Kung Fu Panda is fantastic... here's why.

Kung Fu Panda is my favourite animated film to date. On the level of pure entertainment, I feel that it is easy to see why. The story is simple yet satisfying; witnessing this unlikely hero reach his potential and grab his destiny will never not be a treat. Not to mention the incredible, fluid animation and creative fight choreography and locations. I will always love this film for its hilarious and mesmerising ride but the quality of the film is not merely as shallow as it may seem from first glance. The two directors, Mark Osborne and John Stevenson (as well as the huge creative team behind them) took great care when crafting this amazing animated feature.

Kung Fu Panda is fantastic… here’s why. The factors that contribute to the films brilliance are multiple. They are: Use of Colour and Cultural Inspirations.

Use of Colour

In other animated films

When thinking back upon the use of colour in Kung Fu Panda, I compared it to that of other, critically acclaimed animated films. Films such as Up and Wall-E (a film which incidentally beat out Kung Fu Panda for 2009’s ‘best animated feature’ Oscar). 

In the case of Up, almost the entire film is both lit and coloured in extremely bright and vibrant colours. This is to capture the characters’ sense of wonder throughout the film’s big adventure. However this reasoning feels a little general to me to apply to an entire film. While it is effective, the film only employs colour to convey two emotions: wonder and sadness – this is shown through the use of more dull lighting towards the end of the opening sequence and when the villain is first confronted.

Wall-E also has a rather general use of colour throughout its runtime. For the first half of the film, the Earth is bleak using greys, browns and beige colours to convey this. Later on the film, the colour palette switches to a cleaner mix of brilliant whites and bright primary colours. This shows the decadence and lavish lives the remaining humans lead upon the space station. While this is an impressive use of an almost subconscious connection within the viewer’s mind, once again it is general and is only utilising colour once in the whole film.

In Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda on the other hand utilises colour to great effect almost constantly throughout the film. Specific colours of objects and the colour of lighting have specific significance and meaning in the film; different colours creating both a specific mood and showing something about how the character is thinking. The major colours that are used often throughout the film are: Gold to show heroism, Green to show wisdom, Blue used for both evil and sadness and Red is used to show power. These colours are used properly a frankly ridiculous amount of times.

Gold is used often and in reference to many characters too. Perhaps the most notable use of the colour in the film is when Po uses the Wuxi finger hold on Tai Lung. When Po drops his little finger the power of the hold is unleashed and a massive shockwave is seen. The wave is gold to show the heroism of this, the culminating moment of the entire film. Slightly before this final moment is a shot that begins the final fight between Po and Tai Lung.  Po stands in front of the obliterated entrance of the temple in front of the golden aura of the setting sun. There is no better time to show heroism than this and the golden lighting in the scene does this perfectly.

 Po is not the only character to be shrouded in golden heroism; Master Oogway is also met the colour multiple times. The foremost example of this is the fact that Oogway’s robe is golden – an almost constant reminder of the character’s heroism. Oogway’s nerve touch is also golden, this is seen when he incapacitates an attacking Tai Lung. This constant use of gold regarding Oogway subliminally reaffirms that he is a Master more powerful than any other character in the film. One final use of gold in the film is within that of the Dragon Scroll. Firstly, the paper within the scroll is shiny, reflective gold. The use of gold here is obvious as the scroll is utilised as a symbol for heroism constantly throughout the film. The scroll is the objective for both Po and Tai Lung its hero factor being provided by the fact that both characters see themselves as the hero of their own story. Not only is the scroll itself made heroic but the dragon sculpture that hold the scroll also carries symbolism. When Po is retrieving the Dragon Scroll from Shifu, the sculpture shines gold. However, when Tai Lung is retrieving the Scroll, the sculpture is a dull blue, symbolising Tai Lung’s evil intent.

Green, in the film, is used to show wisdom. This is shown many times. For instance, Oogway, as a tortoise, is an almost entirely green character. This makes sense with Oogway being by far the wisest character in the film. Also, in the sequel, Shifu’s robe becomes green as strives to achieve inner piece and a level of wisdom similar to that of Oogway. Green is a colour used less in the film than gold because wisdom is less prolific than heroism in the film. Oogway is the only truly wise character in the film.

