Dreamworks best since Shrek 2

Rating: 8/10 (10 January 2010)

As well as being the year of superheroes, 2008 was also the year when Hollywood looked at Chinese history and culture. Two big films of that year were The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and the Forbidden Kingdom. Hollywood was looking at the big market China and East Asia offers, and therefore the money making potential. Dreamworks animation is one of the biggest studios in the world and is on a mission to challenge Pixar for dominate. They have made some good films like Shrek, Shrek 2 and Antz. But they have made some real duds over the years, like Shark Tale, Bee Movie and The Road to El Dorado and ended an association with Aardman Animations which did lead to Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Chicken Run. Luckily Kung Fu Panda is a return to form.
In an anthropomorphic version of Ancient China, Po (Jack Black) is a young, fat lazy panda who works in his father's restaurant. His father wants Po to take over the restaurant but the Panda has a bigger ambition, he wants to be a kung fu master. Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), the wisest and oldest of all the kung fu masters has a vision that the evil kung fu master Tai Lung (Ian McShane) is about to escape from prison and cause havoc around the valley of peace. A new dragon warrior needs to be chosen to face the snow leopard. What baffles everyone is Po is picked to be the Dragon Warrior, above the Furious Five: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogen) and Snake (Lucy Lu). Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) sets out to make sure that Po quits and a new Dragon Warrior can be picked.
Pixar films have a lot of heart and story behind them. The Shrek series sets out to be as entertaining for the adults as well as for children, and are filled pop-culture references. Kung Fu Panda sets out to be child friendly, family entertainment. The humour in is this film is slapstick, but it's good slapstick, and there isn't toilet humour which would be easy for films like this. They are good jokes throughout, mostly physical. There is also very good action scenes throughout, and because the film is animated, and the characters are animals, there is a much wider scope with what can happen. The directors and animation department do an excellent job in this film. The story itself is based on martial arts films, and it works well as a coming of age story. Its sends out a good message for children. They are a few Chinese proverbs during the film.
The animation is excellent. It is crisp throughout the action. They are a lot of details with all the character designs, including minor things like spiky fur.
There is a good voice cast, but for family films it shouldn't matter who is doing the voices. Children don't care and an adult isn't going to watch a film because it has a big name actor. Saying that Jack Black was perfectly casted as the lead character, and Dustin Hoffman and Michael Clarke Duncan offer good support. Ian McShane is good as always. However, casting big actors as the Furious Five offered nothing. It was the lessen known men, Seth Rogan and David Cross that were the big, particularly Cross who gave Crane a dead-pan nature. Jackie Chan should have been given more.
A good family film.