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

• An entertaining celebration of great virtues

  Gordon-112008-11-10

  This short animation is about Master Po teaching Kung Fu to a group of young bunnies. I am positively surprised by this short. It tells the story of each of the Furious Five, and a virtue that each has learned through Kung Fu. Each story is fun and inspiring in a unique way. It teaches great virtues of human beings in an entertaining way, without being preachy. The animation is great, especially the bunnies who are so cute and cuddly! I am also impressed that all the Chinese characters in the film are all correct. Usually Chinese characters in animations are simply jumbled up strokes. There is a lot of positivity in "Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five". I really enjoyed watching it.

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• Not as inspiring as the original, but a very entertaining short for KFP fans

  gavin-lordofthefutur-776-4266312013-12-03

  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.

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• educational and fun for the kids,entertaining enough for the adults

  disdressed122008-12-27

  this is a short animated film dealing of course,with the furious five,from original Kung Fu Panda movie.i thought it was OK.it has some great lessons for kids,and it's kinda cute,especially the bunnies.minor spoiler****it's really a bunch of mini stories about the past of each of the furious five,in which each one learned a very important virtue.each member gets around five or six minutes each.***end of spoiler.anyway,this little short is fun and easy to watch for the kids,and entertaining enough for the grownups.they got quite a bit of info into the short running time,and none of the characters gets short changed in terms of screen time and story.for me,Kung Fu Panda:Secrets of the Furious Five is a 6/10

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• Enjoyable sequel short film

  Horst_In_Translation2015-04-06

  "Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five" is a short film that runs for slightly over 20 minutes and came out a couple months after the very first "Kung Fu Panda" back in 2008, probably as a DVD feature. Since then there is a second movie, several other short films and even a television series. The third feature movie will come out in 2016. In this short here, Po tells us and a class of rabbits 5 little stories about Kung Fu masters. It's really more about morale than comedy although here and there you find some slapstick. It's certainly suitable for children and especially those who enjoy the movies should like it too. My favorite from the stories is the second one about the snakes (maybe an 8/10) as it perfectly illustrates the biological aspects of venomous and constrictor snakes and I quite liked the way they displayed it with all these bands. The director Raman Hui has worked on quite a few animated movies and was the co-director of the third "Shrek" movie. The animation style in this "Kung Fu Panda" short is very similar to the full length movies. What I also found interesting were the different animal motives in the sequences, such as sheep for helpless and intimidated animals and crocodiles and bulls for antagonists. There's probably more. This one here won 4 Annie Awards (animation Oscars) and I can see why. I had a good time watching and I recommend it.

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• Furious Five Virtues

  Prismark102014-01-01

  This is an animation short that ties in with the first Kung Fu Panda films with Po the panda ropes in by Shifu to teach the philosophy of Kung Fu to a group of young bunnies at a martial arts school. However it is not the crash bang wallop of Kung Fu that Po teaches but the positive traits that each of the Furious Five developed. So you have flashbacks of the Furious Five and how they developed their skills and the virtues they developed. It avoids preachiness and younger viewers would be highly entertained. The animation is very good and up to feature film standard and they have attracted an all star cast for the voices.

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