SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

NAME: GOH JENG JHIEH

STUDENT ID NO: 0315080

FILMS SELECTED: RIO & KUNGFU PANDA

WORD COUNT: 701

ENGLISH 2 (ENGL 0205)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 2: COMPARE OR CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURER: Ms. CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE: 12nd DECEMBER 2013

Nowadays, animated movies are no longer fancied by only kids but adult or

even the old-aged ones. These different groups are more likely enjoying the plots

of movies, but always miss the part where the movie itself also conveying some

hidden messages or values. To bring up the values and things that should be

concerned and avoided, I have picked 2 different animated movies which are

“Rio” and “Kungfu Panda” for comparison.

First and foremost, some movies that needed parent’s guidance and

accompany are having violence and nudity or sex. In movie “Rio”, violence and

cruelty can be found on the nasty bird named Nigel. Nigel terrorizes the other

birds in the cages by snapping at them and pushing their cages, he also shows

the aggressive attitude to the innocent ones. Besides, Nigel bullies the monkey

into what he wants by picking one up and dropping him, catching before the

monkey hit on the ground and threatening over and over again. On the other

hand, Tai Lung in the movie “Kungfu Panda”, a very vengeful and aggressive

character that was prisoned because he breaks the law. In the scene he tries to

escape, he caused a lot of damage to the guards, he scurries up one stalactite

after another until reaching the top level. In addition, he clears the guards out of

his way by scattering them and breaks the gate door.

Secondly, transformative relationship is found in both movies that attracted me

the most. Shifu doesn’t recognize Po as the chosen “Dragon Warrior” but then he

has talked to Grand Master Oogway before his nirvana. He was convinced to

give a chance to Po. Their relationship gets better when Shifu teaches Po at

mountain, Po himself also getting stronger and ability to fight. In movie “Rio”, Blu,

the main character and the only male of his kind. His first meet with Jewel, also

the only female of the kind in a bad greeting way. Jewel attacks Blu because she

thinks that Blu is there to reproduce more offspring only but in fact he was

brought by his owner. Jewel starts to fall in love with Blu as he ventures and goes

after her because she was kidnapped. Lastly, they get along and reproduce a lot

of babies.

Believe in oneself in both movies are also very inspiring. Po, a low self-esteem

panda always dreams of himself as a great warrior. Shifu is strongly disagreed

that Po as “Dragon Warrior” because one of his favorite student, Tigress is not

the chosen one. Po is later on inspired by Grand Master Oogway and learnt

martial arts from Master Shifu. Lastly, he defeats the great enemy, Tai Lung and

becomes the “Dragon Warrior”. Back to “Rio”, Blu” cannot fly because his fears

and has a mind that he cannot do it. In the ending of the movie, to save Jewel

from getting hurt, he tries to fly and he does and managed to save his lover.

Power of love always makes someone to achieve higher as Po was strongly

disagreed by his own father to be the chosen one. As the learning process of Po,

his father starts to change his attitude and eventually by his side. Before going to

fight Tai Lung, his father says that he is proud to have him as a son, Po is greatly

inspired and able to fight Tai Lung with no worries. In the other movie “Rio”, Blu’s

owner, Linda shows her love towards Blu by providing nice place and food to Blu.

Even Blu himself feels that her house is a paradise. After Blu’s missing because

he goes to save Jewel, Linda has so much worries and keep looking for Blu by

pasting a lot of papers on walls and waiting until late night.

In conclusion, these values are very encouraged to learn by the children and as

parent’s guidance to kids. The violent should not be applied in solving problems

in families. This will cause oneself even more aggressive and the kids also

learning the same way as it is a psychology method so called, observational

learning. A family should be full of love so that everyone is happy and solving in

peace way.