Not the best animated movie 2008 but still enjoyable

Rating: 7/10 (28 April 2009)

When I first saw the trailers for Kung Fu Panda I was more than interested: I was like on a sugar rush. I not only love pandas but I'm also learning Kung Fu myself. This was my most anticipated movie 2008.
All in all it was a really good movie (Dreamworks best in my opinion) it was funny and even emotional at times. The fight scenes were beautiful to look at. My favorite scene is Tai Lung's escape from prison, it is breath taking and the animation is amazing. You actually see and understand why this character is feared by all the other characters.
Yet, after seeing it plenty of times and thinking about it I realize that this movie is far from being really perfect, like I thought it was. Like my friends say it is. Even the reviews I read said the same. There are scenes that really leave me wondering "Is this really how this should have been handled?"
The story:
The story itself is nothing really original. On the other hand, what is truly original today? What really matters is how the story is told. Kung Fu Panda uses the same old routine: poor hero that is hated by those he admires, it turns out he is the chosen one (by accident of course), has to struggle to gain his masters love, masters Kung Fu in a short amount of time and defeats the ultimate evil. Everything is hunky-dory again and the hero is finally accepted. I have seen this a million times. It doesn't matter that they used animals because this kind of movies were also done with cute little animals long before Kung Fu Panda. There is nothing in this movie that lifts it above the rest in terms of the story.
Voice actors:
All the time I saw trailers (even in Germany) that praised the movie because of the voice actors. "Wow look, we have Jacky Chan on board! This movie will be awesome!" To bad the monkey he voices has only four or five sentences in the whole freaking movie. I actually don't care for celebrities voicing cute, little animals because I don't judge a movie or a character because of that. To be honest I get tired of it.
Good vs. bad.again:
There are no gray shades in this movie. The good guys are good and the mean baddie is bad. I really wonder why Tai Lung is considered "bad". We saw him training with Shifu in the flashback but than the turtle said "there is darkness in his heart". Why? Is he such a bad guy because he trained so hart and loves Kung Fu? Or was he bad because he destroyed one of the training dummies in one scene? That only proved he is strong, not bad in my opinion. Sure he destroyed the village later but at this point I can understand that character. He never did something wrong in the first place. Imagine you learned all your life and than you are denied your dream. Fair? Certainly not.
The ending:
The ending was probably the most disappointing part for me. Even back in theaters I felt that something was not right and that something important was missing. Po learns Kung Fu in a short amount of time. How long was he training anyway? Days? Weeks? Even month? I don't think that the Furious Five needed that long back from their fight with Tai Lung at the bridge. Still, I liked the scene were Po learns the meaning of the dragon scroll. It is a beautiful scene that somehow touched me deep inside. But what followed is something utterly ridiculous. Po and Tai Lung fight and at one point it seems that the panda is going to loose. Yet, in the next five minutes he again fights the leopard and even wins. Why? Why did he defeat Tai Lung, a highly skilled Kung Fu fighter that spent all of his life training hard? Like I said Po's training couldn't have been that long. Yet he still owns the "bad guy" with a technique he learned (all by himself, mind you). Before that Tai Lungs punches didn't harm him because of his fat. Isn't that wonderful? What exactly is this movie trying to teach us at this point? "It doesn't matter how long you train, you will get owned"? "Being overweight will help you being a better fighter"? As a Kung Fu fighter I actually know how long it takes to master this art. My teacher always reminds us that it takes years to be a really good fighter and even after 100 years of learning Kung Fu you would still not be finished. This scene bugged me the most and should have been handled differently.
All in all it was a good movie. I enjoyed it but I saw it trough rose-colored glasses the first times. I had to put these glasses down to truly understand the weaker points of it and maybe even to appreciate it more. Like someone said once, you have to accept the bad points from a movie to be truly a fan of it. It was the movie I was looking forward to in 2008 but it is not my favorite animated movie from last year anymore. This spot was taken by an animated movie I actually never wanted to see in theaters (but luckily I did) about a small hero made out of metal.