The cast of Cashmere Mafia

Cashmere Mafia is a term given to four successful female executives, Mia Mason (Lucy Liu), Zoe Burden (Frances O’Connor), Juliet Draper (Miranda Otto) and Caitlin Dowd (Bonnie Somerville) due to their ambitious mind and highly successful career and most of all, the love of money.

Frances O’Connor as Zoe Burden

Lucy Liu as Mia Mason

Miranda Otto as Juliet Draper

Bonnie Somerville as Caitlin Dowd

Unlike Sex and the City, Cashmere Mafia simply does not have the chemistry between the characters. The series focus more on the lead characters, Zoe and Mia, their corporate battle and personal struggle. While highly successful in the corporate world, the Cashmere Mafia gang have a terrible personal life. Zoe Burden like her name, has a huge burden on her shoulder. She has to hire a nanny to take care of her spoiled brats as both she and husband are working full-time, while Mia’s fiance called off their engagement after losing the corporate battle with his fiancee.

Cashmere Mafia lacks flair and originality that both Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives have, which are the ingredients that made them very successful. Cashmere Mafia is discontinued after the first season ends as ABC has decided not to renew the series for a second season.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Master Oogway (a tortoise who knows kung fu) summons Shifu only to tell him his prophecy of Tai Lung (Ian McShane) will escape to become a treat to the civilians, therefore, Oogway must select a new Dragon Warrior to defend the town. The whole village gathers to find out which of the Furious Five will be the Dragon Warrior only to see Po accidentally being selected as the chosen one.

Po and Shifu in Kung Fu Panda

After learning the prophecy of Tai Lung’s escaping, Shifu sends Zeng (Dan Fogler), the messenger goose to send a message to Commander Vachir (Michael Clarke Duncan), a Javan Rhinoceros to beef up the security by as much as twice but Vachir arrogantly says no one can escape his prison, with 1,000 soldiers guarding 1 prisoner. Unfortunately, Zeng carelessly drops a feather which enables Tai Lung to escape and easily trashes all of Vachir’s soldiers who try to stop him.

When Shifu learns from Zeng that Tai Lung has escaped, Shifu consults Oogway only to have Oogway strongly tells Shifu to believe Po is the chosen one and slowly nurture him like the peach tree. Oogway then passes away like dust in the air. While Po is upset by his clumsiness and his failure in his earlier training, it is Shifu who convinces Po to stay when Po decides to leave. Shifu discovers that Po is able to climb up to the highest kitchen cabinet just to steal some cookies and therefore uses food as a whole new way of training Po. When Po is finally equipped with the kung fu to fight Tai Lung, Shifu brings down the dragon scroll to Po only for both of them to realize the scroll is totally empty.

Po, Master Monkey, Master Tigress, Master Viper, Master Mantis and Master Crane

Knowing that Tai Lung is on his way, Shifu asks his students including Po to help the villagers to evacuate the place, believing he will be able to at least, momentarily holds off Tai Lung. Po meets his father, Mr. Ping (James Hong) who finally reveals to Po his secret ingredient’s secret — nothing. Po finally understand the secret behind the blank scroll, which is nothing but to believe in oneself. He boldly goes back to the palace in order to face Tai Lung. The fight between both of them doesn’t last very long, but like the entire show, is nevertheless hilarious. Po, somehow, manages to defeat Tai Lung and earns the respect of the Furious Five as well as Shifu.

Overall, this is one of the best animated movie and definitely the best so far this year. Great voice acting by Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman, beautiful landscapes and background arts, what’s more, the dumplings and bowl of noodles look extremely real! Worth watching with the entire family.

My ratings: 9 out of 10.