The first few
scenes of Kung Fu Panda immediately put me in a cynical
mood. While I was undeniably involved by lead voice-actor Jack
Black’s spirited opening narration, which carries every bit of
the warm and excited gusto that one would expect from Black, I
nonetheless found myself dismayed by the thin story set-up. With
such a talented cast in place—already evidenced by Black’s
presence and soon-to-be reinforced by the voices of Dustin
Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, and
others—it seemed a shame that the movie’s high-concept (a panda
doing kung fu) was provided only a skeleton of a plot for
support. Twenty minutes into Kung Fu Panda, I was ready
to dismiss it as yet another cash-in opportunity for studio
DreamWorks to appeal to underrepresented kid-audiences in a
teen-saturated market.
In my defense,
I had every reason to think that Kung Fu Panda would be a
failure from the get-go. After all, the aforementioned skeleton
of a plot is as basic as they come: Po (Black) is a catoonishly
obese panda (even by animated-panda-standards) who loves the
mythology behind the art of kung fu. He finds himself
chronically depressed when each day he must endure the
monotonous task of selling noodle-soup with his
different-species father (James Hong) as a part of their
long-running family-business. But normalcy comes to an end when
Po, by a fateful and magical chain of events, unexpectedly
becomes appointed to the role of the all-powerful “Dragon
Warrior” by his valley’s spiritual leader, Master Oogway
(Randall Duk Kim). Oogway senses that the malicious leopard Tai
Lung (Ian McShane), who years-ago tried to take over the valley,
has escaped from prison and is coming to seize the valley’s
sacred power-endowing scroll. Chubby Po seems no match for the
highly-capable Tai Lung at first and is rejected by his fellow
fighters Monkey (Chan), Tigress (Jolie), Viper (Liu), Mantis (Rogen),
and Crane (David Cross) because of this, but, with luck and some
innovative training courtesy of Master Shifu (Hoffman), his
prophecy as the Dragon Warrior will undoubtedly be fulfilled.
Once I came to
terms with the fact that Kung Fu Panda would not rival
higher-tier Pixar animated productions in terms of
narrative-detail, however, I quickly became involved in the
movie, even transfixed by it on occasion. Without a complex
story to worry about, I turned my attention to aesthetics: how
the picture looked, moved, and felt. In this respect, Kung Fu
Panda excels by leaps and bounds. If there has even been an
animated film that has looked this good, I haven’t seen it. Not
only is the movie’s CGI-animation colorful and striking, it also
moves better than that of any other picture of the sort.
For example: when the characters become involved in a trivial
broken-bridge debacle, the scene doesn’t come off as
conventional in the slightest. Because the authenticity of the
animation is so striking, the viewer forgets about the cliché
nature of the scene. The realness of the weight-values of the
characters as they swing to-and-fro on the bridge is genuinely
revolutionary, far more advanced than the visuals on display in
DreamWorks’ previous animated effort this year, Horton Hears
a Who!. Another sequence, which depicts Tai Lung escaping
from captivity by propelling himself upward by bouncing off of
falling rocks in midair, is equally-impressive. In other words:
Kung Fu Panda ultimately makes up for its lack of
creative storytelling by captivating viewers with other
innovations. If you can catch the movie in IMAX, the added
admission-fee is worth every penny to see the image enhanced by
70mm film.
As hinted in
the first paragraph, the voice-work by the seasoned cast is also
terrific. Black truly brings Po alive, and Hoffman and Rogen in
particular are able to craft memorable personas out of their
otherwise one-dimensional supporting characters. That all of the
voice-actors are provided their fair shares of strong
one-liners—screenwriters Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger
apparently saw a need to compensate for their thin narrative in
another aspect of the script—makes their performances all the
more enjoyable. There is a highly-entertaining level of
enthusiasm taken on by all members of the ensemble here, which
is refreshing given that so many of today’s animated pictures
feature performers who do voice-work for the mere reason that it
allows them to score a hefty paycheck while wearing jeans and no
makeup. In this department, Kung Fu Panda certainly
represents an above-average effort. The movie may not be a
uniform success in every department, but certainly proves
worthwhile on the whole.
-Danny Baldwin,
Bucket Reviews
Review Published
on: 6.7.2008
Screened on:
6.6.2008 in IMAX at the Edwards Mira Mesa 18 in Mira Mesa, CA.
Kung Fu Panda is rated PG and runs 95
minutes.
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