Kung Fu Panda (2008)

So DreamWorks animation what a company! This studio is pretty known for making great heart animated movie but also making way too many terrible. Let's see what movie I'm picking (1 sec) AH HA! Kung Fu Panda! The universe has brought us my next DreamWorks analysis review! The only reason I re-watched Kung Fu Panda is that the 4th one is pretty close.

This movie is not one of the terrible ones, just your average animated kids movie it's more then that! There is so much effort and talent and can be a work of art as the song says. This movie can easily be another Shrek rip-off but thankfully it's not ,like Wreck-It-Ralph it's one of these movies that is so flawless that you a hard time to pin point first and I enjoyed it more then I was a kid! So without a further-a-do it's getting into it!:

Animation is stunning!: For a movie from 2008 it's holds up very well! Just thinking for the animation for the time like look at ummm, Space Chimps and even today animated movies like look at Frozen 2 and you look at Kung Fu Panda it's night and day. The animation is visually striking and the set designs are looks like real places you can go! It not like modern movies where the concepts is changed to be "realistic" which as a result makes it lame and less unique (example is The beauty and the Beast remake) , but you look at the concept and it's just wowing and beautiful. There are some many contrasting colours and lighting. The character designs has the perfect balance of realism and cartoonist stylised and you can understand the character just looking at their designs. Also the this movie is based on China which is barely represented in animation ( I mean the only movie I can think on top of my head which represented that culture is Mulan). The Kung Fu Panda movies has 2D animation every of their movie and the end credits which is the cherry on top.

Po is a great written protagonist: Po can easily be written as a Shrek rip-off wanna be character arc but no they take it a lot further then that . (I love Jack Black's performances by the way) He was introduced as a optimistic fan boy of The furious Five but he is stuck making noodles with his Dad after he take his father and his father and the random pig. He decided to go any ways to see his hero's and who will be the chosen one to be the Dragon Warrior. He ended up getting chosen as the Dragon Warrior by Master Oogway. I love the opening of his dream. The reason why Kung Fu Panda works so well to me is Po and Master Shifu.

The conflict between Po and Shifu is understandable and natural and there isn't a miss understand or liar revel sub-plot thank god.

Po failed at his first at his first class, he sneak in but destroyed the floor which always crack me up as a kid, he ended up in Crane's room and he said he doesn't belong here but he refer it as his room but when Po meets Tigress she says you don't belong here again but in a more serious way and she says that Po is a disgrace to Kung Fu.

So meanwhile after Bowser sings PEACHES! PEACHES! PEACHES! PEACHES! I LOVE YOU! -oh wait wrong movie!- So meanwhile Oogway came to Po. Po talks to Oogway how he became more of an outcast by saying every one has their qualities by not himself and doubt himself to become the Dragon Warrior. Oogway says "Yesterday is history , tomorrrow is a mystery but today is a gift, this is why it is called the present." and knocks down to the peach tree and Po revived a peach.

I love at first Shifu sees Po as a accident because he isn't what Ooqway expected to be a mighty warrior but a big fat panda or The big fat panda might I say! He isn't really a bad person at the start he respected Oogway and you can tell he has been the Jade Palace for his entire life. ( I love he is a Red panda which is barely represented in animation outside of Turning Red) I love that later we learned that Tigress says Shifu was more of a father figure when he adopt Tai Lung , he really deep down cared for Tai Lung (which I'll talk later about him don't worry) and raised in Tigress a similar way. When Shifu heard Tai Lung has escaped to prison and heading for the Dragon Scroll he told Oogway about it but Oogway suggest to Shifu Po to fight Tai Lung instead of himself, Shifu didn't understand what he meant at first and uses a peach for growing into a peach tree without any changes at all because he says there is no accidents and asked Shifu to guide Po without Oogway. Oogway moving on It's such an impactful and the score is impeccable, amazing job John Powell!

Shifu later sees Po's skills by climbing up to find Monkey's Cookies without anyone's help, even doing the splits. Shifu realised that Po is not a weak loser then he thinks.

He trains Po in a montage which is so satisfying and earned. Later Shifu challenges Po to eat all of the dumplings ( by the way if you pause at the right moment the scene when Po is about to eat the dumpling Shifu dose a 4th wall break by looking at the audiences which is a cool detail ) I love that when Po finally got the dumpling he doesn't want it and I love that Shifu is amazed at him which feels less like a Toy Story wanna be and more like a true friendship.

