The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

Kung Fu Panda is an animated feature length film made my Dreamworks in 2008. Kung Fu Panda is a comical animated film with its own universal details that is rather different from what we humans are used to. The main character is Po, an overweight panda bear. Po helps his father, who is a goose, run the family noodle restaurant. It is expected of him to continue to the family business since it has been passed down from generation to generation. However, Po is not interested in noodles, he much rather practice Kung Fu! He dreams about being a Kung Fu extraordinaire all the time. The universe where Po resides is nothing like we are used to.

The film takes place in China, where there are no humans, so animals take the places and characteristics of human beings. There are five warriors in China at the time to keep peace, a tiger, a mantis, a snake, and a crane; all five warriors are highly trained in kung fu by their master, Shifu, a red panda. It is feared that the ultimate bad seed that their master trained, a snow panther called Tai Lung, will be escaping from prison, so it was up to the tortoise master to select the newest legendary Dragon Warrior. Once you are a Dragon Warrior, it is believed that you will be introduced to unlimited powers. The day of the festival where the Dragon Warrior will be named has come and Po wants to go join the festivities but his dad asks him to sell noodles at the festival instead. Po gets to the festival too late, and the gates are closed. He tries everything to get in, and when he finally does, the tortoise master chooses him as the newest Dragon Warrior.

How Po gets into the festivities would not have worked in our universe. In Po’s universe, gravity doesn’t hold down a panda bear. A male giant panda bear generally weighs about 275 pounds. At the 12 minute mark of the film, Po used a tree branch to catapult what looked like 20 to 30 feet over a brick wall. A tree branch is pretty sturdy, and humans can build tree houses on those branches without having any movement in the tree. For a tree to be able to catapult an object of 275 pounds in unrealistic and only works in Po’s universe.

At the 14 minute mark of the film, Po still desperate to see the crowning of the new Dragon warrior, risked his own safety and sat on about 10 fireworks and flew about 250 feet into the air. He flew over the wall and up in the air, and was dropped down 250 feet. Only in this reality were fireworks able to life 275 pounds of pure mass into the air, and so high! Also, it was pure luck in this universe that Po survived this great fall and woke up momentarily. In our own universe, there have only been several cases where people were able to survive such a hard fall. Po didn’t do any of the precautions necessary to survive the fall. If you want to survive a great fall like that in our universe, you must: 1) stay in an arched position, 2) find the best landing spot, 3) bend your knees, 4) relax, 5) land on your feet, 6) land on the balls of your feet, 7) try to roll, 8) protect your head.

Po was unable to stay at an arched position, he probably had the worst landing spot-cement, what he should have looked for was water, snow or even sand. Po didn’t bend his knees, and landed on his giant panda belly. That could be why Po blacked out when he landed. Po landed right in front of the tortoise master and he was chosen as the infamous Dragon Warrior! To celebrate he was carried out of the festival by four ducks, and five pigs. The three examples listed above show examples that Po as a panda bear does not weigh as much as he would have here in our own universe. In this universe, gravity is usually on Po’s side. However, the other characters criticize Po for his weight all the time. They say when Po walks he makes tons of noises and he can put cracks on the floor with his weight.
Po, although a hefty panda, has gotten beaten up several times by his smaller counterparts. In this universe, size does not define strength. Po is definitely part of greater weighing specie, but he does not hold a lot of strength. In the film, Kung Fu Panda there have been various examples of Po being defeated by animals/insects that are very much smaller than him. An example comes from the 37 minute mark from the film. A praying mantis, an insect whose weight is comparable to a leaf, was able to beat Po in a battle. It must have been embarrassing for Po; because in our universe praying mantises are usually defeated with the mere strength of our index finger. This was not the only example of the praying mantis being incredibly strong.

At the one hour mark, the tiger, snake, and monkey were battling with the evil snow leopard. The praying mantis was in charge of holding up the bridge that weighed well over a thousand pounds with all the animals plus the bridge itself. While all the animals were battling, it put movement to the self destructing bridge already, causing it to be harder to keep the bridge intact and harder to handle. The praying mantis, although had some difficulty holding up the bridge, nonetheless kept the bridge above the ground. All four of the kung fu warriors were unable to defeat the evil snow leopard, and the snow leopard escapes again. During the vicious battle between tiger, snake and monkey verses the evil snow leopard, Po was somewhere else being trained with their master Shifu. In just one afternoon Po gains so much knowledge, strength and courage from Shifu that he is eventually able to take down the evil snow leopard Tai Lung. It is funny, because the other five kung fu warriors were trained for years for this battle, and they weren’t able to defeat Tai Lung. It must be because it wasn’t a mistake that Po was chosen as the Dragon Warrior.


The film Kung Fu Panda is an example of an anthropomorphic film. An anthropomorphic film means it ascribes human form or attributes to a being or thing not human (dictionary.com). In this universe, there are no humans; so in place of the humans, are all the animals and they all have human like features. Most if not all the animals featured in this film including: pandas, pigs, rabbits, tigers, turtles, rhinos can walk on two feet, rather than all fours. These animals have opposable thumb features even if in their basic anatomy does not include a thumb. This feature is noticeable because Po makes noodles for Tigress, Monkey, Mantis and they eat with chopsticks. Other animals such as rabbits and pigs are shown using chopsticks to eat with chopsticks as well. Po’s dad, the goose can even prepare his food with a knife.

In our universe, we have our stereotypes of what features bad guys and tough guys are portrayed. I think of chained tattoos, extra piercings that are not only at their ears, leather wearing, motorcycle driving, and smokers. In Kung Fu Panda’s universe they portray rhinos as the tough prison guards. It is important to have tough prison guards because they will be working in an environment full of tough lawbreaking people or in Kung Fu Panda’s case a tough, deadly snow leopard by the name of Tai Lung.

The film takes place in historic China. China’s official language is a form of Chinese, however in the film all the animals speak in English. It was not noted that they have translated the film from Chinese to English. A discrepancy is that in the movie the animals would say phrases in Chinese, they would sometimes ay “master” in English, and sometimes say “Shifu” in Chinese. They aren’t exactly bilingual, but can say random phrases in Chinese. So in this universe, all Chinese citizens speak English rather than Chinese.

Kung Fu Panda was an animated film made by Dreamworks that was released in 2008. Kung Fu Panda is an example of an anthropomorphic film, meaning that animal characters are portrayed with human characteristics. Po is the main character in this film and he is a giant panda who has always dreamt of practicing Kung Fu and his destiny was chosen for him when the great tortoise chose him as the next Dragon Warrior. Although he faced accusations of not being fit to be the next great warrior, he followed through the training and succeeded. This universe that is being portrayed is nothing like the universe what we humans we are used to, and that is why the film is so entertaining.