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

The original film, despite it's silly ending, was at least one of DreamWorks Animation's stronger films with great characters, excellent Kung Fu action sequences, a compelling story, beautiful animation, and an epic music score from Hans Zimmer and John Powell. So, when I saw this short that continues where the first Kung Fu Panda left off, I thought it wouldn't be as good as the film. It turns out that it's a very entertaining short, although it doesn't have the same inspiring message that made it very solid.The story, while explaining the back-stories of the Furious Five really well, is a tad predictable in some parts; the humor isn't as strong as the movie and I expected it to be a bit longer like say 40 minutes so that it can explain the back-stories better. That's all I have to say about the flaws.Everything else is great. The CGI is fine, but it's traditional animation sequences of the Furious Five's backstories is what made this worth watching for me. It's so beautiful and the character designs from the movie are nicely detailed here. The voice acting is pretty good and although we only saw Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, and David Cross return, the voice actors for only four of the Furious Five including Tara Strong, Max Koch, Jessica DiCicco, and James Sie (Jackie from Jackie Chan Adventures) did a good job. The music score from Hans Zimmer, & John Powell (along with Henry Jackman), does retain the same tunes from the movie while using a lot of different stuff in it, which isn't a bad thing. The characters are still as likable as they were especially the young Furious Five warriors.Overall, Secrets of the Furious Five isn't as inspiring as the original film, but it proved to be a lot more entertaining than I imagined and I think those who haven't seen it should check it out.

My thanks go out to Dreamworks on such a great piece of marketing! 'The next Kung Fu Panda Adventure!' - sprawled in bold letters across the front of the DVD case. Be aware folks - this is not a feature length movie, it is 24 minutes of not a lot. As a previous member has posted, yes it probably was our fault for not reading the back which states '24 Min's approx'. I hope it raised the much needed funds for buying the MD's Christmas Champagne hamper. What's next DW - 'Purchasing this DVD enrols you into our monthly subscription plan, unless you cancel within 30 seconds?' I will be reading the small print on all future releases from Dreamworks.

After being pleasantly surprised with Kung Fu Panda, I decided to check out this direct-to-video feature packaged with the DVD release. Now, if you look at this as direct-to-video, it's not bad. They certainly come much, MUCH worse. But if you're expecting something as satisfying as the source film, you will be let down. You'll also be let down if you expect all the originals actors to be present. This is something that would be right at home on Saturday morning television. There are a few CG scenes here, but the feature mainly uses the stylized 2d technique seen at the beginning of Kung Fu Panda. Nothing's wrong with that. What really sinks this for me is the poor story. Everything about this feature "dumbs down" the plot of its source material reducing the origins of these important characters to simple morality tales. It takes the easy road on these potentially deep characters and ends up being a bit of a letdown.

Well, lets just say that the producers did not try on making this side feature. It doesn't look like its too much beyond story board. The only tie-in is the whole Kung Fu Panda part.Anyway, you get to see little bits a pieces of the 5 main characters aside from Jack Black's panda. Yes, to the serious fan of the movie I guess they are OK. But to anybody else, they are a waste of time. And there is nothing more than that.Overall, not much can be said. It isn't good and its not even in CGI. Lets hope next time they can make a side feature that actually has the same animation skill as the main feature. "F"