Parent Movie Review: Kung Fu Panda
I liked it. I’ll get that out of the way first. It was an enjoyable movie even for the adults to watch. Of course I’ve been to places in China that look just like the scenery, and climbed the steps of my fair share of temples getting to the top, so I really felt for the poor out of shape Panda trying to climb his way up to the temple.
But even if I weren’t enjoying the scenery and temple steps, it was a cute movie.
Now, on to what age kids should be able to see it, and what concerns there might be.
First, there are two obvious cases of adoption in the movie. But, surprisingly enough, it isn’t payed attention to. The kids are either grown or pretty much grown, so we’re talking about adults with their adult parent. But the fact remains that the parent and child are so much different that you know the two are not biologically related, there is no doubt. But no one makes an issue of it. Kind of refreshing, actually. And the good thing for us, when talking to our kids about it later, is that it is very obvious how much both dad’s love their kids.
Next, there are some scary moments. Glittergirl is pretty sensitive to that and even though she’s beyond the age that should be okay, she almost wasn’t a few times. She watched the scary parts sitting in RK’s lap peeking around her hand. There have been no nightmares about it though, so I think that it was a good call to take her to it. Her friends will have all seen it, though that by itself isn’t enough. The thing is, she is eventually going to need to be desensitized to scary stuff. As much as part of me would like to shelter her from the rest of the world, she doesn’t want or need that. And really, I want her to be able to function in the real world, so I guess I don’t really want that, either. We talked later about the bad guy and what made him act bad. That helped, that you got to understand why he was being bad.
TwinkleToes may only be three years old, but I knew she’d be okay with it. Not much scares her right now. She hates loud noises, so she spent part of the movie with her hands over her ears, but she wasn’t scared. There is no way I would have taken GG to see this at TT’s age. But TT was fine.
So in the end I don’t think it’s an age thing that says whether a child can handle it or not. It’s more of a sensitivity thing.
There was no bad language, though I was a bit upset at some of the fat jokes at first. But the way the fat jokes and some of the other put downs were handled was also a lesson… a lesson in how easy it is to hurt someone’s feelings. It went from funny to not funny very fast.
There is (obviously) a lot of martial arts stuff, and my girls have been pretending to fight each other. I made a rule of no actual touching each other when they pretend, told them where they can and can’t do it, and I’ve let them have at it. So far so good.
As for the moral of the story. That is a huge spoiler. So I won’t give it away. Let’s just say I think it is a great thing to teach our kids.
June 21st, 2008 at 10:34 am
We took my 15 year old step-daughter for her birthday. We all loved it, so it’s enjoyable for all ages. (Even hard-to-please teens.) I can’t wait for it to come out on DVD.
June 21st, 2008 at 11:00 am
Must agree, with the same reaction from our daughter to some of the darker moments, but overall it was enjoyed by all.
A complete aside, I did not like the soundtrack all that much.
Anyone seen Kit Kitteridge yet?
June 21st, 2008 at 11:32 am
Thanks for the review. It always helps to get prospective from a fellow adoptive parent before braving a movie…..especially when you have four kids!
June 21st, 2008 at 11:56 am
We took our children and they loved it. We never think twice about any mention of adoption in movies, that is just us. Oh, and my DH loved it too.
June 21st, 2008 at 12:16 pm
We went on Father’s Day and all enjoyed it. Our 20y old can’t wait for it to come out on DVD and she had the same reaction as RQ to the scenery. She said it made her miss China. Our four year old is also sensitive to loud noises, and doesn’t do well with any “scary” parts in movies and did amazingly well in this movie. When she was three she probably wouldn’t have sat through it in a theater for those two reasons, but would have watched on DVD at home and just come and gone through the parts that were bothersome.
Angelina Jolie was the voice to one of the characters so maybe she had a hand in how the “obvious” adoptions of a couple of characters played out. I loved it~ they were just their kid’s, no discussion needed!
June 21st, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but my 11 year old really liked it. He didn’t even mention anything about any of the characters being adopted, and he’s a really perceptive kid. I’m looking forward to seeing it myself.
As far as the scary parts, I went to a literature workshop a while back and the presentor discussed scary themes in literature and movies in relation to younger children. I really liked her philosophy as she thought that children need to LEARN how to handle scary situations in life in a safe environment such as…the story circle at school with their friends and teacher…on Mommy or Daddy’s lap while watching a movie, etc. She did point out the difference in “scary” and “gruesome or terrifying”. Scary is ok, even good for kids…gruesome or terrifying, not acceptable.
