‘Kung Fu’ is a Total Knockout

By: TYLER THOMAS

June 9, 2008

Source: The Independent Collegian, U. Toledo

 

 

With recent films such as, “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who!” and “Ratatouille” scoring big at the box office, the bar has been set pretty high for animated films. With most of these movies being released during the winter, summer movie lovers have been waiting for another animation film to captivate their children’s hearts. With the latest animation film to be released, “Kung Fu Panda,” co-directors John Stevenson and Mark Osborne have filled that void.

Po (Jack Black) is a panda who dreams of one day being the legendary Dragon Warrior, the famed warrior who strikes fear into the hearts of enemies by just looking at them. Sadly though, he is just a panda who works with his father Mr. Ping (James Hong) at a soup restaurant with a very secret ingredient in the soup. Ping sends Po to the big ceremony with the soup cart to sell the food to the onlookers of the festival, and little does Po know that his life would change forever that day.

Po heads to the festival to see the glorious Fab Five, which consists of Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Crane (David Cross). The group is considered the best martial art group all across the land, and is deadly to boot. Yes, their names are the animals they are playing in case you were wondering.

Po, through a series of unfortunate events, ends up being picked as the new Dragon Warrior, much to the dismay of the Fab Five. Po isn’t considered one of them, as he has never trained a day in his life and he constantly eats food and gets tired from walking up more than three stairs.

Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), the leader of the dojo, is weary of Po’s new enlightened status of being the Dragon Warrior, as Shifu thought Tigress would receive it. At first he tries to get Po to leave the dojo by being as mean and cruel as possible, but can Po overcome Shifu’s trails and be who he is destined to be?

There’s also a villain in the film, known as Tai Lung (Ian McShane) who is a renegade tiger who destroys all who come into contact with him. He was imprisoned a long time ago, and now comes to wreck havoc on the people that put him in the prison.

The best part of this movie is something a lot of movies have been lacking lately; family-oriented humor. “Kung Fu Panda” is suitable for all ages, whether you are one or one hundred. There’s a lot of laughter coming from all members of the cast, especially Po. Po really shines not only as the main character, but as the source of the jokes as well.

Jack Black, who has come a long way from his “Orange County” days, is amazing as Po. Long gone are the days of Black running around in his underwear denying a fire he started, he has now officially moved up in the world to the realm of animated films. For his first animated role, the R-rated comedy star does a superb job providing laughter to children and parents alike.

There’s not really a lot of bad things that can be said about the movie, except one minor flaw.

The problem is Tai Lung voice. Ian McShane is just not threatening enough to really provide the real evil sense that people enjoy in a villain. He sounds a little too nice to be considered a true villain in the movie, and thus, his character suffers a bit. While the fight scenes that are with him are truly great to watch, when he talks it just loses a little credibility with the casting selection for the movie.

While this is a very minor flaw, it’s very easily surpassed by the great acting from the Fab Five, as well as its new comer Po. All of the actors and actresses show tremendous talent and the movie flows from start to finish, leaving viewers wanting more panda.

Critic’s Conclusion: It’s rare that an animation film designed for children works great with families as well. “Kung Fu Panda” is entertaining, funny, and overall a great movie, despite a minor flaw with the casting of the villain. Otherwise, this is a top notch movie, and yes there probably will be a sequel in the works, and rightfully so. This is one movie that deserves a sequel.

Tuition Re-regulation to See ‘09 Docket

By: TERESA MIOLI – The Daily Texan

June 9, 2008

 

State Rep. Sylvester Turner, a Houston Democrat, announced Friday at the Capitol, his plan to file a bill next session to reverse tuition deregulation, calling it a “bad experiment.”Tuition deregulation took away tuition-setting power from the state and gave it to academic institutions. Gov. Rick Perry signed the tuition deregulation bill on June 22, 2003, and the measure took effect in September of that year.

Sen. John Whitmire of Houston and seven other Democratic legislators accompanied Speaker Pro Tem Turner on Friday.

“We should have never deregulated tuition,” Whitmire said. “It has not worked.”

Turner said funding higher education should be a priority, especially with the possibility that the state Legislature will start the upcoming session with a surplus of $10 billion to $12 billion.

Average tuition and fees at the 10 largest Texas public universities increased at annual rates of 10 percent or more from 2003 to 2006, according to Turner’s presentation.

University President Bill Powers said he is concerned about tuition increases, but believes deregulation has had a moderating effect on tuition.

The average rate of increases in tuition and fees was 13.5 percent from 1990 to 2003 and 10.6 percent from 2003 to 2007, according to Powers’ April 2008 report on tuition. The average increase from 2003 to 2009 was a proposed 8.7 percent.

Powers said university budgets are increasing faster than general revenue, which causes tuition to increase.

“We’re always willing to work with the legislators,” Powers said. “Our goal is to keep tuition as low as possible.”

Whitmire and Democratic Rep. Ruth McClendon of San Antonio challenged regents and school administrators to ask the Legislature to increase higher education funding before raising tuition.

UT Senate of College Councils President Scott Fulford and Student Government President Keshav Rajagopalan both said they do not support repealing tuition deregulation.

Rajagopalan said deregulation affords institutions the flexibility to meet the specific needs of students. He said he would hate to see the state take up the reins and turn tuition regulation into a political battle. Rajagopalan also said he assumes SG will take up the issue as well as ask the state to increase funding for higher education.

Tuition deregulation has allowed for greater transparency concerning the allocation of tuition and fees and has kept the University competitive, Fulford said.

Turner said he plans to speak with Powers and outgoing Chancellor Mark Yudof concerning deregulation.

