Kung Fu Panda

Watching on Wednesday: Kung Fu Panda

Title: Kung  Fu Panda
Type: Movie
Age Group: Youth
Release Year: 2008
My Rating: 5/5

Po is a giant panda living in China who comes from a noodle-making family. He dreams of meeting the Furious Five, consisting of five different animals with sharp and hard-hitting kung-fu skills. He desires to go on exciting adventures like they do and escape his boring life of serving food.

With his wish granted, Po unexpectedly becomes chosen by the tortoise, Master Oogway, as the Dragon Warrior who will save the Valley of Peace from future destruction. Neglected by the Furious Five and Master Shifu due to his untrained background, Po refuses to leave. Until news came back that the ferocious criminal Tai Lung have escaped from prison and heading right to the valley! Afraid, Po wants to leave so he doesn't have to face the infamous snow leopard but Shifu enforces him to stay. To have long training hours with the use of food, will Po be able to defeat Tai Lung and live up to be the Dragon Warrior?

Last updated: 2010-04-09 09:34:27 by user01

kung fu panda

The incredible hulk is incredible.  It is really good.  How could I forget how wonderful Liv Tyler is?  She is amazing.  She also looks pretty good.

This one is far, far, immeasurably better than the last one they made with what’s his name?  Played Hector in the crappy movie with Brad Pitt as Achilles?  He’s also in Munich, which is very good…Eric Bana, yeah.  The one where he was the Hulk was terrible.  Although Jennifer Conley is worth the price of most admissions…

I mean, what’s the last bad movie you saw with Ed Norton?  Or Tim Roth?  Guys like that tend to pick pretty good scripts.  A good script and a dump truck full of twenties…

I also saw Kung Fu Panda.  It was chocked full of awesomeness.  That’s really all you need to know.  It was even more awesome because I saw it on IMAX.  IMAX is awesome.  Not sure it’s worth friggin’ eleven bucks a ticket…but it is awesome.

David Cross as Crane was pretty funny, but when I heard his voice I just had trouble picturing a bad ass kung fu master.  Didn’t even recognize Angelina Jolie as Tigress.  Or Jackie Chan as Monkey for that matter.

But it is hilarious.  Big fat panda kick major ass.

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Cal Reed

Kung Fu Panda

Dreamworks has hit a home run with this film. From the very beginning I fell in love with this movie.



Kung Fu Panda is set in the fictitious Valley of Peace where kung fu is like a religion and the kung fu masters were revered. But when the valley is threatened with the return of the evil Tai Lung, the kung fu masters decide to choose the Dragon Warrior to protect the people. But things get a lil screwed up when Po, an obese slacker panda is chosen.



Kung Fu Panda takes every best fight scene from every best Shaw brothers film and merging them together to make an action animated film that I hold on par to The Incredibles. The kung fu fight scenes in this is absolutely gorgeous to watch and they do a lot of creative stunts with these characters that real life actors can never do. It really comes across like real people fighting and it's really exciting to watch.



And this film is hella hella funny. I'm still in stitches when I think about the scenes from this movie two days later. This is everything an animation comedy should be. Finally, I have a smart, funny, kick ass animation film that doesn't rely on pop culture reference jokes or fart jokes to make the show entertaining. This film is genuinely hilarious to the bone. Even some scenes that weren't meant to be funny had me laughing my ass off.



Jack Black brings the funny to the character of Po which is by far one of the funniest animated characters this year. Po has a lot of heart to him, he's likable, he's adorable and he is super hilarious. Especially when he's fighting, cause his kung fu style resembles that of a drunken kung fu master where it's completely spontaneous almost accidental for the most part.



The filmmaker really did his homework when it comes to paying homage to kung fu and kung fu movies. The Furious 5 as we may already know, is an homage to the Five Deadly Venoms and I've heard that the characters monkey, tiger, viper, crane and mantis symbolized the 5 styles of kung fu which they got down to a T. They really didn't have to go that far to make Kung Fu Panda a more entertaining film but the fact they did that makes this movie even more enjoyable for kung fu fans.



And great voice cast overall, Dustin Hoffman is almost unrecognizable as Shifu, Angelina Jolie is great, Jackie Chan is great, David Cross- great casting on his part, Lucy Liu and Seth Rogen were fantastic and Ian McShane! God damn that dude has a cool voice!



So after many years of Pixar reigning as animation king, Dreamworks finally comes out with a classic themselves that could very well take the Oscar from Pixar this year. I love the hell out of this, this is my favorite animated film this year.

RATING: 9/10

NicholasC

Kung Fu Panda....Good for Kids and Their Folks

We begin with a cute pic of Kaitlyn Mae posing by a giant icon of this movie's hero, Po, the magnificent Kung Fu Panda who saves all the citizens of the Valley of Peace.

So okay, nobody does animation much better than Dreamworks.  For the animation in "Kung Fu Panda" was mesmerizing.  The images were large, colorful, loud and impossible for even a four year old NOT to sit quietly and regard with amazement  for the hour and a half length of the movie.
 
The story behind "Kung Fu Panda" was a bit difficult to comprehend although in due course the plot unfolded.
 
An ageing turtle is charged with appointing the next Kung Fu Master.  The turtle has fine and already trained choices from a group called the Furious Five, all taught the mastery of Kung Fu by Master Shifu, a little guy who once taught the dangerous snow leopard Tai Lung.  Tai Lung turned out to be evil and had to be locked away for the safety of the citizens of Valley of the Peace.
 
