Martial arts is about discipline. Whether you’re watching the classic films of Bruce Lee, any entry in The Karate Kid franchise, or even an episode of Power Rangers, you know that it’s about so much more than fighting. That’s the message that the protagonist of Black Belts needs to learn, a new short from Disney’s Launchpad incubator that held its world premiere last month at HollyShorts Film Festival before its Disney+ streaming debut on September 29th.
(Disney)
KJ (Seth Carr) desperately wants to be as good a fighter as his award-winning father Maurice (Tremayne Norris) was, a hobby his dad seems to have lost interest in since his brother passed away. So when KJ is sent to pick up a few things from the local hardware store, he can’t resist the sounds of karate emanating from its backyard. Not only does he discover a secret dojo there, but also its star Trey (Codderick Alucard) is going to be trained by KJs father, who stopped his own training!
Writer/director Spencer Glover co-penned Black Belts with Xavier Stiles, who conceived of the story. The short’s biggest strength is its exciting opening, a grainy CinemaScope action reel that evokes the feeling of Bruce Lee’s kung fu films from the 60s. The premise is excellent, but the execution is painfully slow. Shots linger a little too long for emotional effect, and with the inevitable heartwarming reunion of father and son, they don’t feel necessary.
Carrying the Disney name and a PG rating, Black Belts is about as unobjectionable as a story about a boy getting in a martial arts fight can be. The art form is more about skill and self-protection than dominance, which is a lesson that KJ needs to learn. At the same time, a decision was made not to show much physical contact, which sucks some of the air out of the genre.
(Disney)
The second batch of shorts from Disney’s Launchpad honors twelve unique voices through six shorts, and this one covers two of those voices. The theme of this season is connection, with Black Belts fitting that narrative through a disconnected father and son that need to be brought back together. The premise is great, and the introduction is fantastic, but the rest of it falls a little short of what audiences will likely be expecting.
I give Black Belts 3 out of 5 references to Home Improvement.
Black Belts premieres Friday, September 29th, exclusively on Disney+ as part of Disney’s Launchpad.
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