Kung Fu Panda 3 - Abuse and Love

Kung Fu Panda 3 (KFP3) is a 2016 movie from Dreamworks Animation. It’s the third movie in the Kung Fu Panda series (surprise!), a continued story about a panda bear, Po, who learns kung fu.

KFP3 has three villains. Only one of them gets a “villain” name tag (and music cue); the other two look like good guys, but are abusive authority figures in Po’s life. That’s what this movie is about: how to recognize abusive behavior and how to escape an abusive relationship.

One of the nice-guy villains is Po’s adoptive dad, Ping. He’s a goose. When Po’s long-lost biological dad, a panda, shows up early in the movie, Ping is jealous. Because he’s a smaller animal and looks nothing like Po, it’s easy to imagine feeling inadequate in his shoes. It’s easy to relate to his jealousy.

Instead of considering what will be best for Po, Ping uses every means he can to prevent Po from going back home with his biological dad to the hidden village of the pandas. It’s more important to Ping to keep Po as his son than for Po to have a good life, and that leads Ping to try to control Po. He tries to keep Po’s world small. When Po leaves, Ping stows away in his lunchbox—actually causing Po pain (hunger) in his attempt to control how Po will relate to him.

The other nice-guy villain is Po’s biological dad, Li. He’s so glad to have finally found his son that he will do whatever it takes not to lose him again. Like Ping, Li follows the too-often-traveled path from love to control/possession.

Po’s job is (1) to protect the valley where he lives and (2) to teach other animals kung fu. (Not the bunnies or pigs—just the cool animals.) Po doesn’t want to go back to the hidden panda village with Li, though he loves his dad; he’s got a job to do, a responsibility to his people. But then a threat arises, and he needs to learn a kung fu move that pandas have historically known how to teach. Po asks Li if the pandas at the hidden panda village know the skill and can teach him, and Li says yes. He’s lying—neither he nor any of the other pandas at the village know the magic move. But Po believes him, and they leave Po’s valley defenseless so Po can go learn the move.

Li’s lie causes Po not to be there for his people when the threat arrives, and it’s devastating. All but one of his friends is captured by the big bad villain while he hangs out with the other pandas having fun. By trying to protect Po against his will (that is, control him), Li strikes at one of the main ways Po expresses his identity: protecting his friends.

Neither Li nor Ping intended to harm Po, but they did. They both were more concerned with what they wanted (to be a father to Po) than what was in Po’s best interest, which led them to control him and harm him. This is the heart of the movie:

People can want good things but do bad things as a result. 

Don’t assume that someone who wants a good thing is doing a good thing—don’t even assume that about yourself.

The movie’s other villain, Kai (the one who looks like a bad guy from the get-go), has the same goal as Ping and Li: control. He’s a picture of where you can end up if you follow your desire to control others—he’s what Ping and Li could become because of their desire to be a father to Po. This theme is explored in other popular media (see the Injustice storyline in DC Comics)—good people can want good things so badly that they become bad people doing bad things.

Last point the movie hammers home: how to escape an abuser. When it comes down to the final fight, Po is doomed—Kai is too strong. Po can’t resist his control. But Po has a network of people who know and love him. Where Kai is trying to define and collapse Po’s identity down to one feature—“Po is controlled by Kai”—Po’s family and friends give him strength by acknowledging his identity—“Po taught us who we were meant to be… a father, a friend, etc.”

Po’s network doesn’t give him his identity—they enable him to come to terms with it. They provide the safety within which he can accept the wounds and lumps of his life. (This fantastic scene happens to be on YouTube, at least for now.) Don’t get hung up on the magic paw-print thing—that’s just a way to visually represent the power of acceptance from those who know and love you.

There’s theology here that I haven’t talked about. Our identities are messed up by the Fall; salvation does not consist in merely becoming okay with yourself. I get that KFP3 doesn’t adequately address the problem of evil and sin, but I don’t think it was necessarily trying to do that. It gets things right when it comes to (1) the danger we all face of trying to control people we love instead of seeking their highest good and (2) how important it is for us to have a network of people who know and love us—this is key to escaping an abusive relationship.

Also, the score for KFP3 is in my top 3 favorite movie scores.