Dreamworks Kung Fu Panda has been discussed
on our channel before. But when a trilogy is this good, we’re not
going to pass up a chance to talk about it again! We’ve covered morality… but what about
brains? Who among this action-packed cast is truly
the most intelligent… and who is missing the most brain cells? I’m Brad with WickedBinge and this is Kung
Fu Panda: Dumb to Brilliant. First up here, it's the Practically Brainless. This spot is reserved for those who have a
less than average intelligence, to put it nicely. The gold medal of stupidity goes to the Farmers. When they meet Kai, they are understandably
terrified of the warrior. Who wouldn’t be when a giant beast appears
out of nowhere and asks you if you would die if they stepped on you? But they also wound up provoking Kai when
they began gushing about Oogway being a legendary warrior. Now, it isn’t the Farmers fault exactly
that they didn’t know who Kai was. No one really did until Shifu found the scrolls
explaining why Kai and Oogway went their separate ways. But it’s hard to believe that they didn’t
notice how desperate Kai was to be recognized and how much he would have been annoyed to
have them gush over another fighter. The silver medal of stupid goes to Commander
Vachir. Yeah, he’s the guy in charge of a maximum
security prison that was designed for one dangerous prisoner, but we have to rank him
low due to the cockiness he had. Vachir’s pride wound up being the very thing
that resulted in Tai Lung escaping. The messenger did not need to be given a tour
of the facility, and Vachir knew that. But he wanted to show off and hopefully have
Shifu off his back. Rather than taking the message he got as a
personal insult to his competence, he should have been a professional and just taken the
concern to heart. The bronze medal of dumb goes to the Pandas. As cuddly and sweet as they are, they are
also very sheltered and naive. When Po is laying out plans for them, he makes
the comment that he would have to go over all the details several more times. Which was tough to accomplish when the pandas
kept eating the stuff meant to represent them on the map. But we rank them higher than others on this
list because of their ability to adapt. They didn’t have any fighting experience,
much preferring to hide after the conflict with Shen. But even with their lives being sheltered,
they were able to channel their chi and help Po while he was in the spirit realm. And that is pretty impressive. Next up is the Grade School Students. These characters are capable of improving
their craft or vile schemes, but have a way to go from the top. Next on our list is Mei Mei. We place her above the rest of many of the
other pandas because she shows more ambition than the others. Mei Mei was able to develop her skills as
a dancer and then use those same abilities to become a pretty impressive fighter. In a matter of hours, Mei Mei went from being
unable to even hold nunchucks to being able to brandish a weapon and her ribbon at the
same time, going in circles around the jade fighters. We still dock her down for her lack of awareness
when it came to the people around her, though. She didn’t quite grasp that Po was uncomfortable
about her interest, but at least she eventually eased off. Moving onto the Wolves. Henchmen to Shen, they were just there to
carry out orders and instill fear in the masses while collecting all the metal they could. They didn’t have any clear plans when it
came to how they would thrive once Shen achieved his goal. They just appeared to be happy to have people
afraid of them. Which meant when Shen met his downfall, they
had no backup plan as to how they would get by if they escaped the kung fu masters hunting
them down for helping a criminal. Next up our list is the Average Folk. These guys are, as the name implies, pretty
average in terms of intelligence. Not too smart, but not too dumb. Normies. Next, we have Po's mother. Sure, we don’t see her for very long, but
we can’t argue how smart it was of her to hide Po away among some vegetables. Not only was he out of sight from Shen and
the wolves, but it meant that Po would be carted off to a home where he would hopefully
be safe and away from the carnage. Not only that but she was able to lead Shen
and his henchmen away to ensure her child’s safety. Not only was that smart, but it was a heartbreaking
sacrifice. The messenger Zang is next. When Vachir was occupied with showing off
the prison, Zang had been the voice of reason, insisting that they leave. He kept speaking up that he didn’t have
to see Tia Lung or where he was kept, and kept pressing that upping security was just
a request Shifu made. It wasn’t Zang’s fault that Tai Lung was
able to utilize something so small in order to escape, so we can’t rank Zang lower just
for that. Taking our next spot we have Po’s father
Li Shan. While he has his moments of absolute cluelessness,
such as when he thought Mr Ping joined them to make sure he ate well, he also was shown
to be pretty on the ball. He was able to track Po down with little to
no leads given. After he saw Po fighting the jade warriors,
Li was able to use the excuse of teaching chi to get Po away from Kai. And though Li wasn’t a part of the training
that Po put the rest of the pandas through, he was able to fashion some armor with Mr
Ping to fight alongside the rest of the village. Li had also been the one to lead the pandas
to use their chi to help Po, helping to bring back a skill that had been lost for ages. Following, we have Po’s other father Mr
Ping. After he found Po, he took care of the panda
