Not Just a Great Animated Movie- A Great Movie . . . Period!

Rating: 9/10 (11 June 2008)

I was very entertained by "Kung-Fu Panda". This movie ranks among Dreamworks Animation's best along with "Shrek", "Shrek II", and "Antz". The animation as a whole was excellent, including the fantasy sequences that took the form of supposed 2D animation. Even when the animation was 3D, the animation had everything down to a T from the blades of grass to roof shingles to animal's fur.
Of course, since 3D has now become the norm for animated movies, I know that 3D animation alone cannot save a movie. For instance, "Doogal", "Shrek The Third", and "Shark Tale" (which also featured the voices of Jack Black and Angelina Jolie) were big disappointments for me. Fortunately, there was enough good comedy, great action sequences, and intriguing characters to keep me entertained and to rate this movie as the best to come out of this summer so far.
For starters, Jack Black was perfect as Po the Panda. In my opinion, Black was underused in "Shark Tale", which was probably why I didn't like that movie so much. Here, he brings his great comic timing and a touch of his Tenacious D personality into this panda character. He especially works very well in the training sequences with Head Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). I thought it odd that his character was the only panda in a story set in China, but I won't get too picky.
The actors who played the Furious Five were also well cast. Angelina Jolie was a natural to play Tigress, who is probably the first truly strong female character in animation history who also isn't involved in a love story subplot of a film. I actually found myself relieved that they left such a subplot out and just concentrated on a great story.
If I have one complaint against the movie, it's that the other four fighters weren't as focused on as they should have been. Yes, there's only so much you can fit into a 90 minute movie, but the snake (Lucy Liu), crane (David Cross), praying mantis (Seth Rogen), and monkey (Jackie Chan) all individually made such intriguing characters. Indeed, this is one of the few animated movies I've seen that merits a sequel, and I hope that all four of them are focused on in that other movie should it come along.
Otherwise, that's my only complaint against the movie. It just worked so well otherwise. Other than the mostly American voice-overs, the movie stayed true to a traditional Kung Fu movie by the likes of Bruce Lee and Sonny Chiba, and also had elements of spaghetti westerns and other movies such as "Star Wars". None of that would have been complete with a great Darth Vader-esquire villain like leopard Tai Ling (played by lesser known actor Ian McShane), and an even better Yoda-esquire mentor like tortoise Ancient Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim). This is an altogether incredible movie that I personally can't wait to purchase on DVD. I may even see it again in theaters, and there are few movies that make me want to do that.