Kung Fu Panda Movie Review
By Jason Revill
Once there was a panda named Po (Jack Black), who lived with his father making noodles for the people in their village. But Po didn’t want to grow up to make noodles; he had dreams of his own. Despite the fact that he was lazy and completely out of shape, Po wanted to be a Kung Fu master like his heroes Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Viper (Lucy Liu), Monkey (Jackie Chan) and Mantis (Seth Rogen) otherwise known as the Furious Five. One day it was announced that a new warrior was to be named, and Po accidentally fulfills a prophecy, becoming Master Shifu’s (Dustin Hoffman) newest student. When the evil snow leopard, Tai Lung (Ian McShane) escapes from prison and wipes out the other Kung Fu masters, the only one who is able to stand in his way is the seemingly overmatched and overfed panda.
If I were Jack Black, I would quit while I was ahead not bother trying another animated film. If there was anyone who was going to play a Kung Fu fighting panda, he’s your guy. Black adds just enough of a lazy couch potato fanboy quality to Po that allows him to be both likeable and laughable. However, as much as I like him, I’d say that the best voice work is done by Dustin Hoffman and Ian McShane as Shifu and Tai Lung, respectively. Hoffman lends just the right amount of gravel to his Kung Fu master to hint at a bit of world weariness. And McShane, well if you watched a single episode of Deadwood, you know how great he is at playing the bad guy. I loved him in that show, and he’s great as the ultimate Kung Fu bad ass. To be honest most of the cast, including Angelina Jolie, James Hong, and especially Randall Duk Kim are all quit good. There are a few, such as David Cross and Seth Rogen that seem like odd choices, but not do to their effort more to their styles in relation to the character they portray. It seems odd to have two of the masters to be hipster slackers, when Bo is supposed to be completely out of his league.
One of the more surprising things to me was how much effort was put into the animation of in Kung Fu Panda. In many other animated features a lot of work is put into realism, and to its credit the animators chose to go in more of a stylized approach. Now, don’t get me wrong this still a cartoon panda, but everywhere you look there is a lot of influence from Asian art that brings so much more to the film than seeing every hair on Po’s head would have. On top of that, the fight sequences are fantastically done. Not only are they a pleasure to watch, but you can feel that there is an appreciation for live action films they pay homage to. There is a sequence where Po attempts to take a dumpling from Shifu that is a perfect example of how good a movie can be when it knows exactly where it comes from and what it wants to do.
The story behind Kung Fu Panda is pretty formulaic. Let’s face it, you know where this thing is going from the start and it never veers off the track, but your kids aren’t going to care. To be completely honest, you probably won’t either. With stylized animation and lack of pop culture laced humor, I’d much rather sit through this with my niece than Shrek for the umpteenth time. This isn’t the best animated film in the last couple years, but it’s pretty darn good and more importantly it does it by knowing exactly what it wants to be. If you leave the theater, as I did, with a bunch of kids karate chopping the air as they go, then I’d say this move was a success.
The Grade
- Story: B
- Acting: B+
- Visuals: A-
- Originality: B
- Enjoyability: A
- Overall: B+
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