Kung Fu Panda (spoilers) -- Rhinotainment

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Date Posted: 20:07:44 06/10/08 Tue
Author: Flair4theGold
Subject: Kung Fu Panda (spoilers)

I guess there will be spoilers. I don't know. If you've seen most any underdog sports movie, anything where the lovable loser ends up the hero, the Karate Kid, or heck, even just the trailer for this flick, then you probably know how this film plays out.

But I gotta say, maybe the movie's been done a zillion times, but I don't recall it ever being this funny. One of the cool things about kids is you end up seeing a lot more family movies than you ever did before them. Some are a total waste of time (Crapatouille), some are tolerable (Veggietales: The Pirates who Didn't do Anything), and once in a great while, you actually hit a winner and Kung Fu Panda was it.

Within the first five minutes, I had tears in my eyes from laughing and it just went from there. Po the Panda ends up being chosen the Dragon Warrior and as a result gets to train with his idols, the Furious Five. What makes the character so easy to identify with (at least for me) is his absolute willingness to get destroyed by the Furious Five in training just because he is so in awe of hanging out with them. My immediate thought was how I would've reacted when I was a kid if I was chosen to train with Obi-Wan Kenobi or Yoda. It totally would've been worth it to get shot with the training remote or run and climb through the muck of Dagobah because ultimately I'd be hanging with frickin' Obi-Wan and Yoda! That's how Po is around the Furious Five, even to the point where after getting crushed on the head by bricks, he tries to slip a broken brick in his pocket as a souvenier.

Anyway, there's some other standard stuff going on - there's the villain coming back to wreak havoc on the village that Po must face, the Furious Five are a bit annoyed that Po has been chosen the Dragon Warrior, their Master Shifu has a guilty conscience over some stuff, and a couple of other things.

But it is Po's levity and sense of humor that makes this film so great. It's one liners, wisecracks, perfect reaction shots, and just a ton of small stuff that adds up to something really funny. I'll admit an affinity to Jack Black's brand of slacker comedy which while not a prerequisite to enjoy this film, probably helps.

The animation is on par with most DreamWorks stuff. I'm not sure why, but they always seem a hair behind Pixar in terms of animation, but I think it's always been more than fine. I gotta say the martial arts fights are pretty frickin' spectacular. It is cartoonish though. Not unlike Wile E. Coyote with an anvil, not a lotta people are getting terribly hurt even though the kicks and chops come fast and furious. And I was so busy listening to the dialogue that it wasn't until later in the film, particularly during fight sequences, that I noticed just how powerful a lot of the score was.

Overall, Kung Fu Panda was a huge surprise. It has jumped right up there among my all time favorite animated films.

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Replies:

Panda and You Don't Mess With the Zohan -- The Rhino, 07:36:16 06/16/08 Mon