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Movies Forum Index » Movie Reviews Forum » Review: Kung Fu Panda (2008)...
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 Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:39 pm |
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KUNG FU PANDA
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2008 David N. Butterworth
*** (out of ****)
Confucius say, "Expect the worst and even the most jaded may find
true enlightenment."
Dreamworks' latest animated feature "Kung Fu Panda" features Jack
Black (his voice and a sizable chunk of his larger-than-life
personality) as a fat and lazy Giant Panda named Po who is accidentally
chosen to be the next Dragon Warrior when the former title holder, a
snow leopard gone bad (Ian McShane), threatens China's majestic Valley
of Peace.
Black's panda is giant all right; that's some serious poundage he's
carting around.
Giant disappointment, however, begins to describe the reaction of
the furious five ninja warriors in training--Tigress (Angelina Jolie),
Monkey ( Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Crane
(David Cross)--all of whom have been mentored by Kung Fu Master Shifu
(some kind of a rodent thing nicely voiced by Dustin Hoffman) and all of
whom were hoping to be selected for the coveted DW position, along with
the possession of its mysterious dragon scroll.
But it's Shifu who's the most disappointed of the bunch, since it's
up to him to train this overweight, under-motivated noodle loving black
and white bear. (OK, so everyone knows that pandas aren't really bears
but members of the raccoon family... but wait! Quite recently, it
seems, pandas were officially reclassified as members of a bear
subfamily, Ailuropodinae, or as the sole member of a separate family,
Ailuropodidae, which diverged from an ancestral bear lineage. So there!)
Anyway, Shifu has his work cut out for him, of course, and Po
initially takes a lot of physical abuse at the hands of Shifu's spurned
students. But it's not giving too much away to say that Po learns that
true strength comes from--ta-da!--within. It's an oft-parlayed message,
especially in kids' movies, but it works surprisingly well here. Black
is, of course, absolutely perfectly cast as Po to the point that were he
an animal I'm not sure what other animal he *could* be.
The film, directed by Mark Osborne and John Stevenson, is creative,
colorful and strikingly-animated with the (mostly) recognizable vocal
talent doing a fine job of getting inside their characters skins, or
fur, or feathers, or whatever it is a praying mantis has (exoskeleton?).
Black himself ensures that the humor quotient is kept upfront and
central but writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger should also be
credited for delivering a screenplay that favors wit and irreverence
over flatulence... and that's pretty impressive for a storyline
featuring a slobbish main character that favors eating over everything else.
"Kung Fu Panda," therefore, is a nice surprise, a delightful mix of
eye-popping--and bone crunching--animation, exciting martial arts action
(Tai Lung's fiery escape from prison is especially noteworthy, as is the
villain's final and inevitable face-off with Po), and large--*very*
large--dollops of humor. Pretend to be taking the little ones to see it
and, like that wise old Chinese philosopher says, you'll likely enjoy it
as much as they do.
--
David N. Butterworth, Film Editor
www.offoffoff.com/film | dnb at (no spam) dca.net |
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