Kung Fu Panda franchise

I also read an excerpt from the artbook that talks about Ping and Li "bonding" throughout the movie. That's some Character Development I'm looking forward to seeing.

I honestly don't get why people complain about the Five, sans Tigress, not getting enough development. Frankly, they don't need it, and it would just get in the way of the actually important characters. Their role is to provide Comic Relief, act as foils to other characters, and to add some diversity to the cast. They serve no other purpose, nor should they.

That said, I would love to see a spinoff movie focusing solely on the Five. That would be amazing.

edited 25th Sep '15 11:00:34 AM by Berserker88

Wasn't there one already? Secrets of the Furious Five or something like that?

Yeah, that gave their origins and whatnot.

I meant a full movie, but I'd be satisfied with just that short. It looks like there's going to be another one about them too. Secrets of the Scroll, I believe.

"They would get in the way"

I died a little. I seriously think it would have been better if Shen killed all non Tigress Furious Five member. That would have been better than being reduced to Living Prop status. And I know KFP 1 didnt have too much of them, I hoped to see more of them in the sequel.

Also, the focus on the Soothsayer lady and Shen was minus rather than a plus. It COULD have been cool if they followed their plan of Shen's parents hating him for being different and the Soothsayer being the only one to care for him. But they didnt so its just...bland. Im too tired to explain but I will once I rest a bit.

I thought Shen's character worked as it was. The scene Shen and Soothsayer talk about his motivations is pretty damn good. The fact his parents actually liked him enhances the tragedy of his character I think, because as the movie makes clear it's just Shen's own hubris and mental troubles that make him blind to the simple and obvious truth (i.e he could have accomplished great things if he didn't get so caught up in his own ego).

The beauty of the thing is Shen seems to realize to some extent what he's done, but he keeps on doing it because he believes it's the only way to be happy. It's pretty damn heartbreaking.

Didn't I just get done explaining how they're not Living Props, and why they're important even as secondary characters? Pretty sure I did. In a fair amount of detail too.

And no, Shen's backstory is better the way it is. I'm glad they took out the parents hating him bit. That would have made him too sympathetic, and you really don't want to make a genocidal maniac hellbent on conquering China too sympathetic. He's already tragic enough.

The title of the series is "Kung Fu Panda", not "Various Kung Fu Animals". Po is the protagonist, so the spotlight stays chiefly on him, which you cannot do if you try to divide it between a team of six characters. That notwithstanding, the Five still had more to do in the second movie than in the first. The only character who indisputably had less to do was Shifu.

I feel like the setup of "focus on Po and one other secondary character" could work since there's supposed to be 6(?) movies in the franchise. That's just the right number to develop everyone from the five + Shifu. The only problem I see with this is that Tigress's arc was somewhat unresolved in 2 (seriously, what was she gonna say on the boat :( ) and I feel like they should continue it in 3.

About Shen, I think that he's a much better villain than Tai Lung anyway. It's not only in writing and character, but presentation as well.

Tai Lung was set up as this super OP guy who was only beaten by someone using a cheat code. The Voldemort to Oogway's Dumbledore, if you will. He kicks the ass of the prison guards, the five, and motherfucking Shifu himself. With his fight with Po, it was almost like he suffered a Worf Effect, almost. I do understand why the writers made it that way, but it does take away the tension a lot in the final battle, especially after Tai Lung spent the entire movie owning everyone.

Shen, on the other hand, the audience is shown that he has limits right from the first scene. He is a good fighter, but isn't godlike, which causes him to rely on his cannon, and we're shown throughout the movie the inconveniences of that cannon. We already know early in the movie that he's strong, but not unbeatable. Whether you think the ending was a copout or not is up to you, but I feel his defeat is much more believable than Tai Lung's in 1 because he's not OP shit.

Yeah, there's still plenty they could do with Tigress and/or Shifu. I'd rather more focus on them than anyone else. This film however, seems very Po-centric, which I'm perfectly fine with. After this I might want a slight change of focus though.

While I agree with you for the most part, I never got the impression that Tai Lung was unbeatable. Sure, he plowed through a bunch of rhino guards, but those were just standard Mooks. The Five did pretty well against him, and might have even won in not for his nerve attack. And Shifu was crippled by psychological issues during their fight, or else he might have been able to beat him too. Po's victory didn't have much to do with kung fu skill anyway. It was more Tai Lung being unprepared to deal with his "unique" style, coupled with him being distracted by the Dragon Scroll the whole time. Because Po actually being able to beat him in a straight-up fight would've been completely unrealistic.

