Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda

I remember watching a promotion piece for this movie earlier this year and found myself not too pleased with it. I thought, uh, is this movie going to be like Shark’s Tale?

Nope…

Actually, the movie is very enjoyable and has a touching, if a little simple, story to it. I found myself pleasantly surprised with the movie, plus there are some laugh-out-loud moments in there too. I had a fun time and that’s all that matters.

Kung Fu Panda is about an overweight panda named Po who works as a noodle waiter at a restaurant in China, but Po dreams of being the best Kung Fu fighter in the land. Through some accident involving fireworks Po is picked to become the Dragon warrior.

For a CGI animated Dreamworks movie, the visual are stunning. While not up to Pixar standards, but it is pretty damn close. It would seem the artists and background artists really wanted to compete with Pixar this time around. For some reason, the bright colors and grand music reminded me of the earlier Chinese based movie The Forbidden Kingdom.

However, this time John Powell and Hans Zimmer do a masterful job with the score without it sounding like Batman Begins or The Last Samurai. The strong score helps the make the movie more than kid’s movie.

While the plot is simple, a bad guy breaks free and only the chosen one can stop him, the emotional beats make this is a far more compelling kid’s movie than the other Dreamworks CGI films. There are only a few modern pop cultural references in the movie, and that is a good thing too.

Jack Black and the other actors are fine in their respective parts. Ian McShane as Tai Lung is probably the best one out the group though. Mc Shane has a powerfully evil villain voice.

All the action scenes are well-constructed and exciting to watch. My favorite is the bridge fight between the good guys and Tai Lung. It was very impressive.

Anyway, not an outstanding movie, but it has some charm and humor that the other animated Dreamworks movies don’t have. And, Panda is certainly the prettiest movie to come out of their studio by far. The only flaw with the movie is the weak first 10 minutes.

This is suitable for grown ups and kids alike.

Grade: B

BTW, there is a great Alt-Dreamworks logo at the beginning too.

Sit through the credits at the end.