‘Kung Fu Panda’ | 2½ stars
“Kung Fu Panda” is one gorgeous movie.
If only the story and comedy were half as absorbing.
With the latest computer-animated feature from DreamWorks, directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson have delivered an entertainment in which it’s obvious that attention has been lavished on the composition of each frame. The colors are subtle and enticing. The lighting sublime. The character animation little short of spectacular.
We’re talking “Ratatouille” beautiful.
Dramatically, though, “Panda” is predictable and underwhelming. Not bad, mind … just pedestrian.
Funnyman Jack Black provides the voice of Po, a rotund, slothful panda who works in his father’s noodle shop but spends his days fantasizing about his martial arts heroes.
Po’s world looks like ancient China, except that it’s populated by animals. Po’s father (“We are noodle folk … broth runs through our veins”) is a goose. This is never explained genetically, though it’s the source of a decent joke halfway through the movie.
Rich people are pigs. Working stiffs are rabbits.
Po’s life is turned upside-down when at a public ceremony the grand master of the local martial arts academy — an ancient tortoise who speaks in Yoda-isms — recognizes the portly panda as the valley’s next “dragon warrior” who will save the town from the depredations of a notorious criminal.
Po suddenly finds himself thrust into a rigorous training regimen, lorded over by the red panda (they’re smaller than the giant black-and-white pandas) Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), who is determined that Po wash out.
Meanwhile the other students — a tiger (Angelina Jolie), snake (Lucy Liu), monkey (Jackie Chan), crane (David Cross) and praying mantis (Seth Rogen) — who have been training for years and resent Po’s sudden elevation, aren’t sure whether to embrace the newcomer or undermine him.
They don’t have much time to stew over it. The arch criminal Tai Lung (Ian McShane), a leopard who was once Shifu’s star pupil, escapes from a prison deep in a mountain (a fantastic Indiana Jones-ish segment that is the film’s highlight). The deadly snow leopard heads back home, determined to claim the title of dragon warrior for himself.
It all ends in a big brawl that finds Po reaching deep inside for strength he didn’t know he had.
“Kung Fu Panda” should keep the kids happy. Adults probably won’t be looking at their watches.
But it would be nice if a movie this gorgeous had content to match.
‘KUNG FU PANDA’ ★★ 1/2
Director: Mark Osborne, John Stevenson
Cast: Voices of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Ian McShane
Rated: PG for sequences of martial arts action
Running time: 1:30
THE END OF 2-D?
“Kung Fu Panda” was made conventionally … you don’t need special glasses to watch it.
But it could very well be one of the last major animated features without a 3-D version.
DreamWorks, which made “Panda,” and Walt Disney have announced they’ll be creating animated features with 3-D in mind. Some industry insiders predict that within a few years, all animation will be 3-D.
In the meantime, “Kung Fu Panda” will be shown around the country in an IMAX version (showing here at AMC’s Studio 30 in Olathe).
@ For a vlog about “Kung Fu Panda” and other stories about the film, go to
KansasCity.com/movies.
| Robert W. Butler, The Star
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