Kung Fu Panda (2008)
There is no secret ingredient.
THE SUMMARY: A giant panda becomes an unlikely Kung Fu prodigy, and fulfills his destiny to defeat an escaped supervillain, persuading himself and his critics of his improbable abilities. This is the sort of movie I often enjoy most: low expectations vastly exceeded. I figured it would probably be just cutesy kid stuff, but Panda surprised me with depth I didn’t anticipate. Even if I don’t quite agree with the philosophy, the movie still provides plenty to think about later.
FROM MOVIE-PICKER JG HENRY: I had to include an animation pick and this is one of the best. Not for the animation, but for the story and the comedy of Jack Black. The sequels are very good too. My daughter is nearly a black sash in Kung Fu, we love to watch the outrageous antics, and it delivers a great story with a lot of fun.
JAMIE AND JEANNE’S SHOW AI ART FOR THE WEEK:
For a little while ten years ago, I actually was about Po’s weight.
THE BEST:
Some solid philosophy: I expected this one to be the standard formula of ‘unlikely hero rises to heroic role, so remember you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it.’ A hardened critic could say that’s exactly what this movie is, but it has more subtle points of philosophy throughout that are worthy of appreciation.
There is no secret ingredient: It’s the movie’s main message - there is no trick, there is no magic, there is no secret to doing something great. It just depends on you, your belief in yourself, and your effort level. In general, there’s a lot of truth to this message, and it’s one I will teach my kids, though as I write below, it’s too simplistic. Still, I take the point - a positive attitude, belief in yourself, and good old-fashioned hard work put you on the path to success.
One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it: This quote from Oogway had me lost in thought right after he said it, explaining to Shifu that he’s had a vision that Tai Lung will return, the idea being that Shifu’s efforts to contain the villain will be futile. Personally, I’m a convinced believer in free will, because it’s a necessary ingredient for the moral concepts of right and wrong (as in, how can you behave wrongly if you are never free to choose rightly anyhow). But are there paths for which we are destined anyhow? And is there any wisdom in avoiding them?
Broadly speaking, I think there are. We are all destined for death, of course. And there’s great danger in thinking we can avoid that sort of inevitability. We’ll do wildly irrational things if we are wrongly persuaded we can alter the inevitable (see the entire saga of Covid, for example).
We can debate what’s ‘destiny’ and what’s ‘free will,’ but I think the broad lesson here is to orient your life intentionally toward goals, rather than away from dangers. A life spent in avoidance is not a life well-lived - it’s just fear and retreat. A life pursuing something of value is where we find fulfillment and purpose.
A peach seed grows a peach tree: This one is another excellent lesson from Oogway on ‘the illusion of control,’ through the peach tree. There are things over which you have power, and there are things over which you do not, and it’s crucial to understand the difference, as a moral matter and as a practical reality. We can plant the tree, we can water the tree, we can nurture the tree until we get bountiful fruit, but there are still limits. It will only grow peaches, for example. Never apples or cherries. And if we try to force cherries out of a peach tree, we will find only frustration and problems.
Apply this reasoning to many of today’s misguided beliefs: gender ideology, most obviously. A failure to recognize our limits to alter the natural world has serious consequences.
There are no accidents: In that same exchange, Oogway insists there are no accidents, another illustration that there’s some sort of divine plan guiding everything that happens. As I grow older, I think a lot more about these concepts. Are there things about my past I wish I could change? Absolutely. Mistakes I made, wrongs I committed, and people I lost. But there is only one path to what I have today - my wife, my sons, and my highly-touted movie reviews, of course. It’s the one I took. I have no doubt this is the place I’m supposed to be, and if anything about my past changed, I wouldn’t be exactly where I am.
Like the prior points, I’ll take this one at its broadest too. The idea is not necessarily that intent is always there. The idea is that everything happens for a reason, a purpose for your life included. It’s incumbent upon all of us to maintain our search for that purpose, especially when things seem senseless and pointless.
An excellent cast: How many times did I say ‘what? (S)He’s in this?!’ Too many to count. I’m legitimately impressed they were able to assemble so many A-listers for a kids’ movie. I think Jack Black does well in the protagonist role, but by far the best voice is Ian McShane as Tai Lung. The man is just born to be a villain. I’m a big fan of Deadwood, so all I could hear was Al Swearengen yelling at some hooker at the Gem. Coincidentally, McShane’s character in that show has a lot of interaction with a Chinese immigrant named Wu, which was on-brand with this movie too. But of course Panda’s scripting is much cleaner.
Needles stop hearts, prophetic: When Mantis is giving Po some acupuncture therapy, he jokes that he stopped his heart. What did these movie producers know 15 years ago? I assume Pfizer paid them off to shut up.
There is no secret ingredient.
One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.
The Peach Tree of Wisdom
THE WORST:
Sorry, but talent actually is a secret ingredient: Even though I do think a positive attitude and hard work are keys to success in life, and will teach my kids that lesson, it’s too naïve and flowery to say there is no secret ingredient. There is. It’s talent. Some people just have it for a particular thing, and some people don’t. When I was younger I loved music, for example. But there is no world in which I was going to be a professional musician. I could have practiced eight hours a day every day, and I still would not have been the best guitarist even in my friend group, because I just didn’t have the talent for it. That is the secret ingredient for why others have record deals, and I don’t.
That is not to be defeatist, though. Instead of saying ‘there is no secret ingredient,’ I think the better lesson is ‘find your secret ingredient.’ I may not have the secret ingredient for music, but I believe I have the secret ingredient for what I do now. Analyzing. Explaining. Maybe even a little entertaining.
The actual secret is finding the exact place in which your talents best apply. That’s why there’s no shame in finding a dead end, like music was for me. Keep searching until you find it - your secret ingredient will eventually emerge, because you will do something better than everyone else around you, so long as you maintain that positive attitude and work ethic.
Po teaches Tai Lung the lesson.
THE RATING: 4/5 Wickies. My slight dispute with the core message aside, it’s still an excellent family movie that gets most of its philosophy right. A movie I would happily watch again with my kids when they’re old enough to understand it.
YOUR RATING: Vote here ⬇ Note: if you get a notification saying you have already voted and you haven’t, this is because of an issue with iOS (Apple mobile devices). Try voting on a desktop or laptop computer. I am working with the poll service to get Apple mobile devices working properly with the system again.
NEXT WEEK: Contact (1997)
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