- Actors: Stephen Lang, Ryan Slater, Yi Ding, Wang Fei, Zhou Jian Zhong
- Directors: Christopher Cain
- Writers: Jeff Rothberg, John Wilcox, Laurice Elehwany, Steven Alldredge
- Producers: Dylan Sellers, Gabriella Martinelli, Gary Foster
- Language English
- Classification: PG
- Studio: Warner
- VHS Release Date: 1 Oct 1999
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00004CRP4
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 68 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
I must begin by saying that this film is in the standard sentimentality mode of children (with adult accompaniment) falling for animal(s) and getting some life-enhancing experience out of the situation. What lifts this one above the mundane is the stunning backdrop scenery of the wilds of central China. It is also a good story involving chinese poachers who are after the rare pandas for their ill-gotten gains. It also gently explores tensions in the leading character's family (parents separated; mother and boy (Ryan) still living in the US, father running a Giant Panda reserve in China and totally involved in it). My 5-year-old boy loves it. The main distraction to adult enjoyment is the dubious quality of the animatronics; most of the action involves real pandas, including the starring panda cub, but when they resort to the robot version for some of the close up cosy scenes, the change in fur quality and some of the movements bring you back to the reality of your living room with a jolt. That said, this has never been mentioned by either of my young children. It's a welcome addition to our permanent collection of home videos as both my boys like it and it is a breath of fresh-air compared to the many "zap-zap-your-dead" stories that tend to dominate their thinking.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
I have to now admit that my family have had what can only be described as a "Panda Neurosis" for some time. We have upwards of 20 specimens in our house, belonging to our various 5 kids, and the pandas all have personalities of their own.
Well, this happened because we wanted to be a good mom and dad and we really, over the years, got more like our kids than my parents ever did. We were fascinated by the stories they made up about their bears and pandas (not many at first), and then we sort of joined up in the middle somewhere. So here we are, with our own home grown mythology... and here we are with this, another Panda story, someone else's mythology (if that's what it is) this time a film, and this time round, you can see the creatures themselves. Marvellous!
Its odd how awe inspiring this is. Considering that this is theoretically a B movie, in many respects it's a major work. The camera work is really excellent. I know enough about the difficulties of filming in remote locations to appreciate just how carefully much of this was put together, the choices of location are wonderful and the photography amazing.
I really treasure the memories of looking through copies of National Geographic with my boys when they were tiny, and looking at the pandas, and pictures of Africa, elephants, and so forth. All amazing, and, there's that word again, ... awesome.
China is a beautiful country, and are planning to go next year.
But if we couldn't go, maybe one should argue that there should be more films like this for us folks at home, showing off God's reckless moments!
I am using this film to talk to the younger kids about geology and geography, and it's been quite a useful resource. I think that the films funny moments are nicely done, and overall, there is a degree of sensitivity and gentleness which is unusual and special. The film equaly avoids silly sentimentality or other excesses and works well on many fronts, being fairly realistic especially.
It would not be too hard at all to imagine a sequel to this, maybe when the little boy gets a bit bigger, maybe meeting the Chinese girl again... Who knows?
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
The title says it all really. The story's quite good, the acting's not great, the scenery's beautiful, and the animatronic panda is quite poor. However, what lifts this film above your everyday cheesy kids-n-animal flick is the large amount of footage of an almost unbearably cute baby panda! For any animal lover, and especially panda lover, you'll view the film in a far more favourable light because of this!
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