Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Kung-Fu Panda

I finally sat down and watched a movie that was nominate for Best Animated Film last year. The movie is Kung-Fu Panda, starring the voice of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, and Lucy Lu, amongst others. I have to admit, I'm a sucker for animation, but I wasn't in the best of moods last night, so it kinda balanced out.


The movie is about a fat Panda (Jack Black) who always dreamed of being a Kung-Fu master, like the 5 masters, the Tiger, Crane, Praying Mantis, Snake, and Monkey, tough by Dustin Hoffman. Unfortunately for Poe, he is stuck working as a noodle guy, until some crazy, random happenstance has Poe named "The Dragon Warrior," foretold to protect the city from Ian McShane's tiger and bring balance to the force, err, Kung-Fu midicloriens, or whatever.


Jack Black is perfect in this role, as is Dustin Hoffman, and, for that matter, the rest of the voice work. Sometimes, when a famous voice is used, all you see is that actor, but in this case, they were counting on that, because the Panda was eerily similar to Blacks ... physique.


I absolutely loved the animation, as the movie had the look and fell of a classic Kung-Fu movie, with some great angles. The animation was brilliant, and beautiful and still had a classic feel, which made this seem more like a Kung-Fu movie than your run of the mill animated movie.


There were plenty of plot holes, and plots that were never touched on, such as Angelina Jolie's Tiger, and her always trying to impress her master, but in the end, it was a great movie, meant for kids, but easy for the adults to enjoy as well.


Overall, I give this a 7 Pinkie moves out of 10.


FUN FACT: The scene where Po enters the Jade palace, where he is amazed by all the relics, is based on the director's first experience entering the Skywalker Ranch, where all the props from the Star Wars movies can be found.

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