as if he were his own. He was a traditional man who put aside his
dreams and had been fairly clueless to Po’s real dreams, but was able to be supportive
of his son. He was the one to help Po realize the real
meaning of the scroll by telling Po the secret to his noodle soup. He was the one to help Li realize how they
could both be supportive of Po in his fight against Kai. And had been able to adjust to the village
in his own way, caring for the children in the village while Po trained. He had his moments where he wasn’t always
on the same page as his son, but he got better as the films went on. Now we’re really getting into the College
Bound. These are the characters who are just a stone
throw away from the top, proving they have the ability to be the best, but just fall
short. Next on our list we have Monkey. Once a comedian, he was able to use his sense
of humor to distract opponents and take them out quickly. He was able to use his past skills as a thief
and prankster to quickly grasp a fighting style when training in kung fu. Because Po was able to also fight with a light
hearted attitude, Monkey was pretty quick to grant Po some respect as a fellow student,
knowing very well that being funny didn’t discredit Po from being a great student. It’s clear that Monkey saw a lot of himself
in Po, which is why he warmed up to the panda so quickly. Next up is the avian fighter, Crane. One a janitor, he had been thrust into a situation
where he had to protect himself. Sure, it was just a training field, but it
was still impressive how he was able use his fast reflexes to avoid being pummeled. When he had been sent with Mantis to seek
out more information on Kai’s whereabouts, Crane had been the one to try and get Mantis
to leave in order to tell the others. That would have been a good idea, too, had
Mantis not been so determined to take on the enemy himself. To Crane’s credit, he’s far more subtle
than the other fighters. That can make him come off as unapproachable,
but it also makes him perfect for gathering information. Speaking of, next up is the acupuncture expert
himself, Mantis. Sure, his need to take on Kai did him and
Crane caught, but Mantis was far more than a tiny sass factory. He was also stated to be an experienced fighter
that used speed to take his opponents off guard. When he was in a situation where he couldn’t
use this method, Mantis was able to find a way to surprise his foes: by being so still
they thought him dead. Considering how much Mantis relied on his
speed and flashy moves, this was a pretty impressive tactic for him to come up with
on his own. Moving onto Viper. Like Crane, she had also been pushed into
a situation where she had to protect herself, but Viper’s technique was a little different. Since she was born without venom, she had
been sheltered growing up. But when her father and the rest of the village
were in danger, Viper was able to use her skills as a ribbon dancer to use the villain’s
own strength against him, making the beast punch himself in the face until he was defeated. She didn’t have limbs like the other members
of the Furious Five. Nor did she have the ability to bite her opponents
into submission like other snakes around that area. But she made do with what she had and was
able to rise up and be one of the most legendary fighters in all of China. We also have to give her some credit for her
patience when helping Mantis with his acupuncture on Po, since that wasn’t something she was
really trained in. Next we have the villain of the first movie,
Tai Lung. Though Tai Lung was very capable in how he
escaped from the prison, he was driven by revenge and hatred. That shallow motivation wound up being a large
reason for Tai Lung’s downfall, with the fighter being taken down as he tried taking
his rage out on Po. He blamed Shifu for his broken dreams and
was deluded that he was still able to be the Dragon Warrior so long as he had the scroll. It would be interesting to see what Tai Lung
could accomplish had he pursued a path other than that of the Dragon Warrior. And we can’t forget the other kung fu Masters. We had to drop them a bit low in the ranking
due to a few things. First off, we have the masters that refused
to fight Shen that hid themselves away, claiming that facing Shen meant death. Second, we have the masters that were able
to be lured in by Kai, their chi being taken and used against the very people they were
trying to protect. Third, they clearly underestimated Shen and
his weapons, facing the avian villain with little force and basically no backup. I mean, why would you take on a villain you
know little about with only a few masters? Shouldn’t you try to be prepared to face
strong opponents at any time? Next is the villain obsessed with chi: Kai. Once he learned how to use chi and steal it
from others around him, there was little that could be done to stop him. We have to hand it to Kai: he spent a long
time traveling the spirit realm and seeking out enough power that he could return to the
living. That took a level of determination that is
hard to top. Kai was also able to lure the masters out
one by one and gain their power, knowing just how much strength he needed before facing
Shifu and going after the panda village. But his greed became his downfall as he was
given too much power, which wound up destroying him. It’s hard to believe that Kai never came
across the fact that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, but seeing as
not too many people were seeking out that much chi, it’s likely that no one really
