Secrets of the Furious Five

The original film, despite it's silly ending, was at least one of DreamWorks Animation's stronger films with great characters, excellent Kung Fu action sequences, a compelling story, beautiful animation, and an epic music score from Hans Zimmer and John Powell. So, when I saw this short that continues where the first Kung Fu Panda left off, I thought it wouldn't be as good as the film. It turns out that it's a very entertaining short, although it doesn't have the same inspiring message that made it very solid.

The story, while explaining the back-stories of the Furious Five really well, is a tad predictable in some parts; the humor isn't as strong as the movie and I expected it to be a bit longer like say 40 minutes so that it can explain the back-stories better. That's all I have to say about the flaws.

Everything else is great. The CGI is fine, but it's traditional animation sequences of the Furious Five's backstories is what made this worth watching for me. It's so beautiful and the character designs from the movie are nicely detailed here. The voice acting is pretty good and although we only saw Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, and David Cross return, the voice actors for only four of the Furious Five including Tara Strong, Max Koch, Jessica DiCicco, and James Sie (Jackie from Jackie Chan Adventures) did a good job. The music score from Hans Zimmer, & John Powell (along with Henry Jackman), does retain the same tunes from the movie while using a lot of different stuff in it, which isn't a bad thing. The characters are still as likable as they were especially the young Furious Five warriors.

Overall, Secrets of the Furious Five isn't as inspiring as the original film, but it proved to be a lot more entertaining than I imagined and I think those who haven't seen it should check it out.

If you are looking for another adventure from Po and the Furious Five, you will be disappointed.

I purchased this DVD under the impression that it was a second movie or adventure for the "Kung Fu Panda" storyline.

In reality, this is a "Special Features" DVD which should have come as part of the original "Kung Fu Panda" DVD - to make it a 2 DVD set (the "Kung Fu Panda" DVD I bought only had the one disc).

To actually pay a full retail price, the same price as the "Kung Fu Panda" DVD, is a massive rip-off which people should be made aware of. If i had have known, i would not have bought it.

Although this is my own fault, I failed to look at the running time in the fine print at the back cover - which is something like 24 minutes. But when you have been marketed something pretending to be another story/adventure - you don't look at the running time in the fine print on the back.

I loved the "Kung Fu Panda" DVD, and was really looking forward to a second movie, so thats why my disappointment is bitter, because this DVD failed to deliver that.

This short animation is about Master Po teaching Kung Fu to a group of young bunnies.

I am positively surprised by this short. It tells the story of each of the Furious Five, and a virtue that each has learned through Kung Fu. Each story is fun and inspiring in a unique way. It teaches great virtues of human beings in an entertaining way, without being preachy.

The animation is great, especially the bunnies who are so cute and cuddly! I am also impressed that all the Chinese characters in the film are all correct. Usually Chinese characters in animations are simply jumbled up strokes.

There is a lot of positivity in "Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five". I really enjoyed watching it.

This is an animation short that ties in with the first Kung Fu Panda films with Po the panda ropes in by Shifu to teach the philosophy of Kung Fu to a group of young bunnies at a martial arts school.

However it is not the crash bang wallop of Kung Fu that Po teaches but the positive traits that each of the Furious Five developed.

So you have flashbacks of the Furious Five and how they developed their skills and the virtues they developed. It avoids preachiness and younger viewers would be highly entertained.

The animation is very good and up to feature film standard and they have attracted an all star cast for the voices.

After being pleasantly surprised with Kung Fu Panda, I decided to check out this direct-to-video feature packaged with the DVD release. Now, if you look at this as direct-to-video, it's not bad. They certainly come much, MUCH worse. But if you're expecting something as satisfying as the source film, you will be let down. You'll also be let down if you expect all the originals actors to be present. This is something that would be right at home on Saturday morning television. There are a few CG scenes here, but the feature mainly uses the stylized 2d technique seen at the beginning of Kung Fu Panda. Nothing's wrong with that. What really sinks this for me is the poor story. Everything about this feature "dumbs down" the plot of its source material reducing the origins of these important characters to simple morality tales. It takes the easy road on these potentially deep characters and ends up being a bit of a letdown.