Kung
Fu Panda
After this movie, pandas might be the new penguins.
And, you know Kung Fu Panda is going to be good
because TALKING ANIMALS ARE FUNNY!
Po the Panda (voice by Jack Black) is a rambunctious dreamer who wants to
be a karate superstar, but seems destined to take over his
father’s soup shop (and, his father is a duck, which seems
kind of weird that a duck would produce a panda offspring, maybe the
wild kingdom is wilder than we ever imagined). Their small Chinese town
is protected by a group of ninja warriors (The Furious Five), and,
according to the prophecy, a hero named The Dragon Warrior is supposed
to be chosen to keep peace in the village. Somehow, even though
everyone thinks Tigress (Angelina Jolie) is one of the greatest
warriors in all of the land, the clumsy, pudgy, less athletic Po is
chosen (I know, he’s just big boned), and the local master,
Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), must train the flabby furry one to save them
all from the evil Tai Lung (Ian McShane).
Can Po
develop the skills
needed to be a kung fu panda?
Do Tigress, the rest of the Furious Five and Shifu believe Po has what
it takes?
Kung Fu Panda is a fun and
action-packed movie if you are 5-years old or 50-years old. Most of
this comes from a painstaking attention to detail by directors Mark
Osborne and John Stevenson, as well as the entire production and design
team. They do a wonderful, stunning job creating a world true to
the classic kung fu movies of the past including art work, title
sequences, design of the village, music and more (they’re
only missing David Carradine and Quentin Tarantino). Kung Fu Panda
looks perfect and probably more authentic than any scene from this
summer’s Olympics in China will be.
Then, writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger incorporate all of the
traditional story elements you would expect in a movie of this style.
We have the feared villain, a prophecy, and the training montage
(you’ve gotta have a montage) – all expected but
not rejected by the viewer because you are having such a fun time
watching it all develop on screen. I especially loved the action scenes
with slow motion and freeze frames to capture all the right moments
during the fights (to amaze you and make you laugh until the M
& M’s come out of your nose, so be careful if you
like peanut M & M’s).
Kung Fu Panda would be nothing
without the panda, so you’ll be happy to hear Black is funny
and outrageous enough to keep us laughing, and never gets annoying. I
know I have picked on him before as Bill Murray without the talent, but Black has evolved over the past few years
to prove me wrong. Along with the fantastic facial expressions you can
see on Po’s face (a hilarious mix of bravado and fearful
uncertainty), Black makes Po endearing to the audience for his pure
love, energy and belief in what he wants to do, and an unflinching
dedication to making the audience laugh.
Aibel and Berger even throw in some good drama about growing up and
deciding what you want to do with your life even if others
don’t approve or laugh at you, as well as the big battle as
Shifu, Tigress, Po and the entire team face potential harm in the
coming battle, but know they must fight for the greater good.
If you get a chance to see it in a theater with the right kind of
equipment, the digital presentation is amazing as you can see each
little hair on Panda’s fur and the detail to every aspect of
every item in the frame. It takes a very very good movie and elevates
it just enough to stand out even more.
Kung Fu Panda is rated PG for
sequences of martial arts action.
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