The members of the Furious Five are a curious lot, products of a fertile mind that could create this hypnotizing tale.  A tiger, a monkey, a praying mantis, a snake and some kind of bird are all members of the Furious Five trained by Master Shifu.  But the wise turtle, due to a strange series of coincidences, appoints an overweight panda as the next Kung Fu Master that will save the Valley of Peace.
 
It's never made clear just why Po, the panda, has a father that is a duck but that's just part of the charm of this nonsensical yet logical tale of he who learned to believe in himself causing a hero to be born and a villain to be defeated.
 
I guarantee that kids of all ages will love this movie.  It has that kind of enchanting and imaginative aura about all aspects from animation to plot to the dialogue.
 

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KUNG FU PANDA (2008)

BOTTOM LINE: This latest animated feature from Dreamworks is a lot of fun, visually spectacular, and has some wonderful characters and original story. However, the film is quite short and as such the narrative feels somewhat two-dimensional and under-developed, leaving the overall experience of watching the film underwhelming and best saved for DVD.

THE GOOD: Eventually Hollywood will turn every animal ever lived in to a loveable cartoon character, but there’s much to like about Panda (voiced perfectly by Jack Black) who is in the unimaginable position of transitioning from a loveable slob to a kung fu master. Panda doesn’t really discriminate or hold grudges, as seen most in the scenes with Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and his students who have no time or respect for Panda and his hopelessness at kung fu. Shifu is a strong character; despite his wisdom, his pride and self-anguish over his split with star student Tai Lung (Ian McShane) who becomes his nemesis make him a somewhat fallible, human character that you can come to love and understand. Tortoise Master Oogway (Randall Dul Kim) is perhaps the best character in the film with his fortune-cookie style responses which lead to some big laughs without being at his own expense. The animators have done a spectacular job with the visuals; watching the images unfold is worth the price of admission alone, with the vibrancy, richness of colour, and texture all creating a wonderful ancient Chinese world that almost looks real. “Kung Fu Panda” is a lot of fun, with a great voice cast which also includes Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, David Cross and Seth Rogen.

THE BAD: The story and narrative are quite original for a film of this type, it’s just a shame that they didn’t expand upon its potential. With a very short running time, the big fat Panda goes from being a wannabe with big kung fu dreams to being a real master in a matter of a few minutes. As a result, you don’t get the feeling his character has gone on much of a journey and it’s underwhelming. A by product of this under-development is that the character of the snow leopard, the evil Tai Lung doesn’t come across that threatening. Although his back story with Master Shifu is explained, it’s only glazed over and it would have been nice to see more there, especially with Panda coming to save the day and defeating him. When the credits roll, you get the feeling that aside from the magnificent visuals which demand viewing on a cinema screen, you could have watched this on DVD and had the same experience.

RATING: 7/10

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

kung fu panda

the first time i saw this film, i was on an airplane and very tired. my initial thought upon the movie starting was: “this is the best acting i’ve ever seen out of jack black.” hours later, i realized it was a CG movie.

now, you might not think much of this film. i mean, it’s for kids, right? but i have a secret: i like this film. a lot. so much so, that several months after having watched it on the plane, i had an urge to watch it again. i secretly obtained a copy, to avoid being laughed at by friends and enemies, and then curled up and watched it. it was a happy day. how can you go wrong with pandas and kung fu? you can’t.

this movie is just fun. the plot isn’t deep, it’s easy to watch, and i enjoy animals. especially animals that can kick the shit out of each other.

if you want to know what the movie is about, you don’t need a synopsis. read the title.

i give this movie a 6/7; i was never bored.

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Last updated: 2010-01-09 00:39:55 by user03

Kung Fu Panda

Someone behind the creative force for this movie must have watched a truckload's worth of Shaw Bros martial arts then combined, mixed and matched the storyline to create one Hollywood version, in animal form! Storyline concept is nothing new but I must say it was refreshing to see kungfu moves done in CGI, in ways so creative and would have been extremely dangerous if done in real life. Something that Jackie Chan would have loved to try. Oh, he gets a very minor voice role here, in a form of a Monkey. I certainly had hoped he would have a more prominent voice role. Tai Lung perhaps? Jack Black was just being Jack Black as usual albeit more toned down. You still get some Jackblackism in the dialogue once in a while. Dustin Hoffman's voice acting plays down as the most memorable one in this film, he was truly in one of his best form here! Ian McShane as the villain lends great attitude and great British accent for a Chinese Snow Leopard Who Knows Martial Arts. Angelina Jolie works with Black again as the Tigress. We have some great Asian talents like Lucy Liu, James Hong and Randall Duk Kim to support the Asian theme of this film. Speaking of Asian themes, I couldn't help but to draw comparions to Disney's Mulan.

Kungfu Panda gives some classic martial arts stuff like training a zero to become a hero and things like that. As usual, a montage was included but I must say, this must have been one of the best ones I have ever seen. I can't talk much without including spoilers so all I can tell is that you have to watch it to judge for yourself. As for the whole film, it was all good in the begining, it got better in the middle and the best parts were at the end! Kungfu Panda wasn't the laugh-a-minute film that I had expected. That wasn't really a problem because the whole film rocks!

Rating: 8/10