SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURE AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT

NAME: NGE JIA CHEN STUDENT ID: 0317738 FILM SELECTED: KUNG FU PANDA AND HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON WORD COUNTS: 943 COURSE: ENGLISH 2(ENGL 02105) WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE OR CONTRAST ESSAY LECTURER: CASSANDRA RASHIKA WIJESURIA SUBMISSION DATE: 19TH SEPTEMBER 2014

In my personal opinion, movies are not great if they can’t entertain us with a

few good laughs no matter what genre they are classified as. Movies with funny

elements can be proved to be quite amusing rather than those flat out tear-weeping

ones that makes you even more depressed. Well, that’s when dramedy movies

come in because they consist of dramatic and comedic elements that serve as a

versatile genre which suffices everyone’s taste. So, imagine a soon-to-be hero set

out on a dramatic adventure that is filled with comedic moments, how entertaining

will that be? Now, I am going to compare the similarities between two animated

dramedy films, “Kung Fu Panda” and “How to Train Your Dragon” from DreamWorks

Studio as they are ordinary, life changing events occurred on them, people lack trust

and confidence in them and they turn their weaknesses into their strengths.

Starting off with the main protagonists, Po, the anthropomorphic giant panda

from “Kung Fu Panda” and Hiccup, a young Viking boy from “How to Train Your

Dragon” being ordinary characters without any special abilities. Po is just an adopted

son of a goose father, Mr. Ping that sells noodle with his father for a living in the

Valley of The Peace but he is a fanatic that idolizes the kung fu masters. However, Po

is unable to achieve his dream of becoming a kung fu master himself due to his

laziness, clumsiness and irreverence. Correspondingly, Hiccup, the awkward son of

the village chieftain Stoick the Vast, is unable to wield normal weapons to fight the

dragons which plagued his village, Berk. As he seemed to be unfit as a dragon killer,

his father doesn’t allow him to join the battle against the dragons.

As we can see, both Po and Hiccup initially are overshadowed by people who

are more significant around them such as Furious Fives in “Kung Fu Panda” as well as

Stoick the Vast and Astrid in “How to Train Your Dragon” but their potentials are yet

to be seen. Life changing events revolves around them later in the story: Po is

unexpectedly chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy and he became the Dragon

Warrior. His dream became reality when he joined the world of Kung Fu and study

alongside his idols, the legendary Furious Five -- Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and

Monkey -- under the leadership of their guru, Master Shifu. Meanwhile, Hiccup

ventures out into battle and downed a mysterious Night Fury dragon with his

invention, but can't bring himself to kill it. Instead, Hiccup and the dragon, whom he

dubs Toothless, began a friendship that would open up both their worlds as the

observant boy learns that his people have misjudged the species and the first dragon

rider in his village is born.

Due to their sudden revelation, people lack confidence and trust in them: Po,

a son that helps in his father’s restaurant became a Dragon Warrior out of the blue.

In the meantime, Hiccup, a dragon slaying village chieftain’s son who is doubted to

inherit his father’s place, returned as a dragon rider to persuade his people to not

see dragons as enemies. They became unacceptable for the people. Master Shifu

who believed that master Oogway chose Po out of accident, tried to dispatch Po by

ridiculing him into quitting kung fu training. The Furious Five similarly despise and

mock Po as an upstart with no skill in kung fu. Likewise, Hiccup believed that dragons

are kind species and he tried to persuade his people into believing him but things

didn’t turn out the way he wanted. Instead, his father found out about the dragon

nest and led a fleet into battle using Toothless, Hiccup’s dragon buddy as a guide.

Have we ever thought of our only weaknesses can be our ultimate strengths

that turn the spotlight towards our own direction? Well, both Po and Hiccup

succeeded in doing that, ultimately became their villages’ heroes. Po is a fat, clumsy

and lazy panda, however, his disadvantages somehow turned into his very own kung

fu style under the guidance of master Shifu. Po opened up the Dragon Scroll and

realized that it is just a blank reflective scroll, somewhat devastated. But he

reflected and he perceived that the scroll is telling him to believe in who he is. In

the end, he defeated Tai Lung, a treacherous snow leopard who desired the Dragon

Scroll so much to the extent of betraying his own master. Likewise, Hiccup is a boy

who can’t even raise up a normal weapon to fight against dragons but he is an

inventive person. Therefore, with the help of the village’s blacksmith, Gobber, he is

able to use his very own invented weapons to fight the dragons. Together with

Toothless, they defeated the Red Death, a gigantic dragon in the nest and managed

to neutralize all the other smaller dragons. Although he lost his leg in an explosion in

the fight, leaving him with an amputated leg but he is able to overcome it mentally

and he became a brave man ever since.

To wrap things up, it doesn’t matter who you are, where you were born and

how you look like. Everyone has his or her own traits that makes them special. Don’t

ever judge a person by his or her looks, he may be fat, he may be small, but we will

never know what he’s capable of. These two films presented the moral lessons very

well, thus, I think the modern society should look upon this and learn not to be

judgmental against people by their physical appearances but get to know them

instead.