Fortunately for the movie, he's also funny, likable, and supremely well animated. And a portly, sluggish, uncoordinated one at that.īut Po is the protagonist of a children's movie, and just the sort of underdog (under- bear?) that families love to cheer for. 1) His father expects him to take over the family restaurant. There are only a few obstacles standing in the way of his dream of becoming a martial arts master.
You’ll never look at Ling-Ling in the same way again.Po is a Chinese noodle shop worker whose consuming passion is kung fu. Of course, it’s all leading to a standard ‘be yourself’ message, but while the kidlings are digesting that tidbit of profundity, you can wallow in action that well and truly socks it to your chops.
#KUNG FU PANDA MOVIE#
And, while the movie doesn’t deliver frequent belly laughs, it does get funnier as it goes along, with the relationship between Po and Shifu particularly rich in humour. There’s a level of visual beauty here that’s a notch above anything DreamWorks has attempted before - a sequence where the ancient master, Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), blends with a cloud of cherry blossom is achingly gorgeous. In fact, ignore the fact that you’re seeing combinations of panda, snake, tiger, snow leopard, crane and monkey duking it out, and chances are that the kung fu action sequence of your dreams is here.įrom a devilishly clever sequence where the ‘Furious Five’ take on Tai Lung on an unravelling rope bridge, to a hugely enjoyable training sequence between Shifu and Po and the final showdown between Po and Tai Lung (featuring the funniest use of slo-mo we’ve seen in ages), directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson take advantage of the limitless possibilities of CGI to bring us action on a scale, and of a type, rarely seen before.īut it’s not all about (surprisingly violent) fisticuffs or roundhouse kicks.
#KUNG FU PANDA SERIES#
In an exhilarating sequence, Tai Lung manages to negotiate the three fiendish levels of the jail in a flurry of punches, kicks and gravity-defying leaps that culminate in a magnificent series of vertigo-inducing shots. That something is an escape attempt by the movie’s villain, Tai Lung (voiced with relish by Ian McShane), a psychotic snow leopard so dangerous that he’s been imprisoned in a mountain hellhole constructed especially for him. In fact, it’s pretty rote stuff, as Po topples over, bumps into things and sends stuff flying like a fat, furry version of the Chuckle Brothers.īut then something rather wonderful happens, ratcheting the film up to the dizzying heights where Pixar and a few select others reside.
There’s nothing particularly compelling here, as Jack Black’s Po gets accidentally selected to become the fabled Dragon Warrior, and tries desperately to prove himself to wise old Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and his new, sceptical dojo-mates. And, apart from an excellent Manga-style dream sequence that opens the picture, it seems after the first 25 minutes or so of Kung Fu Panda that the run is going to continue. Shark Tale, Bee Movie and Madagascar were mediocre efforts, stranded in a morass of quickly dating pop-culture references, uninspired gags and a general absence of the spirit and visual acuity that sets John Lasseter’s mob apart. With the exception of the first Shrek and Aardman’s efforts under its aegis, DreamWorks Animation has tended to pale considerably when compared to the Pixar monolith.