considered that ending a possibility. Save for Po at that very moment. Much like Tai Lung, Kai’s arrogance wound
up being a large part of his downfall. After all, Kai’s very own comments about
the spirit realm are what gave Po the idea on how to defeat him. Up next is the terrifying Shen. Though one could argue that Shen wasn’t
completely there, having been pushed to the edge in his pursuit of glory, Shen was resourceful. He was able to take a simple fun display and
turn it into a revolutionary weapon. He was effective in hunting down the majority
of the panda population, knowing that they would have been a formidable opponent for
him. He was able to face the masters themselves
and defeat them, instilling fear not only in the masters of kung fu, but in the general
public. And though Shen would get annoyed with Soothsayer
and her way of foretelling the future, he knew better than to try and make an enemy
of her. He knew in a way that she had been right about
his family and his possible downfall, but he was willing to take that risk to achieve
his dream. Even when Po was flat out obliterating his
armada, Shen refused to admit defeat and demanded that someone-anyone-kill the panda. Our next spot goes to the remaining member
of the Furious Five, Tigress. Having a tough childhood where she was sheltered
from the other children, Tigress learned from a very young age how to control her rage and
her strength. She had been the one to recruit the other
members of the Furious Five through a mishap with the lists and made the team work. Nothing really got past Tigress, and so she
had been the one to recognize that Po was struggling with something and had been able
to get him to open up about his problems. She had found the panda village with little
help in order to warn Po about Kai and helped Po to reach a solution on how to fight the
chi-crazed warrior. Though Tigress wasn’t the warmest or cuddliest
fighter, she was one of the more wise and insightful. Finally, we have The Geniuses. These characters are capable of running large-scale
operations. They’re dangerous and powerful because they
know how to outsmart anyone. Truly Machivellian when it comes to Power. Next up on our list is the Dragon Warrior
himself, Po. Though Po is often brushed off as a spaz that
had a lot to learn, he was also shown to be wise. He had been able to work out the meaning of
the scroll with his dad’s help and figure out Shifu’s special attack to use against
Tai Lung. He had been able to train the other pandas
in a limited amount of time and defeated Kai with the use of not only his chi but the other
pandas’. Though Po struggled with the trauma of his
past, he was eventually able to find peace and face Shen head on, telling the villain
that it was better to let go of the anger of the past rather than allowing it to define
him. Though Po was aware of the Furious Five not
accepting him at first, he tried his hardest to make a good impression. Those tactics didn’t always work, with Po
often getting stuck or beaten up, but in the end he was able to find his own style of fighting
that was successful. Our bronze medal of brains goes to Master
Shifu. Once reluctant to take Po into his care, Shifu
spent much of the first film living in the past and regretting his mistakes with Tai
Lung. He was stubborn and refused to see Po’s
worth for much of the movie. But when Shifu did come around, his methods
to teach the panda were unique and effective. By the time the second and third movies came
around, Shifu was able to master some new techniques and even ask Po for advice when
it came to mastering chi. Shifu had been the one to convince the masters
hiding away in their jail cell to fight alongside them and had been the one to send Tigress
to find Po and the panda village in order to warn them about Kai. Even when it placed his own safety at risk,
Shifu was able to look at situations logically to ensure the safety of those around him. Taking the silver medal of brains is Soothsayer. An aid to Shen, she was one of the few that
escaped his wrath. Her ability to look into the future and grant
advice to the villain may have had some less than desirable methods for Shen, but she did
her job well. She had tried to reach through to the avian
for a long time, trying to get him to forgive his family for casting him out. When Shen failed to see reason, Soothsayer
was able to find Po and reveal the truth to the panda, seeing him as the only option to
save not only kung fu and the people of China, but Shen himself. Taking our gold medal of brains, we have Master
Oogway. Who else could we have at the top of this
list other than the most beloved and revered master in the films? Oogway was wise and his input was sought after
by everyone. He was the one to detect the evil lurking
in Tai Lung’s heart. He had been the one to encourage Po to keep
pushing through the training. Oogway had also been the one to banish Kai,
knowing that the warrior wouldn’t change his ways. Oogway himself explains that when he saw Po,
he immediately made the connection between the past and the potential future, believing
Po could be the one to mend the tragedies that took place. Even in death, Oogway was an optimistic and
fun-loving character that strived to be an example to those around him. But let us know in the comment section if
you agree with our ranking. And tell us what we should cover next. Remember to hit that notification bell and
binge our Dumb to Brilliant playlist. Where we figure out which characters have
the most wits. But most importantly, stay wicked.
