Sep 09, 2019  The plot is loosely based on Kungfu Panda only nowhere near as creative. I pity any child whose grandparents picked up this rubbish by mistake. Watch it on youtube for free if you can't Video Brinquedo should not be rewarded for such a shameless rip-off of a superior film.

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Ursinho da Pesada, known in English as The Little Panda Fighter, is a 2008 Brazilian Direct-to-Video film by Vídeo Brinquedo that is, to say the least, 'inspired' by Kung Fu Panda. A panda named Pancada works at a boxing club, but dreams of becoming a professional dancer. His boss, hoping to get back in the ring, fights a bear named Teddy Thunders, but due to an incident with the washing machine, everyone thinks he's Pancada. Now, Pancada is forced to fight in the ring for a battle that could determine the fate of the business.

See also Chop Kick Panda, another Kung Fu Panda knockoff.

This film provides examples of:

• Batman Gambit: At the end of the movie, Polaris bets all of his money on Pancada losing to Teddy Thunders, and is able to hand the Bear Bar Box over to Pancada, who turns it into a dance club, while Polaris retires to the icy mountains.
• Clark Kenting: Taken Up to Eleven. Polaris the polar bear manages to hide his identity by putting on a leotard and a bandit mask while fighting the current boxing champion Teddy Thunders, and when his disguise shrinks instead of being exposed everyone thinks he's Pancada the panda, even though they look completely different.
• Covers Always Lie: The artwork on the cover looks much better than the film's actual animation. Plus, the scene showchased does not appear in the actual movie.
• Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: Averted. There are no kung-fu-fights, but boxing. And Pancada isn't very good in boxing, cause he wants to be a dancer. The cover lies, as mentioned above, to get the attention of Kung Fu Panda-fans.

Advertisement:

• Karma Houdini: Polaris pretty much tricks everyone into giving him their money, and gets away with it.
• Limited Animation: In one scene, Beth says, the boxing club is sold out, but no customer can be seen.
• The Mockbuster: A pretty flagrant rip-off of Kung Fu Panda.
• Never Trust a Title: The titular panda is not 'little', as he is one of the largest characters in the movie. Plus, he only fights for thirty seconds at the end of the movie, and he gets his ass kicked.
• Non-Action Guy: Pancada would prefer to dance rather than fight.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: A bunch of people come up to Pancada and commend him on what they thought were his fighting skills and he thinks they're talking about his dancing audition, even though they were clearly not there watching. This is soon followed by another one between Pancada and Polaris, which is even more poorly constructed.
• Panda-ing to the Audience: Pancada is a panda.
• Satellite Love Interest: Beth serves no purpose in the story aside from being Pancada's Love Interest.

The Little Panda Fighter (titled Ursinho da Pesada in Brazil and previously titled Heavy's Little Bear) is a 2008 Brazilian direct-to-videocomputer-animatedsportsactioncomedy film directed by Michelle Gabriel. The film has drawn criticism as a mockbuster of the DreamWorks Animation film Kung Fu Panda.

Plot[edit]

A giant panda named Pancada works at a boxing club. He has dreams of one day becoming a professional dancer, and is in love with a waitress named Beth. His boss, a polar bear named Polaris, is scheduled to fight a large bear named Freak Teddy. Pancada visits his dancing instructor, Master Xin, who teaches him about loyalty. The following day, Polaris has found a black costume, and tells Pancada to wash it for him. The costume shrinks in the wash, resulting in Polaris having the appearance of a panda bear. As Polaris begins the fight with Freak Teddy, Pancada goes to a dance competition, wherein he ends up winning.

Polaris wins the match against Freak Teddy, and because of his panda-like appearance, the club's patrons mistakenly congratulate Pancada for being a powerful fighter. Pancada, having won the dance competition, erroneously believes that he is being congratulated for his dancing skills. After some words of wisdom from Master Xin, Pancada himself enters the ring to fight Freak Teddy and loses. After the fight, Polaris informs Pancada that he had made a bet that Pancada would lose the fight, and therefore, he becomes wealthy. After Polaris retires to the icy mountains, Pancada transforms the boxing club into a dance club.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

The film was produced by animation studio Vídeo Brinquedo to coincide with the film Kung Fu Panda. The similarities that the film has with Kung Fu Panda have brought many to consider it a mockbuster, a characteristic associated with many of Vídeo Brinquedo's films.^[1][3] The film's animation was completed by Paulo Biagioni, Renato Fujie, Arturo Hernández, and its director, Michelle Gabriel.

Release and reception[edit]

The movie was released on DVD on November 18, 2008^[4] and was panned by critics, primarily because of its similarities to Kung Fu Panda, which was released only a few months before. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 'rotten' score of 17% based on 99 user ratings. A columnist for the website Nster News wrote, in comparison to Kung Fu Panda, The Little Panda Fighter is 'a trashy uninspired rip-off with a similar plot and lower budget'.^[5] Mike Jeavons of Channel Awesome stated that 'the animation is terrible, the dialogue physically hurts, and the story is contrived and barely feels complete enough to fill the 50-minute runtime. The music is bad, the whole thing lacks imagination, and the characters and their motivations are awful'.^[6]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abEdwards, C. (8 January 2014). 'The Ultimate Guide to Animated Mockbusters'. Cartoon Brew.
2. ^'The Little Panda Fighter - Pancada'. Behind the Voice Actors. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
3. ^Rossi, Jones (8 July 2007). 'Estúdio brasileiro, 2007'. Globo.com. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
4. ^'The Little Panda Fighter DVD'. Amazon. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
5. ^'Funny and Ridiculous Rip-Offs of Famous Movies'. Nster News. 2014. Archived from the original on April 10, 2016. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
6. ^'Shameful Sequels: The Little Panda Fighter'. Channel Awesome. 21 January 2015.

External links[edit]

• The Little Panda Fighter on IMDb
• The Little Panda Fighter at Rotten Tomatoes