UK Mall 1 - The Amazing Panda Adventure [1995]

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?