Blue however, is used a ton! For starters, Tai Lung is blue. Blue, being the negative colour of the film, almost subconsciously introduces Tai Lung as the villain at first sight. Coupled with this, Tai Lung’s eyes are a striking gold. This is because of the notion that the villain, in many cases, is the hero of their own story. Tai Lung doesn’t see himself as a villain. In his eyes, he is merely fulfilling his destiny as the Dragon Warrior.

 Another use of blue in the film is the entirety of Chorh-Gom Prison. Initially, the transition from a brightly lit Shifu to a dark mountain range is incredibly striking and foreboding. You see the darkness of the scene and you know something’s about to go down.

 Blue is also a colour that pervades the rest of the film growing more and more in the valley as the threat of Tai Lung grows nearer. In the climactic scene, the lighting is duller and in the fight between Tai Lung and Shifu, the background is a flurry of dark clouds and lightning.

Finally… red. Red is the colour of power in the film and is used appropriately. At the very start of the film, in the dream sequence, the main colour in the palette is red. This is to show the power that Po dreams of and will forever strive to.

            Next, we return to Chorh-Gom Prison for perhaps one of the best uses of red in the entire film. All of the torches on the walls of the prison produce a red flame symbolising the power that the rhino guards have over the immobilised Tai Lung. As Tai Lung escapes from the prison, he extinguishes the flames, subsequently removing the power from the guards. Not only this, the arrows that the guards shoot (and miss) are red and almost blot out the sky when they fire upon Tai Lung.

I haven’t included every single use of colour in the film for two reasons. The real reason – I don’t know every single one. The filmmakers were clearly incredibly aware of the visuals that they were using. This means that many great uses slip by that I don’t even notice but rest assured, they’re there. The reason I would like to maintain is that I don’t want to spoil a fantastic film for you. I just want to tell you that the use of colour is great and give you the tools to discover for yourself, the hidden meanings within the visuals of Kung Fu Panda.

Cultural Inspirations

The directors of Kung Fu Panda both confess to being huge fans of anime and Asian entertainment. This meant that they drew a lot of inspiration from such mediums as well as well-known Asian landmarks.

 

Firstly, right off the bat, the dream sequence is clearly homage to the traditional 2D animation style. The closest thing I can compare the style of the sequence to is the cult martial arts cartoon, Samurai Jack. This use of a similar style subconsciously makes a connection to those viewers who are aware of such relevant animations. Also, it’s beautiful to look at and is hilarious.

Chorh-Gom Prison! I love this scene. It’s great and no-one can say a word against that. One of the best pieces of trivia surrounding the film is the fact that the bridges going around the inside of the prison are built to look like the Great Wall of China. It’s basically made to look like someone took the Great Wall of China and wound around the inside of a mountain and then had an awesome looking fight scene within it. I find it very hard to describe just how happy that detail makes me.

Even further… Furious Five! You may be thinking, ‘why are the furious five the animals that they are?’ Well, for the most part the animals are classic styles of Kung Fu. Crane, Tiger, Snake and Monkey are all well known forms Kung Fu allowing the martial artist different benefits. The only member of the Furious Five not built from a fighting style is Mantis. The final animal style of Kung Fu is usually Dragon but lets be honest, if there was a dragon in the film, no one would be able to stand up to him. A dragon would be really cool but it would never make sense as a character so minor as Mantis. Another fighting style that is sometimes adopted is the Leopard. Tai Lung is a snow leopard. This film is amazing. In the first training scene, Po even mentions some of the styles when he is pretending to actually know Kung Fu. Making the animal styles of Kung Fu into actually anthropomorphised characters shows the level of detail afforded to the rest of the film.

The final inspiration is pretty trivial but I enjoy it anyway. In the scene where the Furious Five are performing to the residents of the valley, Po is trapped outside the Jade Palace and so decides to get in by flying on a fireworks powered chair. This is based on a very similar Chinese tale. The proverb of Wan Hu is a tale in which a man attempts to fly to the moon by strapping forty-seven rockets to the bottom of a chair. Just like Po’s attempt, Wan Hu’s plan did not go as he expected, as he was never seen again after lift-off. This proverb was tested on MythBusters. I didn’t work.

Conclusion

At the very least, I hope that this have given you the imputes to go back and watch the film looking carefully for the inspirations and symbolic colours.

Also, I don’t want to say that I dislike the films Up or Wall-E (they’re both adequate and hugely overrated).  I just wanted to compare Kung Fu Panda to films that are often regarded as the best animated films... even though it’s not true.

Kung Fu Panda is fantastic and that is why.