Kung Fu Panda

An animated film that surprised and entertained me beyond my expectations. Although it is just one among many similar films of this kind, Kung Fu Panda still has something to offer. The story is quite simple with not particularly fast-paced animation, but with great choreography of fight scenes. In short, an American animated film that made me laugh despite its shortcomings. (11/09/2010)

Kung fu Panda is quite deceptive. It comes across as a "different" cartoon that benefits from a decent setting, charismatic voices, and excellent (!) action scenes. However, on the climb up the final stairs, the story gradually runs out of steam enough to just wheeze out a few moral lessons, and the viewer realizes that DreamWorks has actually just reworked the first Shrek model, without pop culture references and with more winking at children. That’s too bad because they could have shaken hands with Pixar with that awesome animation. (26/10/2008)

Kung Fu Panda is beautifully made. Not pretty or nice, but really beautiful. And I don't just mean the animation. I was struck especially by the great color stylization of each scene and their design in general. Together with Zimmer's music, all of this made for an almost magical experience, if it weren't for... The story. It's just plain ordinary. Po is likely to become a hero, although no one around him, not even himself, expects it. So I was hoping for a lot of jokes, but Panda is not exactly full of them. Fortunately, though, there are likable characters (I liked the master dubbed by Dustin Hoffman much better than the main character) and briskly and humorously filmed fight scenes (the battle "for the dumpling" leads the way). Three and a half stars. And I just decided to round them up. Just because. (05/05/2010)

A blockbuster that the animated competition can hardly catch its breath from and possibly the last chance in which Dreamworks at least once successfully tried to match its more successful rivals. It relies on its certainty, but it has heart, an incredible dose of martial arts fandom, and above all, so much exaggeration, humor, and sentiment that it elevates the legacy of adventurous Disney movies to a new level. And comparing it to Shrek is completely out of place here – perhaps no one wants to convince me that Po, as an individual with a desire to become a hero since forever, can be compared to a grumpy troublemaker who only embarks on adventures against his will. The unknown twins of screenwriters and directors have boldly stepped into the world of success. It's been almost ten years since I watched it, so I don't understand why only the former is often mentioned, but at least I'm glad for that. (26/01/2009)

They may not be as good as Pixar, but you can’t say that the guys at DreamWorks aren’t trying. Kung Fu Panda is a great martial arts movie, a tribute to older Chinese movies (a great scene with the last dumpling, by the way ;-), and also a great cartoon about a big, fat, panda with the snappiest of lines. And I was overjoyed whenever Mr. Turtle (Master Oogway) made an appearance. He had greater charisma than anybody I know. (30/10/2008)