Kung Fu Panda is an action-packed 3-D animated film produced by DreamWorks Animation in 2008. The film follows the story of a clumsy panda named Po who dreams of being a Kung Fu master. The story takes place in a fictional version of ancient China in which there are no humans. Instead, the world is populated with anthromorphic animals. Among them are the kung fu masters such as Mantis, Crane, Tigress, Monkey, and Viper of the Furious Five whom Po admires. The film was shot to be an action comedy wuxia, a Chinese adventure genre featuring martial artists. To make the kung fu fighting entertaining and appealing to children, the film breaks the laws of physics to exaggerate the skills of the kung fu fighters. It is the superhuman abilities of the kung fu masters which keep the audience in awe and amazement even during the ridiculously comedic parts.
Although the main characters of the film are kung fu masters, they are able to perform superhuman feats that not even the most skilled martial artist should be able to perform. In the film, there are two categories of people. The average normal strength people who mostly follow the laws of physics and those who know kung fu and essentially have superpowers.
The first example of the difference in powers is when Po is announced as the Dragon Warrior. He is lifted off by several of the temple’s servants. The first round of servants, who are geese, can barely lift Po off the ground. The second group of servants, who are pigs, are able to work together to lift Po and walk him to the temple. In contrast, Tai Lung is able to perform several impossible superhuman feats during his destructive escape from his prison because he knows kung fu. While the temple servants struggled to work together to lift one overweight panda, Tai Lung was able to pull up an enormous boulder chained to one of his arms before breaking his shackles. In reality, his arm would have been torn out of its socket.
Another example of superhuman feats is when Tigress leaves the temple to stop Tai Lung. She back flips off the temple cliff side, which is over 200 feet tall, and lands effortlessly onto a rooftop. Although cats are known to survive falls from great heights thanks to their physiology and low terminal velocity, a tiger would not be able to land safely because their size and terminal velocity is much greater.
Another unbelievable feat of superhuman strength occurs during the Furious Five’s bridge encounter with Tai Lung. Everyone goes to attack Tai Lung on the broken bridge while Mantis volunteers to hold the ropes of the entire bridge. Mantis, a 6 inch tall insect, ignores the laws of physics and instead displays an exaggerated strength.
On numerous occasions, the fighters of Kung Fu Panda actively defy the laws of gravity for dramatic effect and action scenes. The first instance of a character defying gravity is when Master Oogway is first introduced. Master Oogway is seen balanced on his head on the tip of his skinny cane. He then slowly moves down the cane as if he was as light as a feather. Considering that Master Oogway is a Galapagos tortoise upwards of 100 years old, he should weigh over 200 pounds. Under normal circumstances the crooked twig-like cane would have snapped instantly under Master Oogway‘s weight.
Another example of broken gravity is when Tai Lung is almost at the prison’s exit. As a last ditch attempt to stop him, the Rhino leader blows up stalactites hanging over the bridge to crash down and destroy the bridge. Determined to escape, Tai Lung jumps and runs from rock to rock, clearing over 30 feet with each vertical jump until he reaches the ceiling of the cave. In the span of about 20 seconds, Tai Lung went from 100 feet below the entrance, to over 50 feet above the entrance.
Another good example of broken gravity is after the Furious Five failed to stop Tai Lung. Crane flies back to the temple while carrying the rest of the Furious Five. An injured Crane should not be able to carry, let alone fly, while carrying the combined dead weight of a tiger, monkey, viper, and mantis. Once again, gravity is broken to allow the story to progress.
Although most objects in the film act as they do in the real world, the film utilizes exaggerated squash and stretch. This type of animation helps add a comedic element and also helps emphasize fighting styles. The first example is how the properties of wood and bamboo change for comedic purposes. During most of the film, wood is rigid and breaks into splinters when too much force is applied and the bamboo is durable and stays rigid. However, several times during the film Po is able to bend trees and bamboo as if they were made of rubber. The first instance is when Po is trying to vault over a wall to watch the Dragon Warrior Ceremony by using a bamboo stick. Rather than snapping under his weight, the stick bends into a half-circle before flinging Po into the wall. Later, during the battle with Tai Lung, Po pulls back a fully grown tree and flings it into Tai Lung and catapults him away. In reality the tree and bamboo would splinter and snap if they were to bend too far.
Another example of squash and stretch is seen during fights. The film does an excellent job emphasizing the fighting styles of Po and the Furious Five by using this type of animation. The use of squash and stretch is best seen in Viper’s snake kung fu style. Whenever Viper coils up for a strike, her body becomes squashed and poised to strike. When she uses her body as a whip to attack, it becomes stretched out to emphasize her tail strikes.
Another good example occurs when the final battle starts. Tai Lung lunges at Po and the two of them fly off the mountain but instead of crashing into the ground, they bounce off the stair steps like a rubber ball. For comedic effect, their faces are squashed and stretched in slow motion as they hit and bounce off the stairs. If the laws of physics were active, then their skulls would have been split open and their bones broken.
The world of Kung Fu Panda is relatively grounded in realism with the exception of those who practice kung fu. For kung fu masters, the laws of physics come secondary to martial art skill. The laws of physics are intentionally broken throughout the film to create more interesting and entertaining fight scenes. Although the kung fu masters constantly break the laws of physics, the animators were able to create a believable world by portraying realistic physics for those who were not exceptionaly talented. By separating the regular people and the kung fu masters, the film makers were able to create a team of superheroes and villains in a world without magic, mutant powers, or technology.
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