Kung - Fu - Panda

Over exposure to pure awesomeness!

A boy wearing a Chinese hat (cone-like) running through obstacles & watery patches with a bamboo stick in hand (a fishing rod), jumps from a cliff to land on a thin crescent and the shining letters appear on screen forming ‘DreamWorks Animation Studio ’ here starts the movie and whatever follows, is…absolute Overexposure to pure awesomeness!!!

A brief Introduction to the characters:

Master Oogway –

The present master of the jade palace and the authority to chose the ‘Dragon warrior’. The wisest person and the only one who can stop ‘Tai-lung’ other than the ‘Dragon warrior’.

Master Shi-fu-

the chief trainer at the palace who is supposed to be the best in whole of china, the one who trained ‘Tai-lung ’ and loved him more than anyone he ever had… but that becomes his weakness and he fails to control him.

The fabulous Five! –

They have to be mentioned together master tigress, monkey, snake, mantis and Crane. Known for their heroics at the battle of the weeping river (umm... sorry guys, I’m really getting into it now)

Tai-lung –

The villain, one who was portrayed by his master as the potential ‘Dragon warrior’ but not chosen for the title by Oogway because of his negative streaks. Now in prison and if set free will bring destruction to the valley to get the ‘Dragon Scroll’ believed to be the secret to supreme power.

PO –

HA! Have you seen a good-for-nothing creature? He’s got all the prerequisites to make one! Obsessed with Kung-Fu and suppressed by father’s expectations to take over the family business of noodle-making. Well… not confused though, since he seemed to have got no ambition to make it big…it’s just a dream!

The Dragon warrior – now that’s the question everyone has… who will it be?

The Story begins:

The story develops somewhere in china where people not only love but worship kung fu. PO is no different, he helps his father (a duck-how’s that possible? but neither did I ask nor will you) at the family noodle restaurant.

The movie starts with PO dreaming of a war, where he is fighting the enemies side by side with his five heroes’ .Just when they are at the peak of the war, the father gives a wake-up call. The heavy panda tries to get up by doing a back flip but only to shake the room.

Po lies to his father that he got late coz he was dreaming about noodles… a lie which his father assumes as a lucky sign as ‘noodle dream’ is considered to be the indicative that PO, can now know the ‘secret ingredient’ recipe for noodle soup. Apparently his dad had also had a noodle dream!

There at the palace, Master Oogway (the turtle) has a dream that Tai-lung, is about to escape and come to the palace to steal the ‘Dragon Scroll’ and get the secret to limitless power. He summons his old friend master shifu and tells him about his dream and immediately sends a messenger to the prison to get the report and increase the security.

Master Oogway realizes that the time has come when the universe should have the new ‘Dragon warrior’ (not sure himself about who is it going to be?)So he announces the traditional tournament for choosing 1! Knowing this PO who is a big fan of the fabulous five decides to go to the function but… urr… dad would not like .actually that duck is shown to be a very soft guy, I like it when he doesn’t stop PO from attending the ceremony (had it been a hindi animation movie…he wd have said…’tumhe apni pita ke laash se gujarna hoga!’ and universe wd have missed…. U’ll find out what!)

So, our Po gives an excuse of selling noodles and heads to the palace with the cart, only to leave it at the footsteps of the hill and manages somehow to take his huge body up to the palace but to his bad (or good?) luck, the door shuts on his face and then follows a series of stupid and hilarious efforts to get in and witness the ceremony of choosing ‘Dragon Warrior’. After all the hopeless efforts Po manages to design a rocket chair with help of crackers lying around but dad arrives at the scene (out of hidden love for kung-fu or to keep a watch on Po’s activities…?) that is where Po reveals to him the noodle-dream story was fake and he always dreamt of Kung-fu.

The Universe has…new ‘dragon-Warrior’:

After a few hiccups the rocket-chair takes off and Po lands exactly at the centre stage where master Oogway is about to select the new Dragon-Warrior he closes his eyes and stretches out his hand to point to the right candidate and opens his eyes only to see a big-fat Panda lying in-front…

Is it an accident…? “No my friend, There are No Accidents” master Oogway reveals… and the celebrations start… with everybody shocked (par kya kare… duty is duty) - a lovely Chinese tune which makes u feel very happy about having a new ‘Dragon warrior’ (much to Po's own astonishment!;-) )

The making:

Master Shifu and the gang try to get rid of this pompous creature that, leave alone touching his own toes, can barely see them but because of the faith shown by Oogway and craze for kung-fu. Po takes up the challenge and survives the initial ragging.

Meanwhile Oogway realizes that the new ‘Dragon Warrior’ eats when he is upset (a beautiful scene packed with friendly words of wisdom from the old turtle) and asks Shifu to to believe in the destiny and in his decision.

There at the prison Tai-lung unlocks himself using the feather of the messenger sent by Shifu and escapes from prison to head towards the valley (a fight sequence full of brilliance and skills).

Oogway receives the news and hands over the responsibility to Shifu to train Po and disappears in the envelope of pink peach tree leaves (the most beautiful scene).

Po, realizing now the seriousness of the situation tries to escape but without success and accepts the responsibility (marta, kya na karta!)

Shifu, trying to figure out how to start training discovers Po’s obsession for food and devises unconventional techniques to train him and takes him to the pool of sacred tears where the legendary Oogway practiced his art.

Action Begins:

Tai-lung reaches the threshold of the valley where the fabulous five try to stop him only to get beaten up miserably and sent back to Shifu to give the message that ‘I am Back’.

Shifu hands the secret dragon-scroll to Po but its blank!!! No secret formula written on it!!!

Disappointed and realizing the end is near… Shifu orders his disciples to vacate the village keeping him to the palace to face tai-lung. Po, dejected… returns to his father showing him the empty scroll the wise duck offers him the apron and consoles him that it may not be his destiny… also revealing that the secret of the ‘secret-noodle-recipe’ is actually nothing!

To make something special you have to believe that it’s special!!!

So that’s the trick! Po realizes the meaning looks again in the empty scroll only to see his own reflection! And that’s it… he runs to the palace where a furious fight is going on between Shifu and Tai-lung.

Po Challenges Tai-lung to get the scroll by defeating him which Tai-lung, already raged and rather amused to see the teddy-Dragon-warrior, readily accepts.

Then follows the most hilarious fight sequence which completely demoralizes tai-lung and convinces Po that he is the ‘Dragon-Warrior’. Po ends the fight with the most lethal ‘Wuxi Finger hold’ and emerges as the supreme power and golden light spreads over the valley to mark the end of evil.

The fabulous five bow in front of the new master and Po heads back to the palace to look for Shifu.

Shi-fu feels relaxed that the terror of tai-lung is finally over and valley is again in peace. So is Shi-fu.

The End

A frame by frame beautiful movie ends here leaving not just the cramps in stomach which has got an equivalent exercise of doing 100 abs but many good aspects of life to think about.

Making you believe that there are no accidents, we are mere puppets in the hands of destiny. Many times v come across puzzling situations leaving us with no answers to all the ‘Wh’ type questions. To us, it’s inexplicable... but somewhere our life is taking shape and these are just the building blocks.

“Yesterday... is a history, tomorrow is a mystery,

But Today, is a gift, that’s why it’s called ‘Present’!”

We all have a place in this world,we all are destined to become something... someone, unique in some way. so whenever you feel low just remember that…

“There’s no secret ingredient! To make something special, you just have to believe that it’s special…”