Kung Fu Panda is one of the best from Dreamworks Animation yet

Rating: 9/10 (9 June 2008)

While I admit to falling asleep at some scenes (parts of Tai Lung's escape and some of Po's training), I was mostly highly amused and entertained by what Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) was teaching Po (Jack Black). In fact, this was one of the most entertaining of the Dreamworks Animation features. Po gets befriended by five other of Shifu's students: Viper (Lucy Liu), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogen), and Tigress (Angelina Jolie). The villain, Tai Lung (Ian McShane), was another student of Shifu's whose attitude got him jailed for 20 years. Also of interest is Mr. Ping, Po's restaurateur father (James Hong), who turns out to be quite an inspiration to his son though it doesn't seem that way at first. Black's line readings and the animation movements of his panda character are some of the funniest I've seen and heard on the screen yet and the relationship between Po and Shifu are some of the best mixture of funny and touching especially the end scenes that end up quite differently than you'd expect (perhaps the fact Kung Fu Panda is mainly meant for kids have something to do with it). So on that note, this movie comes highly recommended for the whole family though it's okay if you just watch this alone or with a friend as I did. P.S. I loved the 2-D animation that began this movie (which included the unique way the Dreamworks logo was done here).