The Secrets of the Furious Five

As a non-religious parent of a small child, one thing I really appreciate about the Kung Fu Panda movies is that they explicitly teach inner qualities and moral virtues and ground the teaching in a secular worldview. 

That’s actually somewhat less—though still—true of the feature films, which are overlain with a messianic narrative (Po the Panda is a Chosen One), than of the two animated shorts than feature secondary characters, “The Secrets of the Furious Five” and “The Secrets of the Masters.” 

Especially the former shows how young, immature characters—most are represented as children—with particular weaknesses and flaws gain insight into their problems, work hard to overcome them, and finally succeed in embodying the necessary virtue. Mantis learns patience, Viper finds courage, Crane self-confidence, Tigress learns self-control, and Monkey compassion. All their stories function as exempla in a didactic narrative; Po is teaching a group of new students what is important about Kung Fu.

I have used these exempla many times in my own parenting. They work well because J really enjoys—as probably any child would—being compared to characters who are essentially superheroes, and conversely the idea that superheroes had the same problems when they were kids as J does. 

They also allow for a non-confrontational, redirected form of correction. Instead of "You need to be patient!", I say "Remember what happened to Mantis because he was so impatient?" Furthermore, they illustrate successful practice of a virtue by means of a concrete—and cool—result: "Remember how Mantis was able to defeat the crockodile-bandits when he learned patience?"

For awhile a German version of "The Secrets of the Furious Five" was on YouTube, so I was able to transcribe the whole German script. Several months ago I began to flesh it out into an actual narrative, which I read to J on a regular basis. Although it is not yet complete (I'm most of the way through the third story, that of Crane), I'll post it anyway. You can find it here. I'll finish it one of these days.