Scene Analysis #4: Shifu vs Tai Lung-Kung Fu Panda · 11:25pm Jan 28th, 2023
Scene Rating Scale:
9/9: Flawless! Outstanding scene!
8/9: Great scene! Totally Rewatchable!
7/9: Pretty good. Not as perfect as I expected though.
6/9: Decent. Doesn’t ruin the movie/episode.
5/9: Mid.
4/9: Pretty bad. One of the weakest scenes of the movie/episode.
3/9: You hear that? It’s the wind of lameness.
2/9: One of the worst scenes of the film/episode.
1/9: Horrible, unwatchable, and unacceptable.
Hello, hello, hello, my wonderful friends! Mr. J is in the house with another scene analysis for today! This evening, I will be reviewing the fight scene between Master Shifu and Tai Lung from “Kung Fu Panda”! This is my favorite scene from the movie as it showcases a creature fallen from grace and a kung fu master who has sorrow and pain from such a heartbreaking experience. It has great animation, eye-catching action, and awesome voice acting.
Tai Lung has recently escaped from prison and has arrived to confront his former master and foster father. Shifu fights him as a way to give everyone in the town enough time to evacuate and find cover.
Let’s analyze these two characters and how well-written they are in this climatic scene, shall we?
Let’s talk about Tai Lung. The ferocious snow leopard has a semi-tragic background that explains why he is what he is. All his life, he was heavily trained by Shifu and was under the impression he would be the definitive Dragon Warrior. Shifu loved him so much—a little too much though; hence why he told him that he was destined for greatness. But when Oogway denied him the legendary title and the dragon scroll, it practically hurt him in every level. In his mind, all his hard work was for nothing. The pain, the anger, and the hatred burned inside him which resulted in him throwing his life away and destroying the whole valley of people.
Notice how Tai Lung completely demolishes Shifu throughout the entire fight. Actually, from a certain point of view, one wouldn’t call this a fight, but rather a long-overdue rant/tantrum/comeuppance upon Shifu. That’s how much he was emotionally hurt which he bottled up during the past 20 years in prison. Every attack he landed on Shifu not only hurt the latter physically but also emotionally.
As for the red panda, he was only able to land one hit on Tai Lung. That’s it! Just one hit! Why? Because he still couldn’t bear the thought of hurting the one creature he raised, taught, and cared for more than anyone else. It was very personal for Shifu which is why he says his first line in this scene:
This is no longer your home, and I am no longer your master.
Listen to the tone of voice as he says this. You can hear a tiny voice crack and how sad he sounds. Dustin Hoffman did a wonderful job conveying that emotion in Shifu. His facial expression says likewise as well. He hates to say this, he doesn’t want to fight him, and he wished there was some other way to handle the threat.
The ending of the fight is what made this scene for me. As soon as Shifu expressed his long-overdue apology for his pride and arrogance, look at Tai Lung’s reaction. Oh my word, the animators should have gotten a raise for those frames of animation! You don’t even need dialogue to know what Tai Lung was thinking at that moment. You see how he longed to hear those words “I’m sorry” from his father figure. It softened him a bit, and he was definitely considering his options. But alas, his desire for the dragon scroll was too great as he felt entitled to it. He lied to himself thinking he didn’t need his apology whereas his facial expressions said otherwise.
The soundtrack makes this fight all the more engaging and awesome to watch too! It tells us that this is something we have to take seriously, and everything that happens therein is how the film takes a brief break from light-hearted comedy to now something mature—something that both kids and adults should understand—letting us know how hard it is for some people when it comes to relationships and parental issues in general.
If there is one flaw in this scene, it would be…what happens right after. That will be explained at another time.
Overall, this is a very rewatchable scene! Oh, and one more thing about Tai Lung: out of all three villains in this trilogy, he is by far the least villainous. Why? Because unlike the genocidal Shen and the power-hungry Kai, Tai Lung only cared about getting the dragon scroll so that he could be the Dragon Warrior. Did he want to hurt people? Initially, no, but out of rage and anger after being denied of his “destiny”? Yes. Did he want to enslave China or steal people’s chi? Absolutely not. But this makes him unique as an antagonist; he wanted something that never existed in the first place…all because he never understood what it meant to be the Dragon Warrior.
I’ll give this an 8/9! Fantastic scene and great voice acting from both Ian McShane and Dustin Hoffman!
Peace!
Let this movie be a cautionary tale for what could happen if we put too much expectations on gifted kids. Most of them won´t almost destroy a village, but their mental health will be very affected should they fail because they´ll think that their only value is their gift. This scene is heartbreaking to watch, as you can feel bad for both sides. I wish Tai Lung had a chance to heal. God, I love this movie!