Kung Fu Panda

Rating: 7/10 (6 June 2008)

The hard-headed folks at Dreamworks just won't back down when it comes to their consistent choice to produce only the animated genre of slapstick comedy despite constant unnecessary comparisons to Pixar by most audiences. Here however, I feel they've finally succeeded in forming a well-crafted comedy that references itself and its genre without any manipulative occurrences of incessant cute (despite featuring one of the universal symbols) or thin framework. One of the first cgi Dreamworks romps to lack pop culture (shockingly less than Pixar's Cars) the pacing in the film shines, as well as the slick camera work and surprisingly effective fight sequences. Particularly, there was a true sense of environment to the animation, but also a sense of peril and physical boundaries in the well choreographed combat scenes. The story is expectedly predictable as well as the clean message, but the film comes together as referential fun comedy with likable and moderately inspiring situations despite the nature of the film. There are no mean-spirited jokes, and just the right amount of heart are out into them (not too much or little) so that it begins to approach what made the first Shrek enjoyable. It makes great use of its animation, tying in it's comical pacing with a lot of great physicality. I thoroughly enjoyed the characterizations, barely noticing or caring that they typically come to us from cherry-picked A-list celebs in an attempt to drag in theatregoers. Despite that, they bring their A-game with voice work, and the audience besides the actors have fun for once. In my opinion, it's one of Dreamworks' best after they canned their 2d films. I did not see that coming, with the eye-roll inducing premise.