Monday, January 5, 2009

Kung-fu Panda kicks ass

Right from the first scene.. the dreamworks animation with the kung-fu moves made me sit up and I realized that it was not going to be just any other animation movie and I was not wrong.. Kung-fu Panda is all about a noodle eating (and selling cause he works in the noodle shop run by his father, a goose called Ping) panda called Po, who is mistakenly chosen as the next dragon warrior.. Po knows that he is a complete misfit for this and except Master Oogway, nobody ever thinks that he is anywhere close to being a dragon warrior which includes the furious five - Tigress, monkey, mantis, snake and crane and also Oogway's successor Master Shifu. They hurt and insult Po and do everything to make him quit..but Po's chance meeting with Oogway under the peach tree of wisdom makes him to stay on and he becomes resilient.. in the meanwhile, there is Tai Lung, the snow leopard warrior who was once a student of the same school but had to be arrested because of his greed for fame and of course the famed dragon scroll.. Tai Lung somehow manages to escape from Prison guarded by a force of 1000 armed rhino's and heads straight back to fight and take the scroll.. in the meanwhile, Shifu's initial hatred for Po changes to a sense of responsibility after his problem of searching for inner peace is solved by Oogway who then proceeds to heaven handing over the responsibility to Shifu.. Shifu takes it upon himself to somehow train Po and finds out that the greatest motivator for Po is "food".. so he uses food and trains Po.. Po learns well but then in that time the furious five try to stop Tai Lung but are unable to.. he just disables them and heads straight for Shifu.. by that time the dragon scroll has been handed over to Po.. Po opens the scroll and in it is nothing..just a mere reflection..eventually he connects the dots when he asks his father about the secret ingredient to the noodle soup that his dad prepares and has been bragging about and his dad says there is no secret ingredient.. He explains that things become special when people believe them to be special and that is when Po heads back to Shifu.. there Shifu is already being beaten and bruised by an enraged Tai Lung who is not able to find the dragon scroll.. the final showdown between Tai Lung and Po is funny but amazing.. Po, of course, wins the war and even uses the "Wuxi finger hold" on Tai Lung which creates an effect of an atom bomb..literally.. Po is proclaimed master and even the furious five are in agreement.. I have never watched an animation movie with so much excitement for quite sometime.. the last one that I really enjoyed was Finding Nemo..

The animation in this movie is tremendous and of course kudo's to the actors who have lent their voices for all the characters.. Jack Black (remember "School of Rock"?) as Po is just way too good.. and so is everybody else..

Some of my favorite quotes from the movie.. it definitely makes sense to all of us..

Master Oogway to Po: You are too concerned about what was and what will be. There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.

Oogway: One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.

Some funny ones..

Shifu: [after having dragged Po up the mountain and said Panda is trying to cool down] Panda, we do not wash our pits in the Pool of Sacred Tears.
Po: [quickly shakes his hand off] The Pool of-?
Shifu: This is where Oogway unraveled the mysteries of harmony and focus. This is the birth place of kung fu.
[Po is shocked, and it shows a glimpse of Oogway before Shifu jumps up to a giant rock]
Shifu: Do you want to learn kung fu?
Po: Yah!
Shifu: Then I *am* your master!
Po: Okay!
[sniffles]
Shifu: Don't cry.
Po: Okay.
[wipes his nose and smiles]

Po: I just ate, so I'm still digesting, so my kung fu may not be as good as later on.

Watch this one.. this is one hell of a complete family entertainer and I bet you will love it :-)

3 comments:

Nive said...

Since my nephew is so obsessed with this movie I think I'm gonna have to rent it soon to watch. Maybe this weekend.

Its me Arch! said...

it is worth a watch.. more than once :-) I hope it wins an oscar.

Nive said...

By not having any posts after this blog entry, are you implying that you haven't seen any movies since Kung-fu Panda :P