Kung Fu and Cannon Balls

[Spoiler alert for anyone who’s not seen Kung Fu Panda 2 or is planning to!]

I’m still laughing…how DID the makers of the movie buy the story and even better how did the writers of the story have the conviction to sell it! Amazing!

Imagine twirling your feet in complicated circles SO THAT you can find inner peace. Lest you imagine some self-evolved soul smiling beatifically, let me shatter your illusions…or give you better ones.

You use the INNER PEACE to deflect cannon balls! Whoa! And that has set me off again, shrieking with laughter!

Forget VERISIMILITUDE [that beast that writers wrestle with so that their story sounds probable, even possible, to readers] or even a WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF [another beast that writers hope the readers will indulge in just so that they can write a fantastic story] Kung Fu Panda gleefully dives right into absurd territory!

AND it’s replete with all the elements that make the absurd wonderful – a wisecracking panda in China who acts distinctly American and if that is not enough there is also a very Indian movie-style music thumping in the background as the Furious Five leap, twirl and kick down their enemies!

The animation is fabulous [Am I using too may superlatives? Well, this is a superlative kind of movie!], the use of 3D is bang on and the visuals…so beautiful, you wish the camera had paused for more than a moment so that you could take in the attention given to each detail.

Image Courtesy: Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons