Dreamworks Animation has been facing an uphill climb in its attempts to prove it’s not a second rate animation studio in comparison to Pixar. While Pixar released another world-wide blockbuster in Ratatouille last year, Dreamworks released Bee Movie. Although profitable, Bee Movie was a disappointment critically and financially. For 2008, Pixar is releasing Wall-E, while Dreamworks gets the jump on them with the release of Kung Fu Panda. I have an extensive collection of kung fu films, as it’s my favorite film genre, so a movie about a kung fu fighting panda piqued my interest much more than Pixar’s film about a robot.
Kung Fu Panda is a family friendly film, set in a world where animals talk and live together in harmony. A panda named Po (Jack Black) spends his nights dreaming of being a kung fu master, while spending his days working in his father’s noodle shop. An average day is interrupted with the announcement that master Oogway, and old turtle, will select a kung fu master as the Dragon Warrior, the fighter destined to fulfill some ancient prophecy. Kung fu master Shifu(a small red panda voiced by Dustin Hoffman) assumes the Dragon Warrior will be one of his students, called The Furious Five. The Furious Five are composed of Tigress (a tiger voice by Angelina Jolie), Mantis (a praying mantis voiced by Seth Rogen), Crane (a bird voiced by David Cross), Viper (a snake voiced by Lucy Liu), and Monkey (a monkey voiced by Jackie Chan). Po crashes the ceremony at the last minute, and he is selected as the Dragon Warrior. Master Shifu argues that the panda was only there by accident, and Oogway responds that “there are no accidents”.
The rest of the film follows the standard kung fu movie patterns. A snow leopard named Tai Lung escapes from prison and is on his way to claim the Dragon Warrior title. It turns out that Tai Lung was Master Shifu’s prized student that he treated like a son before Tai Lung turned to evil. According to the prophecy, Po must be the one to defeat Tai Lung. Master Shifu must somehow train Po, who is well versed on the history of kung fu, but is a fat, lazy, silly panda. Po is excited to be learning among his kung fu heroes, but the odds are stacked against him. In a short time frame he must bond with the Furious Five, who want Po to go home so they can defeat Tai Lung, and somehow learn enough kung fu to fulfill the prophecy.
As someone who loves kung fu movies, I can tell that the makers of Kung Fu Panda share my love of the genre. The movie doesn’t make fun of the genre, but shows how timeless the themes of these movies are. The humor comes from Po’s difficulties in training and his interactions with his teacher and fellow students. When it comes time to fight, these animals really fight. The film contains some of the most inventive and exciting kung fu showdowns that you will ever see in an American film. Jack Black seemed perfect for the voice of Po. The voice work is actually good all around, although I don’t think Jackie Chan had more than a couple of lines. At approximately 90 minutes, the movie never has a dull moment. I was either laughing or enjoying the kung fu action. This is a movie that people of all ages can enjoy. At the screening, the kids and adults were laughing and everyone seemed to leave smiling. See this one in the theater.
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