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‘Kung Fu Panda’ gets a bear hug
Kung Fu Panda kicked me to the curb - and it tickled.
I had hoped the film would be fun, but this vibrant and endearing movie totally blindsided me by absolutely delighting me. Only a few months ago, when I first saw the trailers, I thought, “That’s what DreamWorks is putting out this summer? An elaborate fat joke?”
What a difference a movie makes. This is the animation studio’s best work since Over the Hedge.
I haven’t greatly enjoyed DreamWorks’ animated features. While most of the movies are entertaining up to a point, many of them suffer from emphasizing jokes over characters. The likes of Madagascar, Bee Movie and, to a great extent, the Shrek series, are so thick with pop culture jokes, they’re dated even before they leave theaters. More importantly, the endless, repetitive gags usually smother any heart the movies try to muster.
Kung Fu Panda is a rousing exception, largely because it nails its lead character, a lovable lug named Po (Jack Black) who literally dreams of being a kung fu master in a zippy, stylized 2D sequence created by the same team that worked on the hand-drawn animation in Enchanted.
In real life, though, Po is a slovenly bear who dutifully works in his dad’s noodle business. One day, the local kung fu masters hold a lavish ceremony to reveal the legendary Dragon Warrior. To the astonishment of everyone, the head of the temple, Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), chooses Po.
This does not sit well with the famed kung fu warriors known as the Furious Five, and their trainer, Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), particularly when one of Shifu’s former students, the evil Tai Lung (Ian McShane) escapes from prison. Po seems grossly unsuited to be even a guard, much less a dragon warrior, but Oogway affirms his faith in the bear.
Many an animated film hits audiences over the head with the timeworn moral “Believe in yourself,” but Kung Fu Panda smartly sells it with a strong screenplay by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. Po is utterly sincere in his love for kung fu; he’s like the world’s furriest fanboy. So it’s touching when he realizes that his idols can’t stand him. Meanwhile, Shifu must wrestle with his own dilemma, haunted by how he trained Tai Lung and unwittingly created a monster.
DreamWorks too often relies on celebrity voices to sell their movies, but Kung Fu Panda is well cast. Black is ideal as Po. Even those who find the actor off-putting might find him endearing here. Hoffman’s wonderful work is so convincing I actually didn’t recognize his gravelly voice at first. The Furious Five, voiced by Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Seth Rogen and Jackie Chan are such fun that I was a little disappointed I didn’t see more of them.
The movie tends to go for the obvious joke a bit too often, but that matters little amid a heartwarming story and spectacularly animated fight scenes. Kung Fu Panda is my favorite film of the summer so far, topping even behemoths like Iron Man and Indiana Jones. Ain’t that a kick in the head?
GRADE: A-
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