Sorry if this is coming out of the blue but I was bored and the kung fu panda movies were playing so I was like why not, and watched them, and a thought just hit me. Not only are these movies some of the few that I can think of that portrayed a healthy father-son relationship, but they showed one between an adoptive father and son, which honestly makes it even better. Like most of the time when you see adoption on tv it usually feels like the children are either going “your not my family” or the parents are going “your not my real child” and frankly that’s a little yikes.
Like his dad is constantly worried and cries when his son comes home because he missed him so much and he’s always proud of him and he’s not afraid to say it and I think that’s really awesome of the series to do. Like I need more fathers in media to be portrayed like this.
And Po ?? Oh my god I love him. He’s such a good representation of what a man who is comfortable with his masculinity, he’s not afraid to be in like pain or be upset and he’s so gentle ??? Like I know that’s kinda part of the joke or whatever but he’s so soft both mentally and physically, and the other characters don’t really give him a lot of shit for it too which is the best. I mean they did in the first movie but they grew past that and sure they kinda poke fun at his weight but Po does it too and it’s always in jest and you can really tell he’s comfortable in his body even if it’s not “ideal” and by ideal I mean like muscular as men are wanted to be seen and what not I know he’s a panda but the point still stands!
Also like they really give a good example as to what a “strong female character” would be portrayed as. I mean tigress comes off as cold but she’s so kind and she is such a good friend to Po. Like sure she kinda hated him the first movie but she grew as a character which you can really tell in the second movie with her interactions with Po, like besides Shi-fu(idk how to spell it sorry) she’s the only one who is visibly upset/mourning when they think Po is dead. She’s such a loyal friend and is always actively looking out for her team/friends like god damn.
I think the rest of the Five could have had a little bit more emphasis on their personalities, especially viper just because she’s one of the few other female characters but I’m not gonna really hold that against them, but you can really tell how much they care about each other and I think that’s great, and you do get little tidbits of thet personalities which is pretty good too but I think there could have been a little more but this movie was about Po so it makes sense.
Sorry it’s late and I have a lot of feelings about this for some reason hfjdjwsjan