Tai Lung is a supreme villain: Who needs a hero without a villain because Tai Lung is a show stellar and OUR BATTLE WILL BE LEGEBDARY! (just soooo iconic) The reason I love Tai Lung so much is because of his backstory, he is disillusioned by the Dragon Scroll and because of Shifu trains him for just for the Dragon Scroll for life but wasn't given the chance because Oogway sees the dark of him, he was out raged and loss all meaning by that but was send to prison. This makes him a more engaging and 3 Dimensional villain. I always feel bad for his backstory even as a kid I felt sorry, I know villains is on the nose when it came to the dramatic annoying tragic backstories but here it's well executed in my opinion. The action is so cool and the contrast of the blue colour is perfection!

The pacing + tone is perfection: There is not a single moment I feel bored because how this movie feed us so much information without doing it too much. I would argue this is truly DreamWorks second animated movie to have a serious tone after The Prince of Egypt; sure the Shrek movies do have a grounded tone but for the most part the movies it's the ha ha light hearted silly tone to it.

The Actions of Awesomeness: Now ACTION! I mean DreamWorks isn't known for action movies their known for the Shrek ha ha at Disney, I mean the Shrek movies do have some action but nothing on this scale and it's also not the focus of that movie. Unlike superhero movies these days where it's very straight forward and less exciting to me. (Like I said I don't hate Marvel of any means or just superhero movies in general) Here it's has some much effort every single shot and the shot frames are dynamic and fluid!

The Furious Five is a nice inclusion: I didn't have much to say about The Furious Five then the other characters but still. I love that The Furious Five gang each having their own opinions and personality. None of them feels 1 note and lazy. I love that Tigress isn't like just a bully she thinks Po is an embarrassment to Kung Fu at first but when she revel the story of Tai Lung and you can feel for her and during the conflict she cares for Po. I like The Furious Five aren't idiots to say the least. And yes you can never escape of Seth Rogan (I'm not saying I hate his voice any means he also voice Bob from Monsters VS Aliens by the next year after Kung Fu Panda came out).

The Dragon scroll is brilliant and subversive: Now there is a trend when it came to DreamWorks movies when get it right they are brilliantly subversive like Shrek is basically the anti-Disney ,or How to Train Your Dragon when the Vikings are actually more dangerous then the dragons themselves and of course MegaMind being the Subversive movie of all time (I'm worried for MegaMind 2 like is this REAL MOVIE?!- any ways) I love that at first it's just blanked like there is nothing but when Mr .Ping says Po about his secret Krabby Patty Formula is.... nothing! Yes it's nothing! Not because to disillusioned the capitalism of the customers like some one else it's to see your potential of your destiny and every accident is your destiny, this is the character arc Po learns though out the movies and this is way Tai Lung completely missed the point of this meaning. It's not one of those "be your self" kids crabby bland message ,it's a unique one for sure.

The scene when Shifu and Tai Lung fights each other goes so hard and the scene Tai Lung realised after he got his grubby hands on the Dragon Scroll he saw nothing , he throws it down to Po and reflects on him but then Po got some cool action.

After the cool action Po Thanos snaps Tai Lung say this line "Skadoosh" and he learns that earlier in the movie because he acknowledged every thing that is Kung Fu. The villagers and The Furious saw Po and chaired and respect for him, wait! What about Shifu? Oh no he is dying! SOMEONE CALL THE-

"I'm not dying you idiot!"

"I'm simply at peace."

Oh the movie is over...

Final thoughts: So that was Kung Fu Panda , it's a movie that can stand the test of time and in my opinion the execution of the movie is better then Shrek by a landslide. I'm not saying Shrek is worthless any means it has a great message but I personally liked Kung Fu Panda more then Shrek.

Is it perfect? Crime offense but no however it's quite minor and it's 1 inch away from perfect. It's that the time taking, as an example you see Po just learn how to do Kung Fu in hours or Tai Lung came to the Jade Palace for like an entire day. It's a chosen one hero's journey type of story and movies tend to forgot about it and it can be a bit jarring when time is not taking as an advantage.

Is it one of the greatest DreamWorks movies? Yes of course it's this good! Just go watch like it it's this good!

So overall I'll 100% recommend this and you guys need to keep in mind that I love movies when they are done or written right ,they became a great culture impact and a house hold name. It has great characters , fantastic score , good sense of humour, great aesthetic , out-standing animation, incredible music and a great way to start a franchise! So that's everything I got to say!