Kung Fu Panda | Critique

"Kung Fu Panda" is a story that almost tells itself in its title. It is so hard to imagine a big, fuzzy panda performing martial-arts but the film presents his adventures in wonderfully drawn Cinemascope animation.

Po (voice of Jack Black) is so fat he can barely get out of bed. He works for his father, Mr. Ping (James Hong) in a noodle shop. How Ping, apparently a stork fathered a panda is a mystery, but then the movie is filled with a wide variety of creatures who don't much seem to notice their differences.

The valley has an ancient temple towering overhead, up zillions of steps, which the pudgy Po can barely climb. But climb them he does to witness the choosing of the Dragon Warrior, who will engage the dreaded Tai Lung (Ian McShane) in kung-fu combat. Five contenders have been selected, the "Furious Five": Monkey (Jackie Chan), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu) and Crane (David Cross). Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), the trainer is one of the more dimensional characters in a story that doesn't give the others a lot of depth.

"Kung Fu Panda" is not one of the great recent animated films. The story is way too predictable, and truth to tell, Po himself didn't overwhelm me with his charisma. But it's elegantly drawn, the action sequences are packed with energy, and it's short enough that older viewers will be forgiving. For the kids, of course, all this stuff is much of a muchness, and here they go again.

Written By: Ali Naqvi