Kung Fu Panda is about a panda bear, Po, who inadvertently becomes what he dreams of becoming, the Dragon Warrior.  We follow him from his father’s noodle shop (somehow his father is a bird) to the Dragon Warrior naming ceremony where the Furious Five are vying for the crown.  After a fireworks mishap, Po lands in the middle of the ceremony and hence, becomes the Dragon Warrior.  The rest of the film is about Po’s acceptance of the title, Shifu and the rest of the Furious Five’s acceptance of Po, and the villain Tai Lung.  Ultimately, Po finds the hero inside to become the true Dragon Warrior.

I was excited and worried about seeing Kung Fu Panda.  When my daughter and I went to see Horton Hear a Who, we saw the trailer and were instantly wowed.  Then every other marketing outlet had something Kung Fu Panda related.  As the hype grew I was getting all giddy waiting until we could go and see it, but then it hit me.  How many times does a film actually live up to the hype?  In this case, it does.  Living up to the hype was vital for me because I did not want my daughter to leave the theater with a bad experience.  Here we had Happy Meal toys and Lunchables with Po all over them, imagine the disappointment if the film sucked.  Thankfully, it is now in her top three films of all time (yes all time is short to a four year old but none the less), only behind both High School Musicals.  So what makes this film wonderful?

The number one reason this film works is because of the voice acting.  I don’t know how many times I’ve been put off by the actors behind the voices, and with Jack Black being the lead, I hoped we got the reserved actor rather than the off kilter one.  As Po, Black brought out the sensitive humorous side in the character.  We had the charming jokes and the tenderness with only limited Jack Black flair.  Check out the title of the post to see the most Jack Black thing about the character.  It was great being able to see beyond Black and see Po.  Even the other voice actors worked.  I loved Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and Oogway the turtle (Randall Duk Kim).  They gave their respective characters the needed wisdom while still getting a few laughs.  The biggest surprise came from Crane (David Cross), who carried most of the conversation of the Furious Five.  He was aloof yet caring.  The rest of the cast was decent, but perhaps faded a bit due to the lack of dialogue; which may have been for the better.  Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogan), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Monkey (Jackie Chan) fit their roles fine, but were relegated to back seat status.  Since I can’t stand Seth Rogan, this worked out well.  Even Tai Lung (Ian McShane) and Commander Vachir (Michael Clarke Duncan) where perfect for their roles.  McShane gave the villain the needed growl while Duncan just made sense as the head rhinoceros guard.  You could really tell that the actors believed in the film and gave each character the needed personality without overwhelming the character.

The second reason this film is wonderful is the animation.  Pixar is known for its computer graphics, but DreamWorks took it one step further with an amazing animated style.  Even from the opening dream sequence that looks like Samurai Jack, you knew that time was put into the animation.  Not too mention seeing Tai Lung’s fur move with the breeze.  These may be minor things, but these minor things brought out a tremendous amount of emotion.  It just worked, plain and simple.

I did have some reservations, mainly that it was rated PG.  Since my daughter is only four, I did consider skipping this because of the rating.  I am so glad I didn’t since the rating was mainly for animated violence.  Duh, it’s a film about Kung Fu.  So how bad was it?  No worse than any other kids show, in fact perhaps better since it was timed perfectly and fit the story.  The fight scenes were never bloody or overdone, in fact many cut away before any major violence happened.  This was no worse than watching professionals spar.

So how about my developing film critic?  She love this film.  She connected with the relationship between Po and Shifu, she was appropriately scared and understanding of Tai Lung, and even had a girl to like in Tigress.  She goes around the house showing us her Kung Fu (limited to Hiyaa! and a front kick) and sleeps with her stuffed Po as a protector against bad dreams.  There may not have been songs to sing like in High School Musical, but she found that sometimes a good story is all you need.  It was also nice to see her become interested in Chinese culture.  It may not be much, but the film allowed her to venture away from her own cultural background.

Kung Fu Panda is an awesome film that will no doubt be repeatedly viewed in my home once it hits DVD.  As a kids film, it has everything you could want including interest for adults.  There may not be the adult humor of a Shrek, but who needs it when the story is so good.  See this film, buy this film, and get ready for a sequel!

I only wanted to watch this film because I thought the trailer was funny. Not funny ha-ha, but funny concept wise. One thing I have been accused of is having high hopes for a film and being let down, which was not exactly the case this time. I had no hopes for this film, so I went into with an open empty mind.

The film begins with a recap of the life of John Lyshitski (Dax Shepard) and how the judicial system made him the hardened criminal he became. It was all because of Judge Biederman (David Darlow). So once he leaves prison, he is dead set on making the Judge’s life hell as payback for making him a criminal. (Let me stop here and say that this premise has already lost something in my book. So a criminal blames the system, duh. Back to the plot.) John discovers the Judge has passed on; but his son, Nelson Biederman IV (Will Arnett), has not. As Nelson stumbles his way into prison, John seizes the opportunity to go back to prison to make his life hell. Hilarity almost ensues and we have a reversal of fortune mixed with a buddy film.

Here are my problems with the film. The characters are unlikable from beginning to end. Nelson is an ass and John is an ass. So, why should I really care what happens to either of them. Let me give that aspect the benefit of the doubt and say that the dark comedic aspects of the performances was lost. Once Nelson becomes “Evil Prison Hardened” Nelson, I actually was hoping the ending would involve both of the main characters shiving each other.

If the plot is lacking and the characters need developed, the last hope for a comedy is that it is funny. Let’s Go to Prison is only as funny as the trailer. Many of the more humorous aspects of the film were already revealed. Beyond that, the humor was predictable. Of course you are going to have shower jokes, they are in prison! When faced with this type of concept, the film has to go beyond the typical fair of prison humor to make something different and interesting. This film never made it to that level.

You may be asking if there are any redeeming qualities to this film? As far as this particular film, not really. I wold not recommend it or watch it again. I do have hope for the director Bob Odenkirk. I admit to watching Mr. Show and Tom Goes to the Mayor, for which he is a writer and performer. I think that the humor he provides can be hit or miss, but at least he tried to make a film that took that humor and translated it to the big screen. I will watch the next film he directs, because he has potential if he can hit the humor right. Come on Bob, give me some hope that you are not David Cross’s bitch that you can work without David Cross.