Movie : Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Much better than I was expecting. It's great that they kept it a simple story and didn't try to overwhelm you. DreamWorks's previous animated movies: The Shrek series, Shark Tale (2004), Bee Movie (2007), try to do too much and fall short. Panda is their first that gave me hope for greater things from them.

Very reminiscent of Kung Fu Hustle (2004), the story follows a character who hopes for more from his life. The action scenes are incredible, and are some of the best I've seen from a martial arts movie, obviously copying from the likes of Ying xiong (2002) aka Hero, and Wo hu cang long (2000) aka Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

I wasn't that fond of some of Jack Black's recordings, I think they could have toned him down a little. I like Jack Black, but I'm not sure he was the best choice for the role. It's not the best casting if it's because he vaguely resembles the character in size and shape. It wasn't necessary to have voice acting that is over-the-top for this role. When he read the lines straight, it came across the best. They didn't need big name actors for these roles, except for David Cross, who's voice is perfect for animation. Took me awhile to recognize Dustin Hoffman, which is a good thing, he gets lost in the character.

My only main faults with the movie were the designs. The textures and animation were incredible, but I thought they were trying to differentiate themselves too much from a Pixar look. The main character, Po, was designed well though, as were the geese, and my favorite, Master Oogway. The Furious Five and Tai Lung were the weakest. Nicolas Marlet's (the designer) beautiful original drawings didn't translate well to 3D and lost some of their appeal. He's working on the next DreamWorks movie called, How to Train Your Dragon (2009), I can't wait to see what he does.

Very funny, sentimental, and exciting, the movie doesn't try to be more than it is, doesn't try to force lessons on us, and you get the feeling it's made by people who love animation and movies. It was great to see the hand drawn animation of the title sequence. The Fat jokes got to be too much though...ya, we get it, he's big.

As profitable as the Shrek movies have been, they weren't creative or timeless examples of great animation. With the upcoming How to Train Your Dragon (2009) and Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), DreamWorks is finally ready to take a shot at Pixar's crown. Support animation like this.

4 out of 5

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