Kung Fu Panda

With 2008's KUNG FU PANDA, the talking-animal CGI film enters a new era, one that makes room for both painterly artwork and fierce martial-arts action. Po (voiced by Jack Black), a clumsy and ever-hungry panda, is a huge kung fu fan, but seems destined to sell noodles like his father, Mr. Ping (James Hong), who inexplicably happens to be a goose. When Po literally crashes a ceremony involving martial-arts masters Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) and their pupils, the Furious Five--which includes Tigress (Angelina Jolie, in a surprisingly small part) and Crane (David Cross)--he ends up being selected by the latter elder as the revered Dragon Warrior. As the skeptical Shifu reluctantly trains the hapless Po, his former star pupil, Tai Lung (Ian McShane), escapes from a high-security prison, setting up a collision course between the bumbling bear and the powerful villain. One of the finest animated films released under the Dreamworks banner, KUNG FU PANDA deftly avoids many of the pitfalls of the genre (i.e. cheesy musical sequences), juggling action, heart, and humor in a highly entertaining way. While Black (in endearingly restrained mode), Hoffman, Kim, and McShane voice their characters with verve, the real stars of PANDA are directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson and their animators, who lovingly depict ornate Chinese chambers and vast mountainous vistas, as well as blazing kung fu battles. A movie with remarkably wide appeal, KUNG FU PANDA delivers on its quirky, high-concept title with gleeful aplomb.

Cast:

"[T]he fight scenes, which are the heart of the film, are lickety-split mad fun..." -- Grade: A- -- Owen Gleiberman , (Entertainment Weekly)

"[I]t looks fantastic....[The filmmakers] have inserted vast, moody, misty landscapes, fanciful interiors and traditional Chinese colors to give the movie an epic, expansive, ancient quality that's a real pleasure to inhabit." -- Carina Chocano , (Los Angeles Times)

"At once fuzzy-wuzzy and industrial strength...KUNG FU PANDA is high concept with a heart....Visually arresting." -- Manohla Dargis , (New York Times)

"[H]ighly entertaining....Full of verve, visual panache and sock-it-to-you action scenes." -- Jane Lamacraft , (Sight and Sound)

4 stars out of 5 -- "There's a level of visual beauty here that's a notch above anything DreamWorks has attempted before..." -- Chris Hewitt , (Empire)

"The animation is beautiful, from the ethereal Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom to the elegant Jade Palace and its Moon Pool." -- Jenni Miller , (Premiere)

3 stars out of 5 -- "Armed with a sublimely silly concept and an A-list voice cast....This is energetic, exciting and consistently funny..." -- Neil Smith , (Total Film)

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