Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five (2008) (V)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Raman Hui

Writers:

Todd Berger (screenplay)
Jed Diffenderfer (story)
(more)

Release Date:

9 November 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Short | Action | Comedy | Family

Tagline:

Po's All-New Adventure!

Plot:

Ordered to teach a martial arts class of rambunctious bunny kittens, Po tells stories of each of the Furious Five's pasts.

Plot Keywords:

Martial Arts | Computer Animation | Lesson | Tiger | Praying Mantis

Awards:

4 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Jack Black	...	Po (voice)
Dustin Hoffman	...	Shifu (voice)
Will Shadley	...	Nerdy Bunny (voice)
Eamon Pirruccello	...	Impatient Bunny (voice)
Grace Rolek	...	Shy Bunny (voice)
Max Koch	...	Mantis (voice)
Tom Owens	...	Ladybug (voice)
Carol Kane	...	Sheep (voice)
John Di Maggio	...	Gorilla / Crocodile (voice)
Stephen Kearin	...	Crocodile #2 (voice)
James Sie	...	Viper Dad / Pig (voice)
Meredith Scott Lynn	...	Viper Mom (voice)
Jessica Di Cicco	...	Young Viper (voice)
Stephanie Lemelin	...	Mei Ling (voice)
David Cross	...	Crane (voice)
Jim Cummings	...	The Instructor (voice)
Tara Strong	...	Young Tigress (voice)
Jaycee Chan	...	Young Monkey (voice)
Randall Duk Kim	...	Oogway (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Elizabeth Ann Bennett	...	Ant / Bunny

Directed by
Raman Hui

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Todd Berger		screenplay
Jed Diffenderfer		story concept
Paul McEvoy		screenplay

Produced by
Melissa Cobb	....	executive producer
Karen Foster	....	producer
Hameed Shaukat	....	associate producer

Film Editing by
John Venzon

Production Management
Mary Bills	....	production manager
Corrie Coughlin	....	production supervisor
Pete Herzog	....	production manager
Suzannah Szabo	....	production manager

Art Department
Stephan Franck	....	storyboard artist
Steve Hickner	....	storyboard artist
Dan Krall	....	background painter

Sound Department
Bryan Bowen	....	sound effects editor
Laurent Kossayan	....	supervising sound editor
Michael Miller	....	original dialogue mixer

Visual Effects by
John Anderholm	....	technical director
Ulysses Argetta	....	digital compositor
Brent M. Bowen	....	digital compositor
Scott Brisbane	....	matte painting supervisor
Jason Brubaker	....	compositor
Laura Bussinger	....	animation coordinator
Christopher Buzon	....	lighting artist
Frédéric Côté	....	animator: Reel FX (as Fred Cote)
Richard Gouge	....	lighter & compositor
Michael P. Hamler	....	lead lighter
Andy Jolliff	....	compositor
Steve Kolbe	....	visual effects supervisor
John Nesselrodt	....	lighter & compositor
Andrew Pearce	....	director of reseach and development
Wonchan Song	....	lighter
Julie Terrell	....	texture artist
Erik Tillmans	....	compositor
Michael A. Wallace	....	cloth artist
Michael A. Wallace	....	layout artist

Stunts
Xihuaru Kilcher	....	stunt performer

Animation Department
Kent Alfred	....	animator
James Baxter	....	animator
Aja Bogdanoff	....	animator
Tony Bonilla	....	animator
Ernesto Bottger	....	animator
Jason Brubaker	....	assistant animator
Ray Chase	....	character animator
Sandro Cleuzo	....	animator
Mick De Falco	....	layout artist
Frank Dietz	....	clean-up animator
Eric Drobile	....	animator
Bryan Engram	....	animation department head: Reel FX
Sean Ermey	....	animator
Andre Forni	....	animator
Shaun Freeman	....	animator
Jay Jackson	....	animator
Joseph P. Johnston	....	animator
Marisa Ledina	....	animation checking supervisor
Frank Molieri	....	animator
Scott O'Brien	....	animator
Ruel Pascual	....	animator
Pierre Perifel	....	animator
Philip Pignotti	....	additional character design
Philip Pignotti	....	character animator
Jason William Scheier	....	background artist
Jason William Scheier	....	background designer
Dan Segarra	....	character animator
Chad Sellers	....	animator
Chris Sonnenberg	....	animation supervisor
Trevor Tamboline	....	head of clean-up
Erik Tillmans	....	assistant animator
Dave Vallone	....	animation supervisor
David B. Vallone	....	animation supervisor
Vitor Vilela	....	animator
Andreas Wessel-Therhorn	....	animator

