We took the kids to go see Kung Fu Panda II this afternoon. The Movie is awesome. The animation by Dreamworks is spectacular, the voice overs are superbly done and the writing/plot is first rate. I'd give this movie a solid 9/10.

Now... I'd also like to point out a few things that I (as a Tai Chi player) saw within the movie that perhaps others might not.

First off the main character's name is... Po :) That should mean something to anyone that reads my blog. In the movie Po finds out that the goose who has raised him is really not his father (hahaha) and takes that bit of news pretty hard. So Po starts to question who he really is? I see this as an analogy that all serious Tai Chi players must deal with at some point on the path to discovery. Who am I?

Po's challenger in the movie is called Shen. Shen in TCM is one of the three treasures and referes to "spirit". In the movie Shen has many devices at his disposal that he can summon to challenge Po, not the least of which are plenty of wolves led by a one eyed Alpha. Here I see the one eye being extremely significant (just look at the back of an American one dollar bill to see what I am referring to) as is the wolves as enforcers personification. Shen develops a weapon of mass destruction and threatens the whole of China with it.

Throughout the movie Po is also trying to comprehend and digest Sifu's last lesson which is about obtaining "inner peace".

So the overall plot is, that for Po to overcome his nemesis, he must truly know himself and find inner peace. Now, does that sound like Tai Chi philosophy or what?

At the climax, Po finds inner peace and then learns to use the opponents own energy against them to save China. Po also decides for himself, who he really is.

Sounds like a lesson we all need to learn in these troubling times.

Peace

Rod

PS - the very end of the movie also gives us a hint to what awaits us as a species if we learn the required lessons