"Everybody is kung fu fighting!"

Rating: 7/10 (1 March 2009)

Prior to its release date this delightfully pleasurable action comedy-adventure from DreamWorks Animation seemed as though it would join the likes of 'Surf's Up' (2007) and 'Chicken Little' (2005) as one of the most average pieces of animated rubbish ever to be shown on the silver screen. And it is for the first ten minutes in which we are first introduced to our hero  the Po (voiced by a hilarious, show-stealing Jack Black.) Po is an under-achieving fat, ravenous, panda born the son of a slightly mad noodle seller (voiced by James Hong) who dreams of being a famous kung fu master. His heroes have always been the amazing furious five  Tigress (voiced by Angelina Jolie,) Monkey (voiced by Jackie Chan,) Mantis (voiced by Seth Rogen,) Viper (voiced by Lucy Liu) and Crane (voiced by David Cross) trained by the greatest kung fu teacher in all China, Master Shifu (voiced by the magical Dustin Hoffman.) When it is prophesied by the powerful all-knowing Master Oogway (voiced by Randall Duk Kim) that the dark and menacing Tai Lun (voiced by Ian McShane)  a former pupil of Shifu's turned evil when he was denied ownership of the powerful dragon scroll will escape from heavy imprisonment and make the entire Valley of Piece fell his deadly wrath, the great turtle announces that the Dragon Warrior must be proclaimed as he is China's only hope. That noble position is of course seeming accidentally given to none other than Po, who must somehow be trained to fight and defeat the monstrous villain.
There the film throws off its predictability and becomes a fun-filled action-packed thrill-ride, leaving us all in a daze at how unbelievably wrong we all were to think that it was just another washout. For DreamWorks, this is a fine achievement and an excellent recovery from 'Shrek the Third' (2007.) What's more, this film  unlike most comedies  doesn't rely on the jokes to give it life. The gags of Kung Fu Panda work as more of a little extra spice to top it all off. What really makes it enjoyable is the engaging story.