June 21st, 2008 at 12:42 pm
My 4 y.o. daughter loved it, as did I, and Grandpa! I can’t wait for it to come out on dvd. My dd takes tae kwon do, so she really enjoyed the fighting scenes.
DD also covered her ears during a lot of the movies. Why do the theatres turn the volume up so darn high?!?!
June 21st, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Our boys (7 and 4) loved it! As did my husband and I. It was humorous when they showed Panda’s father and my 7 year old looks at me and says “wow, he has to be adopted”. It was kinda funny. In our home, adoption is just as common of a word as please and thank you. The parts that I thought might be scary for my 4 year old had so much humor in them that the scary was overlooked. I do agree the fat jokes were something my 7 year old remembered, so I had to remind him that we don’t make jokes that may hurt others feelings. All in all, we give it “two thumbs up”!
June 21st, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Just returned from the movie a few hours ago. My 9 year old loved it, my 6 year old left the movie 1/4 into to it and my 4 year old really liked it- but lept his hands over his ears the whole time. My 6 year old has some sensory issues and the loudness of the movie and some of the scary scenes made him fearful. He wanted to leave at the first scary scene. I think it was just too much for him, but he does not do well with movie theatres in general. I was proud he gave it a shot and he happily left when he grandma showed up to get him.
My dh and I did like it a lot and laughed out loud at a lot of the funny parts. I loved the message and thought the movie was a good one! Looking forward to adding it to our collection when it comes out as well!
LID 5/06
June 21st, 2008 at 8:16 pm
My 2 1/2 year old loved it. He always says now he wants to see “kung foo bear”. I saw nothing wrong with it.
June 21st, 2008 at 9:13 pm
We saw it yesterday, and loved it! My 6 yr old son, has had a facination with kung fu or karate for over a year now, and this movie has been a much anticipated event in our family!!!
I particularly liked how Po embrasses himself, for who he is “THE fat panda” and all!!! (that bit is in the trailer… so I’m not giving anything away!!!)
We all thoroughly enjoyed it, and I’d recommend it to anyone.
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:11 am
I loved Kung Fu Panda - My 4 yr old also liked it. He didn’t find it scary and sat through the whole movie without a problem. IlLoved the scenery, loved the story and the message, loved how an obvious adoption situation was just a fact of life and no big deal. Favorite line - “You often meet your destiny on the path you took to avoid it.”
The volume wasn’t as bad as usual in the theater, but it is usually unnecessarily loud. When I remember, I bring those foam earplug things for both of us. We can still hear everything (which tells you something about the volume!) but it takes the edge off.
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I took our 16 month old to this movie last week. He was so cute, he sat in his little portable high chair, and ate his raisinettes and really enjoyed the movie. He was quiet the whole time except about 2/3rds of the way through he decided his Dad was hiding somewhere in the dark theatre. He started calling out “Dad, Daaaad, Dad?” and looking under the seats and all around. We will definitely buy this one when it comes out. It is so nice to not have the adoption theme even mentioned and to not have the main characters have to go through a parent dying. My older son loved the Lion King when he was small but the Mufasa death scene is horrible for children.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:20 am
We took our 4 year old daughter to it the first weekend it opened - in fact that Friday night. She’s not scared of much, but is sensitive to loud noises. She enjoyed the movie, BUT DID NOT LIKE the one scene when the “bad guy” (the big guy) fought the little guy. SHe covered her face with her blanked and asked me to watch it for her. Other than that tho, she LOVED IT. Asked when we could buy it and bring it home the next day. On the sensitive issue, that is why we won’t bring her to see Wall-E in the movie theater - think it will be too intense and lound for her at the theater, but definitely will be one we watch at home.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:39 am
We saw it yesterday! It was fun. The movie is a obvious parody of those “artsy” kung fu movies that have become popular lately. A lot of the visual style is taken from those. All in all it was cute. They never made it clear if the panda was adopted or not. We kept joking that the noodle scenes were making us hungry. What do you think the panda went on to do with his life? Kung fu noodlemaker?
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I took my 20 month daughter and her cousin who is 5. My daughter watched about 1/2 hour of it and then fell asleep for the rest of the movie. Her cousin did find certain scenes scary and told me he was going to cover his eyes, too cute! I liked the movie and I am not one who likes these types of films so that is saying a lot about the film. The adoption connection did not click with me until I read RQs post! I guess I just thought that they didn’t look alike and that his mom was a panda. :)
June 24th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
This may seem kind of corny, but I was shopping for clothes for our son we will be bringing home at the end of July, and just couldn’t resist the Kung Fu Panda pajamas. And I haven’t even seen the movie yet!