Animal Planet

[IronFist]

RIGHT NOW there's a show on Animal Planet about animal kung fu styles. I was recording it but hit the wrong button and lost the first 30 min. Oops.

[冠木侍]

I think they showed that as a Chinese New Year special one time. But if you watching the one I am thinking of, it might be dated (circa 2001).

Is it based on the Zodiac?

Master Tat-Mau Wong has a sequence for the Tiger I think.

[ghostexorcist]

I've read that they originally showed it on Chinese New Year too. The show is called "Kung Fu: The Animal Within". Jason Scott Lee did the voice over.

I watched it early this morning. 2-3 am if I remember correctly. For those who haven't seen it, they covered Tiger, Snake, Five Animals, Dragon, White Crane, Mantis, Monkey and briefly touched upon Eagle Claw. Every time they featured a certain style, they showed clips of the animal hunting or interacting with each other in nature. They also showed clips of the style in action from various Kung fu films. The ones I recognized were Snake in Eagle's Shadow, Touch of Zen and Dance of the Drunk Mantis.

The tail end of the show focused on Bruce Lee's career and his popularization of Kung Fu in the west via his film's. They showed clips from his rare interview and his screen test for Kato on the Green Hornet Tv show. He showed off his skills in Tiger style and Crane style. He obviously impressed them since he got the part.

Overall, I was unimpressed with the show. It was nothing but Shaolin this and Shaolin that. Even though it's been debunked by scholars, they told the story of how Bodhidharma was the originator of Shaolin kung fu. They also covered that "northern legs, southern fist" crap.

[GeneChing]

Kung Fu: The Animal Within was originally aired in February 2001 by Animal Planet. We mentioned it in passing on page 79 of our 10 Year Anniversary Issue because it was quite a breakthrough back then and our editor at that time, Martha Burr, appeared as a talking head on the program.

[Jimbo]

Yeah, I remember seeing this one way back.

I also saw one show on Animal Planet that was hosted by a British guy, and during one part, he came to California and was sparring with a female wushu stylist. The host put on a bunch of sparring gear, while the woman (sans gear) was aggressively attacking him with the wushu version of mantis, which was pretty funny. The guy eventually collapsed to the floor in exhaustion, though it didn't appear like any of the showy moves she did would've hurt him anyway. I don't think this particular show was focused on kung fu per se, but included that segment because they were discussing the praying mantis insect.

[GeneChing]

KungFuMagazine.com’s ‘got qi?’ T-shirt will make a cameo on the next episode of Animal Planet's "Treehouse Masters," entitled ‘View From Above’! If you want to catch the show, it is set to air on Friday, August 8, 2014 at 10:00 p.m ET/PT on Animal Planet.