That was Delightful!

Rating: 9/10 (21 June 2008)

Kung Fu Panda - Po the Panda (Jack Black) must somehow become a Kung Fu Master in order to save the Valley of Peace from a villainous snow leopard, Tai Lung. Set in the legendary world of ancient China, it features the voice talents of Angelina Jolie, David Cross, Dustin Hoffman, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, and Jackie Chan (kind of).
At first glance the movie looked like a pass, mostly because of a crap title and Jack Black's less than good batting average lately. The kung fu genre has also kind of been mocked and done to death. This is the day of CGI and the superheroes.
But this movie, on the whole, is delightful. It is funny and cool, and not in a topical way. It also stays away from the usual fart and pee jokes that movie execs push in when they can't admit they don't know what kids like these days. No. This movie is actually honest to goodness funny. It's also got some very good action sequences, and doesn't do the same tired montages we've seen before. Po learning shaolin in a couple days seems to go down a lot smoother than Daniel-san winning a karate contest after a week of manual labor, because of the excellent decision to do this in cartoon format, and because of Po himself.
There hasn't been quite this good a protagonist in an animated film in awhile. Po is a goodnatured but cowardly and overweight nerd, just like most martial arts nerds. He's the sort of guy who worships the martial arts, like me and my friends used to (hell, still do), but never had the time or discipline to learn (1 year of Aikido and 3 months of Tae Kwon Do for me. Nothing stuck). Speaking of martial arts, the movie doesn't shy away from the action either. There's about as much awesomeness as a PG cartoon can get away with. The animators did an excellent job. Of course this movie treads on familiar ground ("believing in yourself" etc etc). It's a labor of love towards the martial arts and an attempt to keep their spirit alive.
Jack Black plays it just right without going overboard like he's prone to do, and the result is one of my favorite characters in their extensive movie list. Dustin Hoffman plays sound support as the Red Panda Master. Seh Rogen is hilarious and Ian McShane always plays a good villain as the Evil Leopard Tai Lung. It was a pleasant surprise to hear Michael Clarke Duncan and David Cross as well.
I'll probably purchase the DVD for this one. A truly pleasant surprise from a movie I expected little from about a panda nobody expected anything from, Kung Fu Panda gets an A-.
(now don't get greedy an make a sequel now. I had to endure trailers for Madagascar 2 and Pink Panther 2 to get to this)