Kung Fu Panda Holiday

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.

Since I was fat during my school years, this animation gave me motivation. Panda's short film. It was fun. But it wasn't that good.

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

This animation tells the story of Po the Panda, who has to prepare for a family feast for the winter festival. However, he finds out he has to also prepare for a feast for masters as it is the responsibility as the Dragon Warrior. He tries hard to balance his familial duty and his duty as the Dragon Warrior.

"Kung Fu Panda Holiday" is quite a sweet animation film, because it is fun as usual. The jokes are funny, and I giggled quite a few times. The fact that they highlight the struggle two different duties is a good thing, because this might be unfamiliar to Western people, but all to familiar to people in the East. The festive theme makes the story light and fun. I enjoyed it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first Kung Fu Panda films, and while not as good it still had much to like about it. The story while having some nice heart-warming moments is rather predictable and isn't very surprising, and while the dialogue and jokes certainly aren't bad I personally found most of them only amusing in alternative to laugh-out-loud hilarious(like Merry Madagascar, Shrek the Halls and especially Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper). However the animation is simply spectacular with the colours so rich and the characters moving easily. The music is rousing, the characters are endearing especially Shifu though you do empathise with Po and the voice work from Jack Black, Dustin Hoffmann and Angelina Jolie is great. Overall, good holiday special, predictable and not always very funny but beautiful to watch. 7/10 Bethany Cox