Kung Fu Panda Holiday (2010)

Mr. Ping has nightmare of his son Po leaving him. Shifu asks Po to host the Winter Festival when the Kung Fu masters gather. Po decides to reject the best chefs of the land in favor of his father to spend more time with him. However, his father refuses to leave his customers behind. Wo Hop is rabbit looking to regain his honor by dying while fighting the Dragon Warrior. Po struggles to make the preparations and finds help from the Furious Five.This is a functional family holiday fare. It's got the original cast and the familiar characters. Po learns another lesson and it all ends well. It's not particularly unusual.

Holiday specials are very much hit or miss. Merry Madagascar is remarkably good, the Ice Age special is OK. But this is horrible, but no redeeming features. The story is precisely the sort of crap you expect in the worst such specials --- Po learns a valuable lesson about the importance of family, blah blah --- with absolutely none of the surprise, subversion, or humor that one finds in the better such specials.The animation is likewise derivative, generic, with none of the originality of the movie.Saddest of all was the attempt to pretend that what we are watching is Christmas (as understood by East Coast America --- no snow in LA!) without ever actually saying the word; instead we get vague references to the "Winter Feast".

I love, love, love this. The Kung Fu Panda holiday special is the only really good holiday special I've ever seen. I thought that it was extremely funny and extremely heart-warming. As always, great plot, great moral, great characters. Another perk was the rabbit chef who kept trying to fight Po to the death in order to reclaim his honor. I can't help but feel that without that rabbit the story would have sagged a bit. It's a truly beautiful short about how Po needs to choose between spending the Winter holiday with his Dad, and whether or not to fulfill his duties as the Dragon Warrior. Really touching. It may not be perfect, but it is nonetheless spectacular.

After Po was chosen to become the Dragon Warrior and defeated Tai Lung in the original KFP, he becomes appointed to host the Winter Feast at the Jade Palace for all 29 kung fu masters despite his needs to help his father Mr. Ping to prepare for the holidays. When he needed the Furious Five to help him prepare the annual at this time of year, he learns that spending time with a father is much more important than the annual feast and goes to his father which results in doing the right thing and the kung fu masters along with the Furious Five arrive for the holiday. Shifu goes there and is persuaded by Po to join him since he has a family.Although, not as great as the original's plot, the plot in this holiday special wasn't that bad. The computer animation was beautiful with the same lovely visuals. The characters are once again likable and the voice acting was as perfect as the original's. Even the music from Hans Zimmer and John Powell (accompanied by Henry Jackman) was pretty good.Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special would always be recommended to fans of the franchise as one of Dreamworks' wonderful holiday specials.Rating: 9/10