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| - I like the Sands properties since their shows are constantly rotating, bringing something new. The people who produced the Beijing Olympic ceremonies also produced Panda ! So the basic story is Long Long is on a journey to save his Peacock Princess from the Demon Vulture who kidnapped her on their wedding day.
It's got a little bit of everything: stunts like balancing on stilts, acrobatics, kung fu board breaking and sword work and traditional Chinese dances from the long sleeve dance to some fan dancing. I think the costuming was done very nicely and the stage was nicely used. The one thing is the whole back wall is used to project various landscapes and since there are steps and such in the back in certain angles the projection didn't look like it lined up right. The musical score I think was welldone and made sense with the story, though it would have been lovely to see more live music since Chinese culture has such awesome traditional drumming and unique instruments like the huqin Overall though it was lively and pretty show.
They try to interact and make it fun for the audience. Before the show you can find the pandas wandering around the lobby for pictures. During the show, they've thrown out various trinkets, pulled little kids to dance in the aisles with them, throw streamers onto some people, had big panda beach balls being thrown about during a staging transition. Between the theme, the bright staging and the audience interaction I would say this would be a good family friendly show choice. It seemed like there was a high number of children watching and seemed to really be enjoying themselves.
Now I know that the main draw IS the panda characters, but I feel mixed about that. So the pandas are the only ones in full on fuzzy animal suits and other animals are more people with wardrobe that was made to interpret a animal. So there were moments where it's supposed to be sad or tense and I just couldn't muster up the feels for him since the panda was such a caricature of himself. He's supposed to be shaking in sadness and crying when he lost princess peccock, but his big head is just bobbing in a way that was funny and not helping the cause. In the picture I posted of the show, you'll see how it's a serious scene with everyone else on stage and then....there's a kawaii little panda in a suit and top hat.
And of course, the story line sounds a little stolen from Kung Fu Panda. I absolutely loved Po, but the animation and the fact everyone else is animated made that more congruous. I'm sure it's a love/hate thing and some people may absolutely adore the fact it's a panda and part of the point is that it's fun/funny.
Overall, I still enjoyed the show and appreciated the variety and a different culture it brings to the Vegas show lineup. Definitely if you are a parent, this would make a great family night. Or if you are a rice chaser, as I saw a lot of those there too.
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