#Kung fu panda 1 villain movie#

A goose flies off with this message as Master Oogway states that “One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.” Shifu demands that word be sent to double the prison guards and weapons and make sure Tai Lung will not escape. The Dragon Warrior is said to obtain his power by reading from the Dragon Scroll and it is this scroll that Tai Lung, a violent and power-hungry snow leopard, seeks to obtain. Master Oogway tells Shifu that he has had a vision that Tai Lung will escape from prison and that it is time to find the one who will become the Dragon Warrior. We can deduce pretty quickly that Shifu is gruff, impatient, intolerant, worrisome and that something gnaws at him constantly.

In the next scene we are transported to the Jade Palace, or the Special World in Hero’s Journey terms, and here we are introduced to Master Shifu and old Master Oogway. There are more layers of truth in a lot of these than most live-action movies contain. I’m always telling you, Dear Listeners, to pay attention to these animated films. Īnd do you see the lessons, good for children and adults, already being stacked up here? Keep that tofu dream in mind for Kung Fu Panda 2. Ping, when he was “young and crazy” had once wanted to run away from the noodle restaurant and make tofu, but he didn’t because he felt it was a stupid dream. Ping takes this as a sign that Po is ready to know the secret ingredient of the Secret Ingredient Soup and to fulfill his destiny and take over the restaurant. So, Po tells his father that he had dreamed about noodles and Mr. Honestly, I think Po feels that he’s not worthy. Spoiler alert: Po’s adopted! We’re not supposed to know this until the second movie!Īnyway, Po’s Call to Adventure, his desire, his bliss is to learn Kung Fu, but he seems to be embarrassed about this desire or he thinks it’s impossible. Ping, a goose, asks Po what he dreamed about. However, he wakes up to his same-old, day to day life, his Normal Existence or Normal World, in his father’s noodle restaurant. Kung Fu Panda begins with Po having a dream about being a Kung Fu master. So, view yourself as either Po or as Master Shifu and I’ll explain the alternate points-of-view as we go through the film. Nothing on Kung Fu Panda in their list of videos yet. Hopefully Film Theorists doesn’t work this one out before I’m done with it.

#Kung fu panda 1 villain movie#

Yes, this movie is the beginning of Po’s Hero’s Journey.īut Kung Fu Panda – and parts of Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3 – is Master Shifu’s story. Yes, Po absolutely is the protagonist and the Hero. There are two ways of viewing Kung Fu Panda. As we make our way through each of these Kung Fu Panda movies, I’ll point out to you how Po changes the world around him by changing himself first.Īs we begin, I am once again going to encourage you to envision that this movie is happening inside of you. Watching and writing about these movies is teaching me a lot about being a teacher and how this fits within our own Hero’s Journeys.Īnyway, these Kung Fu Panda movies also highly represent what I have adopted for my tagline for this podcast: Change Your Self. Okay, well, what I said still applies and Po is my favourite of those two Heroes and I think Po makes it further into his Mentor’s Journey.

Lightning McQueen began his Mentor’s Journey as well.

As far as I’ve been able to tell, thus far, Po is one of the only Heroes in any set of movies that makes it all the way around the wheel of the Hero’s Journey and actually begins his Mentor’s Journey. Po, the protagonist, is one of my favourite heroes. Hello Spiritual Seekers and welcome to a brand new episode of Think Spiritual Podcasts.Īs always I’m your host, Mark, and today I’m finally tackling a trio of movies that I’ve been wanting to talk about for a long, long time: Kung Fu Panda 1, 2 and 3. So, here we go with the manliest of the bunch: Kung Fu Panda. It’s a lot of movie watching, a lot of analysis and a lot of writing. I’m finally doing it.įor the past couple of years there have been three trilogies of movies that I’ve been wanting to tackle on this podcast: