Staged in the valley of Peace, a Panda that has dreams of becoming a kung-fu master is chosen to be the Dragon Warrior but he must come out of his lazy shell to stand in gap for where he calls home.
Kung Fu Panda is hugely entertaining, gorgeously animated and expertly cast, with Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman doing some of their best work in recent memory (no joke).
The animation work is dazzling; it's lovingly detailed without being overdone (particularly the opening sequence, which is hand-drawn and looks like prints struck from ancient woodblocks).
Supporting characters (including Jolie, who is wasted as a tiger) are pallid, and the fight scenes disproportionately long, as if the filmmakers figure the young boys most likely to see Panda are just as action-happy as their dads.
Some of it just seems silly, which is fine for a family movie, of course, but there's silly and then there's silly. Kung Fu Panda is silly.
Tom Keogh
Seattle Times
December 07, 2014
There's something about the look of Kung Fu Panda that is so novel and pleasing. Perhaps it's just that we haven't seen this vintage, Far East world in a computer-animated movie before.
