Title: Kung Fu Panda Director: Mark Osborne, John Wayne Stevenson Staring: Jack Black Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Studio: Dreamworks Animation Genre(s): Action Rated:       (For sequences of martial arts action)   Buy From Amazon.com: a / a / a / a / a / a / a / a

CONSUMER ADVICE

Parents, outsidet of somemild actionI don't see anything really wrong. Recommended for all ages.

With “Kung Fu Panda” Dreamworks has stepped up to the plate to say that they can - and are - officially competing with Disney and Pixar. Yeah, yeah, I know that technically Dreamworks films have been competing with those two companies for years, making movies that has made lots of money at the box office and winning some awards to boot. But outside the Shrek movies most of their movies have been disposable gag-a-minute projects, that have little soul and you forget about later in the week. Dreamworks has been making small steps to try and give their film more credibility, but I think with “Kung Fu Panda” they’ve finally succeeded. The story revolves around a panda named Po (Jack Black), who is a noodle waiter by day but has dreams of being a kung fu master and fighting with the Furious Five.

The Furious Five are kung fu masters who were trained by the wise Shifu (Academy Award-winner Dustin Hoffman). Though Shifu is wise he is untrusting. This results from him having raised and trained Tai Lung (Ian McShane), who went hungry for power when he discovered he was not the one who was destined to become the legendary Dragon Warrior. This...well, you can see how complicated this all gets. Basically due to a fireworks accident Po is named the Dragon Warrior. But is he the dragon warrior? The movie keeps this secret close to it’s chest. On the outside Po is certainly little more then a fat panda, but he does possess some hidden talents that suggest there may be more to him then we initially see.

Like most Dreamworks films there is a talented ensemble cast that looks like it costs more then it’s worth. Angelina Jolie, Lucy Lu, Seth Rogan, Jackie Chan, and many other celebrities voice major and minor characters. Though this is frowned upon by fans of animation for essentially buying a marketing campaign, I admit there was some genius involved in the hiring of Black, McShane, and Hoffman. These actors disappear into their characters so seamlessly, that I forgot they were acting at all. They simply were[italiazed] the characters. It’s sort of strange to think that this is Jack Black’s best role to date and Dustin Hoffman’s best acting job in years, but I guess life can be like that sometimes. I read this movie was originally intended to be filmed as a live action martial arts film.

If this is true then it was a stroke of genius to adapt it to animation. This also makes it one of the best examples of writing out there: That good material is good material, and the format of which that material is filmed shouldn’t make too much of a difference. After the movie was over I was sort of confused how everything came together so smoothly. Upon reflection this shouldn’t be a success, but it is. It’s smart, emotional, and at times funny without being snarky. It’s almost like the whole movie was an accident that just worked out somehow. But then, I guess there are no such things as accidents in this films eyes.

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