“We’re not trying to hurt the quality of programming. We’re not trying to force them to lay off faculty and not be able to compete to get excellent faculty,” Turner said. “This is a question of who should provide the funding and what should that mechanism be.”

Turner said he plans to introduce the bill in the 2009 legislative session and that tuition regulation could become effective as early as June 2009. He said the Legislature could also provide additional revenue to colleges and universities so the institutions would not have to raise tuition, and in some cases, could lower it.

 

Rowling Charges Grads to Accept Failure, Cultivate Imagination

By ESTHER I. YI

Crimson Staff Writer

 

Published On 6/6/2008

One could forgive J.K. Rowling for mistaking yesterday’s afternoon exercises for a Gryffindor reunion.

Despite a persistent drizzle, a lively audience—including more than its typical share of youngsters—gathered under an assortment of University shields in Tercentenary Theater to hear the author of the acclaimed “Harry Potter” series deliver the Commencement address.

A group of young girls scribbled effusive, adulatory letters to Rowling on their laps. Others peered through binoculars to catch get a closer view of the author on stage. At least one graduating senior eschewed her mortarboard for a wizard’s hat.

Even University President Drew G. Faust, proclaiming herself “muggle-in-chief” for the day, announced in her introductory remarks that Harvard “would be hard pressed to measure up to the magic of Hogwarts.”

But despite the warm welcome, Rowling, by her own account, did not feel entirely in her element.

“The weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight,” said Rowling to sympathetic laughter and applause.

In a speech that touched only tangentially on the stories she has woven in her books, Rowling called on members of the Class of 2008 to use their capacity to empathize and their experiences of failure to conquer apathy.

Rowling, who has a degree in French and the classics from the University of Exeter, said her greatest fear as a recent graduate was failure, adding that she “failed on an epic scale” in her early adult years as an unemployed single mother who was “as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless.”

But upon reaching her lowest point, Rowling said, she stripped away the “inessential” in her life and ceased to pretend to be anything other than what she was.

“I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive,” she said. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation upon which I rebuilt my life.”

Since the first “Harry Potter” book was released in 1997, the seven-part series has sold more than 375 million copies, making Rowling, by some calculations, wealthier than Queen Elizabeth II.

Rowling also said she believes imagination is a crucial skill, enabling people to empathize with others whose experiences they have never shared.

Rowling recalled her experiences working in the African research department at Amnesty International, where she met torture victims and read letters documenting rapes, kidnappings, and summary executions.

Through such exposure, Rowling said, she came to recognize the power of human empathy to mobilize those who have never been oppressed to act on behalf of those who have.

A stubborn refusal to be empathetic not only represents a collusion with evil, but can have negative personal effects as well, Rowling said.

“The unwillingly unimaginative often see more monsters,” she said.

As graduates of a world-renowned university and residents of the world’s last superpower, Rowling said, Harvard’s newest crop of alumni can touch the lives of others “simply by existing.”

“That is you privilege and your burden,” she said.

“We do not need magic to transform our world,” Rowling said. “We carry all the power we need inside of ourselves. Already, we have the power to imagine better.”

Rowling is the fifth woman since 1950 to speak at Commencement. Previous writers to address graduates include Ralph Ellison, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Lionel Trilling.

Who Am I?

GRAEME LAWSON

June 9, 2008

 

Am I really just the intermixing of the teachings of my parents and the intertwined genes that makes me unique? Sure, we want to be unique in our own right in some way, but is it really being unique and individual if you are the culmination of upbringing and genetics? There is no certain formula that will show us the true character that we possess, and perhaps that is why the college environment can be so hard for some.

 

We spend our lives being taught how to be by our parents and then we come to this place. All of our upbringing and principles that we think are our own are questioned and picked apart ruthlessly by our professors and peers. This is a good thing. If not for this picking away at us, we would not learn what it is that we truly do and do not believe. The only way to test out something new is to use it, and the same applies to the morals and beliefs of a person.

 

The in-depth and ruthless studies that your peers put into you teach you about yourself. After all, the only way to learn about yourself is to have to explain yourself and your motives to a large group of people who will judge you for the rest of your life based on your answers.

 

How on earth does one live in his environment? Simply put, all you have to do is come to college with an open mind and the idea that you may or may not be right. Once you can admit that you have shortcomings in your beliefs, you can go about changing yourself to better fit the morals and ideals that you hold true. After all, everyone hates a hypocrite.

Gentle Persuasion

GRAEME LAWSON

June 9, 2008

 

Since the dawn of human society, the art of persuasion has been just that, a subtle and careful art, used by every man for the better of, somewhat selfishly, himself. The art of persuasion is perfected over age until eventually we become better at it. I have always been gifted in this field, but why is a total mystery. Still, it is a great thing to be gifted in.

 

My most memorable moment in the world of persuasive argument involved my high school principal and the introduction of paintball as a club at the school. I sat down with her on a Wednesday morning to talk about the ramifications of such an organization. We sat in this woman’s office for about two hours while she shot arguments opposing mine across the table, which I countered, in my view, admirably.

           

This leads me to my most important point on the topic of persuasion. People often think that persuasion has no boundaries, so “twisting the truth” so to speak is okay. For me, any conversation in which I have to persuade someone takes on its own challenge for me. I see it as an opportunity to test my intellect and perfect my delivery. Simply put, the art of persuasion is not about lying or about twisting facts to suit your argument. It is about anticipating every single rebuttal and every single counter argument that your opponent is going to make. Persuasion happens when you can appeal to a man’s sense of logic behind his sense of conviction. Persuasion is the art of taking a person’s views, and subtly altering them to make him or her question their belief, once you have that questioning, then you must carefully reiterate your argument to the point at which your opposition begins to fully understand and believe what you have to say. This is how persuasion should work.