Speaking of villains, Kai is coming across to me so far as the type who's mainly about sheer menace factor, which I for one think is a nice change of pace from these tragic types. He's the kind of villain I wouldn't mind coming across as unbeatable so long as Po comes up with a believable way to defeat him in the end (and I can think of a few).

Don't get me wrong, I know why Tai Lung was defeated, it just lacked the tension there was in all his previous fights because the audience is so used to seeing him beat everyone up that seeing him have so much trouble in the last fight is a little jarring. With 2, Shen loses a fight in the first scene, and then resorts the cannon, which has its own set of flaws. It shows that there is a clear path in defeating him, it's just not easy. It's a neat bit if foreshadowing. With 1, we're mainly shown the reasons for defeat during the fight, and while there's not much wrong with that, I prefer 2's way of presentation.

Also, I haven't watched the first movie in a while, but now that I recall it, the five did almost beat him, so my bad there.

One could argue that losing the fight was not truly how Tai Lung was defeated. The moment where Tai Lung truly loses is when he actually gets hold of the Dragon Scroll, and doesn't understand it.

The battle starts inside your mind, and when your spirit is lost, the body will follow.

Made a page for the film here.

I noticed in the first Chinese trailer that you can briefly see Crane and Mantis having been turned into one of those green statue things, which might mean it happens to all of the Five. It makes me wonder if they'll have a similar scenario to How to Train Your Dragon 2 with one or more of the Five being controlled into attacking Po, or sadder yet if Tigress is the one made to do so. Just a thought however, the statue thing might just mean that they're rendered unable to move.

I love the part with Ping getting annoyed at Po and Li bumping their tummies, lmao. And I want to know what it is Po sees that causes him to go all doe eyed.

edited 4th Oct '15 1:12:36 PM by Lancelot07

Yeah, from what we know of the plot, Po has to train his fellow villagers into a fighting force against Kai, which probably means the actual trained warriors are out of the picture by that point. I didn't think about them actually being controlled though. That would be so awesome/tragic.

Thanks so much for making that page by the way. :)

For the record, I'm not going to watch any of the trailers. I feel like the trailers poisoned people's thoughts on the first two, which were really good. I want to come into it fresh, expecting more awesomeness.

I love the Kung Fu Panda movies. They're basically Jackie Chan movies with animal shorthands. It looks like this one has the same talent as the first two for writing, so I have high hopes for this one.

To be fair, that's not exactly an unjustified attitude, but that only applies to the American trailers. The Chinese trailers have been building hype, not destroying it.

Really? Didn't know that. Still, I don't want any spoilers.

edited 3rd Oct '15 4:38:36 PM by Darkton

You're welcome, Berserker ^^ I thought a page for it was due.

I'm really impressed by the creators having animated a Chinese version as well for the lipsync. Apparently they'll also reanimate a lot of Mei Mei's scenes because of her voice actress being changed. That's some serious dedication.

And by the looks of the second Chinese trailer, it would appear that Po and Li does realize they're father and son in that same scene from the US trailer, it just hits them real slow. Then again, the "Darth Vader" teaser showed Li having climbed all the way to the Jade Palace to tell a confused Po he’s his father, so I wonder which it is. O.o (though maybe that was just one of those trailer scenes that ends up not being in the film).

You know, the more I see these trailers, the more I think that the main cast might actually be split up for a good portion of this movie. By the looks of things, Po and Li head off to the village by themselves while the others stay behind to deal with Kai. It's an interesting idea if I'm right, though that does make me a little confused about the order of events.

Cast splitting up is just an idea, whether or not it will be good depends on THE EXECUTION.

edited 31st Oct '15 3:17:41 PM by KlarkKentThe3rd

Well, Po being exposed to the village by himself before anyone else gets involved does sound like a good idea from a narrative standpoint. The focus should stay on him for that bit of personal discovery.

edited 31st Oct '15 4:42:11 PM by Berserker88

Replaced with the official Dreamworks one.

Looks like a Trainingthe Peaceful Villagers plot.

edited 3rd Nov '15 9:20:20 AM by tclittle

I still think it's perplexing that they changed the voice of Po's father between films.

The Chicken thing had me in stitches!