'Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special,' special
This is far from a Christmas story, set in a Chinese village
By Tom Conroy
Nov 22, 2010
Some people have expressed annoyance over the increased use of the word “holiday” in place of “Christmas,” especially by national retailers and media outlets.
The title of NBC’s “Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special,” airing this Wednesday, Nov. 24, at 8:30 p.m., might seem to be a lightning rod in this controversy, but the network really deserves a pass. After all, one can’t realistically expect a panda to be celebrating the birth of Christ in what appears to be a medieval Chinese village.
In any case, it’s hard to begrudge this show anything. Though the story is slight and will be predictable to even the youngest viewers, the 3D animation is spectacular, even beautiful at times, living up to the standard set by the 2008 “Kung Fu Panda” movie.
What’s more, the producers have managed to reassemble most of the stars in the original movie’s voice cast, including Jack Black as Po, the tubby panda who discovered that he is the prophesied Dragon Warrior, and Dustin Hoffman as Shifu, his often exasperated martial-arts master.
In the special, Shifu tells Po that he must host the annual Winter Festival banquet for the country’s kung-fu masters, even though Po’s father, Mr. Ping (James Hong), who runs a noodle shop, always throws a big party that night. Mr. Ping says he provides a destination “for lonely people who have no place else to go….And lonely people pay extra.”
As in the movie, Po has a hard time meeting Shifu’s standards. Unable to learn the ritual meaning of hand gestures, he inadvertently insults a prospective chef (Jack McBrayer), a little bunny who spends the rest of the special trying to regain his honor by getting Po to kill him in battle or, failing that, in the kitchen.
As befits a family TV show, there’s little straight violence. A battle between bandits and the members of the Furious Five (Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, et al.) is played for laughs.
This being a holiday special, few people will be surprised when Po and Ping wind up celebrating Winter Festival together, but the way they get there could be cleverer.
The visuals, however, are top quality. The quick-cut scenes of Po and his associates preparing the banquet are particularly inventive. As in the movie, some of the wide shots show how beautiful computer-generated animation can be.
Though fans of the movie will be happy to catch up with the characters in anticipation of the release of the sequel next year, the merely serviceable script will probably keep “Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special” from becoming a Christmas — er, holiday — perennial.
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