Opening Day: 18 June 2009

Synopsis:

Presented by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Ying Dong Media, “Trail Of The Panda” (working title) is the moving story of a little panda cub who is separated from its mother and subsequently rescued by an orphaned boy after going through a series of hardships and dangers in the forest. In the process of trying his utmost to protect the cub from those he believes are going to harm it, the boy Xiaolu develops a deep relationship with his newfound friend, but eventually comes to realize that the best thing he can possibly do for the little panda is to reunite it with its mother. In the end, Xiaolu overcomes his own feelings for the cub, and sets forth with it on an adventurous journey to help it find the way home.

Movie Review:

Trail of the Panda is a family orientated movie that focus it’s target on the younger kids and the ladies. It’s evident in the way it drums up the cutesy factors from the pandas that had the young ones and the females in my preview group going all “oohh” and “ahhh” However, there are very little else to impress beside the cutesy pandas and the breathtaking scenery.

What made this “Trail of the Panda” rub the wrong way with the reviewer?

Firstly, there’s not much of an adventure of finding a way home. The title itself could be a rather misleading misinformation that misguide potential viewers into thinking that there’s going to be some sort of homeward bound journey between the panda and the little boy. In fact, if there’s anyone on the trail of the panda, it was the “baddies” of this movie and they weren’t even the main focus. It might have been better if it retained it’s other title “Touch of the Panda” instead.

Secondly, even though there are already many movies that depict the wildlife and kid combo overcoming the odds, Trail of the Panda failed to copy the successful formula from movies such as Free Willy. It boils down to the manner how this movie handles the protagonist kid and the “baddies” of this film and they could neither endear nor enrage the viewers into feeling for the movie’s plot. In the end, it average out as a draggy formulaic run without the formulaic highs.

Lastly, as a movie that trying to raise funds and awareness to the panda conservatory effort in Sichuan, it makes one wonder would it been better if a documentary illustrating the lives of the panda was made instead. The humans (both young and old) are willing parties in this movie project but are the pandas? Putting them through the motion of a movie making process seems like a rather unnecessary cruelty to these endangered animals.

Besides that, this movie also seemly promotes an unhealthy message that wildlife could be converted into or treated like a domestic animal (like a pet dog). For a wildlife organization group, it seems that the notion and boundaries of “respecting the wildlife as it is” had been totally forgotten. It makes one wonder how this will influence the young audience who watched this movie. Will the young ones start approaching wildlife or even pandas as though as they are all docile creatures?

But after making all those negative points above, it should be noted that it’s not easy to work with kids and animals. “Trail of the Panda” made enough effort to the supposedly “friendship” between the kid and the animal. It took the time and effort to film the panda responses to the kid’s care which to a point that it became believable that these two are reacting to each other.

The scenery filmed in this movie was also quite breath taking and it makes one wonder how much of the landscape had changed after the recent earthquakes that occurred in Sichuan. This movie was made before the earthquakes hit Sichuan and I believe that initially, this movie was to create awareness for the panda preservation effort in that area and now it had became a vehicle to raise funds instead.

At the end of this film, the credits revealed what had happened to several pandas that appear in this movie and it really made one want to contribute or help these animals that suffered from the earthquakes. However this movie isn’t really a very well made product that this reviewer is willing to promote and the other holdback would be that this movie depicts questionable conservation effort.

Movie Rating:



(An questionable and unmoving effort for the panda crusade)

Review by Richard Lim Jr