Cinematography:
Yong Duk JhunCast:
Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong, Dan Fogler, Michael Clarke Duncan (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Prepare for awesomeness with DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda. Jack Black is perfect as the voice of Po, a noodle-slurping dreamer who must embrace his true self - fuzzy flaws and all - in order to become the Dragon Warrior. With groundbreaking animation, an all-star cast and high-kicking humour, the Academy Award-nominated Kung Fu Panda is delightful entertainment for the whole family! (Dreamworks Animation UK)
(more)Videos (4)
Reviews (8)
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.
()
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.
()
This is just a film that clicked with me. While I initially wondered why I liked it back then, upon revisiting it, I realized my enjoyment was justified. It's a lovely animated tribute to kung fu films, made excellent by its 3D execution, allowing the creators to play and explore creatively. The animals as kung fu heroes come to life brilliantly, and the story is pleasantly B-movie-esque, clichéd, and unoriginal.
()
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.
()
But yeah, after the disappointment of Ratatouille, I was quite pleased with Kung Fu Panda. In the beginning it seems like a perfectly overblown genre homage, with the best jokes coming out of that ("No, this scroll cannot see eyes other than yours... give it here", or blowing out candles), only later it's replaced by humor like "panda is unable to walk up the long stairs for the seventh time" and constant infantile jokes when the main character falls somewhere or does some other inanity. Fortunately there is a lot of good action (except the last wtf fight) and the dumpling fight in particular was good, so as an animated one-shot I enjoyed it.
()
Ads