Kung Fu Panda (Great with a 7 year old, but still Disney)

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Ok, so I checked with Miranda before I posted this and she said it was ok I decided that I needed some quality time with my nephew and we went to go see this movie,a Disney/Pixar film. The movie was about a young panda who dreamed about being a kung fu warrior and escaping the doldrums of his family business as noodle makers. He becomes the chosen one and is given the dragon scroll because he is the only one that can defeat evil the warrior that wants to take the scroll and destroy the valley. All the other kung fu animals in the film were animals that are generally depicted in the Chinese Zodiac. Lots of ducks and bunnies play the peasants, but the kung fu animals are monkeys, tigers, cranes and snakes. There was also lots of flying through the air and dramatic fights, much in the vain of kung fu movies. I did laugh at the film and enjoyed it with my nephew, but really it just proved to be another of Disney's plays on a culture that reduced it to questionable stereotypes. Obviously it is a matter of making money and playing up ideas that will sell. I wonder how much of the American public knows about China come through kung fu movies? Is that the prevalent idea of Chinese culture, along with fortune cookie, that we have in America? What does the effect of movies such as these have on children and what they learn about different groups and different parts of the world? Anyway, I generally try to avoid Disney movies because they leave me with more questions about the society and the culture that I live in. If anyone has any answers let me know what you think.

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