Let's get one thing straight right: Kung Fu Panda will not advance the art of film, storytelling or even animation. The flick's 'zero to hero' plot has been mined in countless movies from The Mask to The Karate Kid, and the DreamWorks Animation film doesn't deviate from the formula. Your average 10-year-old could tell you how this movie will play out, and would be right 90% of the time.
However, Kung Fu Panda is very funny. And the martial arts sequences rock.
Kung Fu Panda: Zero to hero
Po the Panda (Jack Black) slaves all day in his father's noodle restaurant. But he secretly dreams of becoming a legendary kung fu warrior and kicking butt alongside Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and his protegés, the Furious Five (Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu and David Cross), the martial arts masters who guard the Valley of Peace. Unfortunately, Po is too fat and lazy to ever become a kung fu warrior, or so nearly everyone believes.
However, Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) thinks differently. A wise old turtle who invented kung fu, Oogway names Po as the legendary Dragon Warrior, a prophesied hero who will save his people from dire peril. And, sure enough, there's a peril for Po to take on. The villainous snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane) has just broken out of jail and he wants to take the fabled Dragon Scroll and declare himself the Dragon Warrior.
Of course, it falls to Shifu to train Po, a job the venerable teacher wants to avoid. He's even willing to encourage his other pupils to bounce Po out of the academy so that one of them can become the Dragon Warrior instead. But, of course, Po has hidden abilities, which slowly convince the others that maybe this seemingly useless panda could actually become a kung fu master.
Strangely enough, the Furious Five don't get a lot to do in this flick, other than mock Po and take on Tai Lung in an impressive battle sequence over a rope bridge. Considering the star power on display there (Jolie, Rogen and Chan have successfully headlined other movies), it's surprising that their roles are so small.
And Oogway only shows up to deliver some mystic wisdom along the lines of "believe in yourself" and "life's what you make it;" worthy sentiments to be sure but not exactly earth-shattering. The bulk of the flick focuses on the relationship between Shifu and Po, as the martial arts trainer first tries to persuade Po to quit, then figure out a way to make the panda a great warrior.
Jack Black pretty much plays himself in this film, which can be good or bad depending on your tolerance for his schtick. Dustin Hoffman, on the other hand, is almost unrecognizable as the frazzled martial arts trainer. While actors like Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, have become clichés, Hoffman shows that he's still willing to submerge himself into this part the way he has since his first major role nearly 40 years ago.
The kung fu battles are excellently done: they look realistic and the fact that this is rendered in CGI animation allows the "camera" to go places and show angles which would be impossible in a conventional live-action film. Kudos to Mark Osbourne and John Stevenson for their directing work on this flick.
Final Analysis
Kung Fu Panda represents a return to form for DreamWorks Animation, whose product had been sliding in recent years. It executes all the familiar moves of a movie of this type, but it's fast-paced and, most importantly, it's funny. And, really, that's all a comedy needs. It gets an 8/10.
Fun Fact: Does Samuel L. Jackson make a cameo appearance in the flick? I don't know; wait until the end of the credits and find out.
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