TV Review: Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior - Page 2

In real life, Brenda Song is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and it's put to use in this movie. She kicks, punches, and flies her way through this film and looks pretty convincing. The film was directed by John Laing, a veteran of some of the more recent Power Rangers shows. The action scenes (and their wire work) are pretty well-done. My personal favorite sequence is a "quiet" fight scene that has shades of Jackie Chan films in its choreography. However, parents should take note that because of the action sequences, this movie got a TV-PG rating (the warning at the beginning of the film is hilarious, by the way).

While the action scenes are certainly the high points of the movie, the underlying themes keep things interesting. One such thing is the importance of knowing your culture. In the film, Wendy and her family are Chinese-American. However, most of them don't really care about their culture. In the beginning, only the grandmother (played by veteran actress Tsai Chin) really cares about her Chinese heritage. These themes are ones that are prevalent in the households of first and second-generation Americans and it's interesting to see them dealt with in a family film. It's also interesting to note that this movie just might be the first Disney Channel original movie with a predominantly Asian cast.

Like other Disney Channel original movies, Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior is fun to watch and better than you'd expect. Although I'm outside of the target audience for these movies, I have always enjoyed watching them. Not only are they consistently entertaining, they also give you a peek at the stars of tomorrow. If history repeats itself, Brenda Song's star is rising as we speak.

Article Author: Sterfish

From music to manga and television to comics, Sterfish enjoys it all. He's older than you think and younger than you expect.

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