Heroic Journey, Week of the Oct. 2

I feel like my responses have have gone from well researched into me explaining my emotional reactions to the genre and things around it. Now I am going to reflected on the Heroes Journey as a whole. 
My problem with the Heroic journey is how much of a formula it has become. This is really not negative in the right hands. Some people are able to take the tropes and make interesting characters and adventures with them. It’s not relying on twist endings or tongue-in-cheek parodies of these stories.
A modern story that sticks to the Heroic Journey very strictly and does not try to create a warping or parody of it is the first Kung Fu Panda (Osborne) movie. You can argue that the fact that Po is overweigh and goofy makes him a parody but, it actually helps show how the stages of the journey is affecting him.
Side note, I was going to write more about high fantasy and live action works after this, I decided to stick with Kung Fu Panda. I love The Lord of the Rings Series, Princess Bride, and Labyrinth (both for Jim Henson and David Bowie). I think that Kung Fu Panda is a very clear example and an interesting project that is fantasy.
Po is a poor son of a shopkeeper who end up being the chosen one who will save everyone from evil. He has a a moment at the threshold where he reflects on his destiny and how there are others better suited then him. With the help of a Kung Fu master and his peers he learns how to live up to everyone’s hopes for him. After some time and personal reflection, he pursues the villain and defeats him. After this he returns to his normal life with some changes. He still studies under his master but, also spends time back in the town he was raised in.
Also I read The Hobbit for this week.

Works Cited

Osborne, Mark, director. Kung Fu Panda. DreamWorks Animation, 2008.

Comments

  1. rdavisOctober 15, 2017 at 6:00 PM

    I totally agree with you on how the heroic journey has become a crutch for some film/book writers. As much as everyone likes a hero when writer's heavily stick to this script it gets boring really fast if not done right. I think it's mostly caused by the fact we already know what's going to happen even when there is a plot twist. I felt this way recently with Voltron when Shiro when he "dies" then comes back again. I already knew it was going to happen cause of the fact the show sticks to the heroic journey a lot. I stoped watching after awhile cause their take on the heroic journey just kinda bored me.

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