Kung Fu Panda

Nah… this one’s not about Zen or any funny Kung Fu stuff. Relax.

It’s more about story telling. Yes, I could have picked anything from a number of subjects to talk about this movie: the growing importance of animated features in cinematography, the fact that the voices of the characters are played by these awesome stars, my nagging question about where the hell the tortoise went… But story telling is my pick because one thing that struck me about the movie is how classical the plot is. It is the utmost ‘by the book’ classical tale of the hero.

Often referred to as the ‘Hero’s Journey’ and not so often referred to as the ‘Monomyth’, the tale of the hero can be decomposed into several stages. We owe a lot on the study of myths to an American mythology professor named Joseph Campbell. He spent quite a while describing the archetypal patterns of myths and identifying examples of just how universal these were. Across the ages and across the globe, all cultures have created myths that fall into these archetypes. It makes you wonder… Anyway, although the stages Campbell identified are quite complex, they can be grouped into larger clusters which are essentially about departure, initiation and return.

I am not a professor –of any sort- and that grants me a certain ‘layman’s freedom’ which I will abuse as much as I can on this website.

This is what I thought of as I watched Kung Fu Panda (I sure know how to enjoy a movie…)

Stage one: the hero has a dream (Po works in his Dad’s noodle shop but secretly wants to be a Kung Fu hero)

Stage two: the call of destiny (Po, apparently by accident, becomes the Dragon Warrior. Note that destiny and accident come together. How can we know if he is really ‘the one’?)

Stage three: initial failure (Po sucks badly. Everybody doubts him. He even doubts himself)

Stage four: the foe / the threat (Tai Lung breaks free and he is really pissed off. He defeats the Furious Five.)

Stage five: the hidden talent / first success (Shifu discovers that Po can be a very good fighter when faced with the right incentive: FOOD)

Stage six: the insight / intuition / faith (Po discovers that the secret of the scroll is that there is no secret ingredient, you do not have to be special to be special)

Stage seven: with self knowledge and a clear sense of destiny, the hero triumphs (Po beats the crap out of Tai Lung)

Stage eight: the return (life returns to normal but now Po can face his Dad and reconcile his future with his past)

Of course some parts of the movie are blurry in my memory. The first time I saw it, I was with my wife and my four year old son. I can’t say I captured everything because I was stressed out by the fact that my little boy would run through the isles and make a hell of a racket. The second time I saw it I was on a plane and I am afraid there were a few interruptions with the meal and so on… plus, I might have dozed off a coupla times.

Stay tuned for more movie reviews.