Best Adoption Movie EVER!

Finally finally finally.

I took my girls to the movies the other night. We saw Kung Fu Panda 2. I had never seen the first one and had no clue the sequel had an adoption element to it.

When this element was first revealed, I began to cringe. Oh no. Was I about to be blindsided again by movie producers who do not stop to think about how their cute little movie affects the emotional balance of adopted kids or orphans?

Would I be treated to something like from "Meet the Robinson's" where a little boy is rejected by one family after another because he's not interested in sports? Because he spills stuff? Yeah, I LOVE having my adopted kids receive messages like this. Like if they're not good enough, we don't want them.

Would it be another "Despicable Me"? Would I get to see the kids in the orphanage be placed in the "Box of Shame" for not selling enough cookies? Or to have someone adopt them to meet his own needs and then return them when things weren't working out like he planned?

Certainly could never be as appalling as when that horror movie Orphan came out. With tag lines such as: "It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own." and "There's Something Wrong With Esther."


Should I hide the eyes and ears of the two adopted kids I had with me? Should we just walk out before the full story was revealed?

But I am so glad we stayed. It was amazing.

In a nutshell, Po (Jack Black's lovable Panda character) realizes through some flashbacks that he is not the biological son of his father (a goose). He sets off on a mission to save China, but also on a quest to find out "who he is".

He finally receives the full flashback and learns the details of how he came to be orphaned. I was afraid they would show his biological parents to be brutes, but was pleased to see them portrayed as people (well, Pandas) who loved him very much and sacrificed their very lives to ensure his safety and well-being.

When he returned to his village, his adoptive father looked up at him with uncertain eyes, afraid he would lose his son. But Po looked down at him and said,
"I found out who I am. I am your son."

I was crying.
My daughters were crying.
Everyone around us was crying.

A child. Loved by the parents who brought him into the world.
A child. Separated from those parents.
A child. Taken in by another parent. Loved and accepted as a son.
A child. Grown. Understanding where he came from, but still embracing that he is the son of the man who adopted him.

If you have an adopted child, take him or her to see the movie now. Run, do not walk.

And rejoice that someone out there finally got it right.




I will rejoice if you click the button to vote for me....