cast: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen and Ian McShane
Directed by John Stevenson, Mark Osborne
Studio DREAMWORKS ANIMATION
Dreamworks Pictures is back at it...getting a bunch of top grade A list celebrities and getting them to voice them an animation flick. So if the visuals and content does not drag in the crowds, the voice list should ?
This time doing the main role of Kung Fu Panda is Jack Black. And with him doing the voice for the main character, things are hardly going to go wrong. For we all know that Black plays all his characters like a cartoon...so it was only fitting for him to star in his own cartoon. Ofcourse in the guise of a panda, that is!
But the billing does not stop there...you also have names like Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen all roped in to give the sizzle. And then ofcourse the main ones...Dustin Hoffman as the kung fu master while Ian McShane as the villainous snow leapord.
A clumsy panda bear becomes an unlikely kung fu hero when a treacherous enemy spreads chaos throughout the countryside in this animated martial arts adventure. On the surface, Po (Jack Black) may look like just another portly panda bear, but beneath his fur he bears the mark of the chosen one. By day, Po works faithfully in his family's noodle shop, but by night he dreams of becoming a true master of the martial arts. Now an ancient prophecy has come to pass, and Po realizes that he is the only one who can save his people from certain destruction.
With time running short and malevolent snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane ) closing in, Furious Five legends Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross ), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), Monkey (Jackie Chan), and their wise sensei, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), all draw on their vast knowledge of fighting skills in order to transform a lumbering panda bear into a lethal fighting machine. Now, if the noble Po can master the martial arts and somehow transform his greatest weaknesses into his greatest strengths, he will fulfill his destiny as the hero who saved his people during their darkest hour.
THE PANEL ROOM
So no, it is not the classic animation flick and Dreamworks still has a long way to go before they reach the Pixar heights. But they have a way of churning out these crowdpleasing star studded animation and it seems this Jack Black comedy does have everything Fun-damentally going correct. So expect another successful franchise in the making and a lot of panda merchandises. A cumulative rating of 6.7/10 for this martial art comedy.
Everything about Kung Fu Panda is a little better, a little sharper, a little funnier than the animated run of the mill. It’s one of the few comedies of 2008 in any style or genre that knows what it’s doing. CHICAGO TRIBUNE 3.5/4
This is a solid family film material, although one suspects the children will get a little more out of it than their parents. REELVIEWS 3/4
It is a perfect family picture; one which grownups can send their kids in solo, fully loaded with popcorn etc, and then hide in the back row to enjoy it themselves. CRANKYCRITIC 7/10
The result is just a middling entry in the animated kidflick stable, which in spite of starring another lovably roly-poly hero is certainly no Shrek. ONEGUYSOPINION C
Though occasionally visually inventive, Kung Fu Panda is a disappointment when it comes to matters of simple black and white: the script. USATODAY 2/4
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