We may only be about halfway through it, but 2008 could go down as the year of the contrary movie, at least when it comes to the martial arts genre. First, we had "Redbelt" that mixed what's typically low-end cinema (in this case, jujitsu) with high end stylings (courtesy of art house fan favorite David Mamet) in a seemingly unlikely offering.
Now along comes "Kung Fu Panda" where the title alone signals the obvious contradiction. After all, while pandas are technically bears, have sharp teeth and claws, and can move surprisingly fast when necessary, the common public perception of them is that of cute critters barely managing to saunter along when not sitting on their rump dining for hours on bamboo shoots.
The contrast is a purposeful one, not only for the resultant humor of seeing a panda doing various martial arts moves, but also to help in creating the "underachiever can do great things with the proper guidance" theme that courses through this film. And probably to no one's surprise, unlike Mamet's flick, this one's computer-animated (as real-life pandas are notoriously difficult to train in the martial arts) and obviously geared for kids.
The latter part had me worried as it initially looked like one of those flicks aimed too young (cute and colorful, but boring and/or grating for adults), and coupled with Jack "I've Worn Out My Standard Shtick Welcome" Black in the lead role (at least in vocal presentation), I anticipated this being a trying offering for yours truly.
Perhaps due to those low expectations, I was surprised that I actually ended up enjoying the flick. While the story is nothing original (usually a given considering the limited genre trappings -- viewers will likely be reminded of "The Karate Kid" and others of its student/mentor ilk) and the animation, while good, won't likely blow anyone away (there's nothing jaw-dropping and little if anything new), everything comes together in a pleasant fashion.
And that includes Black voicing the panda protagonist. While his tonal qualities and delivery are instantly recognizable, the fact that we don't see the actor's manic expressions and delivery (the animators keep such similarities to a minimum onscreen) means that his character comes into his own rather than being just an extension of the recognizable performer.
The same holds true for the likes of Dustin Hoffman as the Mr. Miyagi type mentor character, while notable faces such as Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu and Jackie Chan lend their voices to others. Yet, it's Ian McShane who steals the spotlight of the supporting performers as the smooth-talking but menacing villain.
With the latter's presence, of course, there's all sorts of martial arts action, and the filmmakers -- co-directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson along with scribes Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger -- seem to have done their homework in terms of touching on and presenting the various time-honored aspects of the genre, albeit as performed by various animals (most would seem fairly easily to translate, such as the praying mantis, but some imagination had to go into Liu's obviously limb-less snake character).
The cast and crew also deliver the obligatory training and related montages (but somehow manage to prevent them from feeling stale and recycled, perhaps by injecting food themes into that -- a mentor/student battle over a lone dumpling is fun to behold) and generate some decent laughs. And they do so without contemporary pop culture references -- kung fu cinematic history aside -- meaning this offering will be able to stand the test of time without eventually coming off as dated.
While it's far from groundbreaking in any regard, "Kung Fu Panda" is nevertheless a fairly enjoyable flick that should entertain audiences of all ages. It rates as a 6.5 out of 10.
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