Kung Fu Panda
With Jack Black and Angelina Jolie in major roles, one braces themselves for another “Shark Tale”-like miscalculation from Dreamworks Animation. Thankfully, Dreamworks plunders the Pixar formula in just the right ways to come up with an entertaining adventure comedy that rates with their best CG-animated films like “Over the Hedge” and the original “Shrek” (not including the Aardman-produced CG-gem “Flushed Away,” however). That formula is a simple reworking of the underdog story, with an outcast looking to prove himself to those around him. In this case, a panda named Po (voiced with lovable energy by Black) who dreams of being a kung fu master while slinging noodles with his father (one would assume adoption…you’ll see why). One day, an old master turtle named Oogway has a vision- an old nemesis named Tai Lung (venomously voiced by Ian McShane) is destined to return and seek revenge of the valley. A new Dragon Warrior must be called. Which one of the pupils of Master Shifu (the wise and wry Dustin Hoffman) will be chosen? Will it be Tigress (Jolie)? Crane (David Cross)? Mantis (Seth Rogan)? Viper (Lucy Liu)? Or Monkey (Jackie Chan), who together make up the Furious Five?
Well, obviously it’s the panda Po. Has master Oogway made a mistake? Was Po’s landing in the Jade Palace during the choice making an accident? As the old master says, “There are no accidents.” But can Shifu get past his prejudices about Po, and his tormented past with Tai Lung, to train the panda to be the Dragon Warrior. Eh, you can find that out yourself. Dreamworks has made a fast and funny animated treat out of the engaging script by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger (from a story by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris), and brought it to life with vibrant colors, remarkable character animation (from the fur on Po and others to the movements both during quiet scenes and action set pieces), and fantastic and artful staging that pays tribute to past and present martial arts epics. And what a gem the opening sequence is, a dream sequence of Po’s that employs stylized 2-D animation that harkens to not only Anime but also old-school Disney cel animation. That alone is worth the price of admission (especially if you can see the film in digital projection, as I was able to recently).
But being a comedy, is it funny? It is. All the cast members contribute to the wild mood of the film, from Black to Hoffman to Cross to even Chan. But like any other animated film, it’s the animators who do the real heavy lifting, and under the direction of Mark Osbourne and John Stevenson (making their feature debut with this film after histories with both Dreamworks and Paramount animation projects), Dreamworks has pushed theirs into Pixar territory with sight gags that compliment the verbal ones supplied by the actors. True, the film is more “A Bug’s Life” and “Cars” fun than “Ratatouille” and “Finding Nemo” great, and the score by Hans Zimmer and John Powell is not dissimilar to Zimmer’s work on “The Last Samurai,” but for a studio that’s been in the shadow of their competitors at the Mouse House for much of their history (not only in quality but box-office and awards), it’s good to see PDI and Dreamworks take a play out of Pixar’s playbook, and make it their own. As Po says at a crucial point in “Kung Fu Panda”…”Skadoosh!”
