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Film Title: Secrets of the Furious Five

 Best for ages: 6 and up.

Movie Website: Click Here

Year Released: 2008

Rated: PG (US)

SYNOPSIS

Click Here Secrets of the Furious Five is a short animated DVD that gives us the back stories on all the characters that make up this kung-fu fighting team. This story starts off with Po teaching a beginners kung-fu class to a bunch of young bunnies.  the bunnies believe that learning Kung-fu is all about learning how to fight, but Po tells them that there is more to Kung-fu than learning cool moves and crazy martial arts. So he sits down and tell them the stories behind how the furious five started out and how they learned to over come their weaknesses. This is their story, this is how the furious five became master of Kung-fu and where they got their beginning.

VIOLENCE/GRAPHIC CONTENT/language

   Violence

   There is really not much violence in this one that's not expected. Pretty much you get your basic martial arts animated fighting.  Other than that there really is not much that can be deemed violent.

   Graphic Content

    Some of the characters such as the crocodiles and angry rhinos, gorillas and bulls look very intimidating, and even scary at times. Monkey uses bananas peels as a weapon against many people in his village and in turn takes over the village and does what ever he wants until he is defeated by grand master Oogway. Tirgess has trouble controlling her actions and plays on other children and people's fears. Mathis has issues listening to people until he is captured by the crocodiles  and has to play dead and tricks them so he can escape. Viper's father is a feared fighter because of his poisonous bite, but yet when he fights a Gorilla who wears bite proof armor, his breaks and loses his teeth, leaving his young daughter viper who has no teeth to defend herself against the rhino using a ribbon which she ties the Gorilla up with. The bunnies don't always listen to Po when he is teaching the class and begin to spar with one another, but Po quickly puts them in their place.  There are also some other minor things here and there but nothing to crazy.

   Language

   There are a few insults but nothing to over the top that there might be concern.

OVERALL VIEWS

    Secrets of the Furious Five DVD is a very interesting one, while the animation is not as great as it is in Kung Fu Panda; the overall back story of each of the characters and how they grew from characters with weaknesses that they took and applied to their Kung fu training and their well being is very interesting. In Kung Fu Panda the Furious Five take a back seat in character development to Po, so it was really neat to learn their back stories and how they were found by master Oggway and Shifu and learned from them the ways to control their strengths and weaknesses.

   While Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman reprise their roles in this short movie, the rest of the actors that voiced the characters in Kung Fu Panda do not return.  I think it's mainly because their characters are younger in the stories so most of the voices are done by either child actors or actors with young sounding voices. Like I mentioned above the animation is not as good as it is in Kung-fu Panda, except for the parts which include Po teaching the class. The filmmakers decided to use a more Asian looking animation to tell the back stories of each character while still keeping that traditional look to the characters.

   The Secrets of the Furious Five DVD comes with the Kung Fu Panda DVD in a two pack. Although Secrets of the Furious Five only has a running time of twenty four minutes, the DVD itself is packed with a few features and activities for your kids to check out. They include Po's Power Play which includes games and activities such as Learn to Draw, Dumpling Shuffle and Pandamonium Activity Kit.  There is also a Land of the Panda feature where you can learn the panda dance with Po, Do You Kung-fu feature, Inside the Chinese Zodiac, Animals of Kung-fu Panda, What Fighting Style Are You feature and plenty more.

    It's great that you not only get Kung Fu Panda on DVD when you buy it, but that you also get this exclusive Secrets of the Furious Five DVD as well. It's a fun DVD with plenty of features for you and your children to play and explore and the short movie really gives you more information on the characters in Kung Fu Panda. It's a neat DVD that is sure to enhance you and your child's experience with the world of Kung Fu Panda.

BUY THIS MOVIE.