Editorial Department
James Beshears	....	editorial and post-production executive
Lauren Lear	....	assistant editor
Peter Lonsdale	....	additional editor
Paul Neal	....	editor: high definition

Music Department
Jack Dolman	....	technical score assistant
Peter Oso Snell	....	assistant music editor

Other crew
Karla M. Alvarado	....	production assistant
Tim Archer	....	post supervisor: Reel FX
Oliver Benavidez	....	production assistant
Allison Bernardi	....	media coordinator
Christopher Ell	....	production coordinator
Wayne Hellinger	....	post-production office supervisor
Cohl Klop	....	adr voice (as Cohl Kenneth Klop)
Rob Renshaw	....	production accountant
Jon Young	....	media coordinator

Production Companies

• DreamWorks Animation
• Reel FX Creative Studios

Distributors

• Paramount (2009) (Sweden) (DVD)

Runtime:

25 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Netherlands:6 | UK:PG | Singapore:PG | Australia:G

Company:

DreamWorks Animation

Trivia:

Jaycee Chan, who voices the young Monkey, is in real life the son of Jackie Chan, who voices Master Monkey in the movie; and James Sie, the voice of Viper's father, is best known in the role of Jackie Chan in the animated series "Jackie Chan Adventures" (2000).

Quotes:

Shifu: Tigress? I am Shifu. I am...
Young Tigress: Afraid?
Shifu: No.
Young Tigress: Well you should be! I am Tigress. Tigress the monster. A monster no one wants.
Shifu: You are not a monster. You're just a little girl.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

A bit obvious and not the most inspired short but still solidly entertaining for what it is

As Dragon Warrior, Po has had to face many challenges but on this day he must face one that would intimidate any great warrior – training the newest recruit of bunnies in the way of kung-fu. Left alone to fend for himself by Shifu, Po finds his class are only interested in the fighting part of the art and are keen to get down to kicking one another as soon as possible. In order to educate them in the true ways of the art, Po tells them of the Furious Five and how they became masters by learning life lessons of patience, courage, confidence, self-control and compassion.

As with the animated films from Pixar, Dreamworks included this short film on the Kung-Fu Panda DVD and I decided to give it a try. In a way it is a fitting inclusion to the main film because to my mind both the film and the short are enjoyable for what they are but at the same time are not quite up to the quality of the products produced by Pixar. With this film its main problem is that the plot is just too obvious in the moralising compared to some of the brilliant shorts from Pixar that can deliver the same message but are generally very inventive and clever. I didn't really get this here but, if you ignore this weakness of comparison then the short is still quite entertaining.

It is not really ever hilarious but it does consistently amuse across the twenty minutes and it doesn't really ram the moral down your throat (although it does push it into your mouth). The animation is mixed – perhaps for financial reasons but it does work within the context of the short. The bits with Po and his class are of the same quality as in the main film but the stories that make up the majority of the running time are delivered in a more hand-drawn style that looks cheaper (because, by comparison, it is). However don't let this take away from how good it looks because it is still stylish – sort of like the animation that opens the main film albeit it not as striking or as well done as that. Each story is relatively straight forward with a moral at the end of each one but they do more or less work.

The voice work is a little distracting though – not so much for what they do but more the obvious absences. Black and Hoffman are good, each reprising their voices in the main part of the short film – Black in particular puts a lot of energy into it, but the Furious Fives themselves not so much. Cross is good as Crane (probably having as many words as in the main film) but the others are mostly absent. Some of the characters are children in their stories so therefore it would not have been sensible to use adult voices but it is a bit strange why Chan or Rogen couldn't have found a bit of time to record the couple of lines needed for this – especially considering how few lines they had in the main film.

Either way the short is solid and entertaining with a solid if obvious moral message for the kids (and bunnies). That said it does feel a bit lacking in inspiration and does give the impression that it was made because it had to be rather than made out of a good idea or passion for the project – a cynical view perhaps but it is hard not to feel that at points, not due to something the film does but things that similar films do so much better.