The Little Panda Fighter

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

The Little Panda Fighter
Amazon Video cover art
Directed byMichelle Gabriel
Produced byMauricio Milani
Written byAle McHaddo
StarringRaul Schlosser
Sidney Ross
Music byRenato Lemos
Edited byPaulo Rebouças
Production
company
Distributed byMorningstar Entertainment[1] (North America)
Release date
  • November 18, 2008 (2008-11-18)
Running time
51 minutes
CountryBrazil
LanguagePortuguese

Plot

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
Character name Brazilian voice actor English voice actor
PancadaRaul SchlosserDan Green[2]
PolarisSidney RossDavid Brimmer
BethClaudia VictoriaErica Schroeder
Freak TeddyClaudio SatrioDan Green
Master XinCharlie MamberttMike Pollock
Grizzlepuss Sidney Ross Maddie Blaustein

Production

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

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. 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]

gollark: They're highly transitive and borrow-checked.
gollark: You know, for purposes.
gollark: We have transitive metaapioformic ideatic manipulation arrays to prevent this.
gollark: Actually, no.
gollark: I'll just send them to low Jovian orbit.

References
  1. Edwards, 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.
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