Kung Fu Panda
Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 animated film produced by DreamWorks Animation. It is one of Eric Weinstein's favorite movies because of its treatment of self-teaching. Eric wrote an essay on the topic of self-teaching inspired by Kung Fu Panda, which you can read here.
New topic: the importance of "Kung Fu Panda".
To begin with, like a Beethoven symphony, Kung Fu Panda is meant to be accessed on multiple levels with "Believe in yourself" as the lowest.
The voice performances (w/ exception of Jolie) are all strong. Dustin Hoffman is fantastic. Jack Black solid, McShane and Duk Kim brilliant.
But what makes Kung Fu Panda the film of the decade (ergo century, ergo millenium) is that it alone tackles a central issue of science.
Driving Kung Fu Panda is the tension between dual modes of learning: Knowledge Transfer and Discovery. As innovator, Oogway is heirless.
[I know taking Kung Fu Panda seriously will lose followers....but I don't care about those eyeballs as the issue and film are too important]
So while Oogway is master to Shifu who is/was master to both Tai Lung and Tigress he chooses to elevate the ostensibly inexplicable Panda.
In fact, Panda has demonstrated two features in strapping himself to a firework propelled chair: a willingness to innovate and break rules.
The film then shows the presumed successor (Tigress) as willing to break rules but previously shows this liniage to be prestige focused.
Think of the Panda as having a major & minor advisor. The major advisor (Oogway) he meets only twice. To the minor advisor falls training.
So university based PhD advising is based on the failed Shifu-Tigress model. But great science seeks the added Oogway-Panda dimension.
Recommendation: If you must compare "Kung Fu Panda" to "Godfather I" or "War and Peace" do it on a Saturday in late August. #mytwocents
Related Pages[edit]
- Genius vs Excellence
- High Agency
- In Kung Fu Panda, how does Po end up developing the capability to be an awesome Kung Fu fighter (Quora Answer)
- Skadoosh
- There is no secret ingredient
- The War on Excellence
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