trying to get your money.

On the topic of wise mentor characters, Oogway is one of my favorites because his advice is never “Your priorities are terrible, be what I want you to be,” but rather, “I see you’re struggling to keep your wants and needs in balance.  Here are some ways to reorient yourself so you can achieve what you want to achieve.”  He offers aid and guidance, not orders.  The difference between giving direction and making a command.