The Theme of Adoption in the Animated Film Kung Fu Panda 2

Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Code/Title
Instructor
Date
The Theme of Adoption in the Animated Film Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
Introduction
Regardless of biological relatedness of members of a family, family bonds solidify by loving and nurturing. In the animated film Kung Fu Panda 2, one of the most dominant themes that emerge is adoption, and the film attempts to show adoptive families are actual families. The film is one of DreamWorks’ most enjoyable and largely unsentimental animated movie of 2008 (French np). Po (voiced by Jack Black), is a medieval panda working in a restaurant owned by his adopted father, and through his enthusiasm in Kung Fu, he emerges out to be the new Dragon Warrior in his local Chinese valley. In this affable sequel that is filmed in 3D and combines elements of realism and stylization in a pleasant fashion, Po and his Kung Fu colleagues take on a tyrannical peacock, Lord Shen (played by Gary Oldman) (French np). While the plot in Kung Fu Panda 2 features the current Chinese policy of buying up the global mineral affluence, the film particularly succeeds in portraying the theme of adoption than in political issues where Po and Shen are shaped by their oedipal problems and troubled childhoods.
In many children films, adoption is a frequent theme, and Kung Fu Panda 2 succeeds in upholding the views of adoptive parents who express concern regarding insensitive messages in animated films such as Despicable Me (2010), Tangled (2010), and Hop (2011). Po is a martially artful bear growing up knowing to be the son of Ping, a noodle shop owner who in fact found him in a radish crate. Shockingly, Ping is a goose, and Po finds it logical enough to throw a question demanding to know his parentage. Unfortunately, Ping ignores the inquiry and declines to disclose the truth until Po is fully grown up. While this is a regrettable decision, Ping is embarrassed about the disclosure and finds it fine to keep the secret tightly concealed (Cox np). Due to the pressures in society, some parents might find it hard to disclose the fact that the children in their families are actually adopted. Some parents opt to adopt children due to failure to sire their own, and with the need of companionship, adoption becomes the ultimate solution to the problem. Like Ping who discovered Po in a radish crate, other parents with full of compassion will adopt children out of the love and care and the film portrays this extraordinary quality of loving and nurturing.
Soon or later, Po realizes that he is actually an adopted son of Ping, and he is tormented by a troubling identity crisis, which distracts him from what he loves most: waging war to salvage China from the evil and tyrant peacock. Two questions keep lingering in Po’s mind: “Who am I” and “Where did I come from?”, and to achieve the inner peace, his Kung Fu master advices, is a necessity for accomplishment. Therefore, Po has to uncover his parentage, and how he found himself adopted by a goose parent, Ping, yet he is a bear (Cox np)! Ping discloses to Po saying, “You were adopted.” Exclaimed, Po poses an inquiry, “What? Why didn’t you ever tell me?” After discovering his origins and the village w...