Cast: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan,

Dustin Hoffman

Director: Mark Osborne

Screenplay: Jonathan Aibel

Genre: Animation/Action

Running time: 1 hr 28 mins



CRITIQUE:


After SHREK started stomping his ogre-ness around the Hollywood pond and squeezing the last scintilla of its creative juices, Dreamworks animation since then has been known of pop-culture referencing, cue in retro-music throwback. Surprisingly, the studio’s latest effort KUNG FU PANDA is nary of both. It’s a refreshing zest of storytelling told in a vivid, colourful and artistic palette without wasting any moment to pay homage to anything else other than its plot. That is some achievement for an animated film. However, despite that, the story feels already familiar: an oddball who dreams big and the only way to conquer the odds is to believe in himself. So yes, we’ve heard that before amongst many films, even in animated ones, recently in the form of a rat in the pursuit of cooking.
What’s amenable about KUNG FU FANDA is that, despite of its familiar storyline about dreaming big, the film never dreams to be big, hence, thankfully, it never takes itself so seriously. That point is very much established in Jack Black’s hilarious enthusiasm, and the whole film’s fun, mad and feel-good aura that would light up even the blackest of nights.


This is fundamentally revolving around its title, a panda named Po, whose wet dreams comprise of him being the legendary masterful Dragon Warrior, told in a slap-dash crayon-coloured animation that serves as a fascinating premise. Until we are pulled back into Po’s world, he’s a corpulent lump of nearly-useless and clumsy animal species with no apparent physical skills, let alone kung fu. After the accidental firework caper, he was chosen unwittingly as the Dragon Warrior forced to fend off Tai Lung (Ian McShane), the prodigal son sent to prison.


Visually, it’s a splendid experience filled with lushly created images, and the characters are well-drawn, easily likeable. The Furious Five, a roll-call of impressive names, Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Crane (David Cross), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Mantis (Seth Rogen) – is a near-genius creation, serving the martial arts animal techniques. And Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu is a comic creation of a Yoda figure. But what really KUNG FU PANDA manages to deliver is its ferociously mad, eye-popping action scenes, superb action moments you’ll ever see in an animation movie. They’re over-the-top, often ludicrous, but will make you forget it silliness and gives you one solid entertainment worth larking about. The escape of Tai Lung from a fortress is incredibly goofy, and the fight scene between The Furious Five against Tai Lung in the broken bridge is a non-stop knuckle-biting entertainment.



VERDICT:

An oversized panda turned martial arts master is a ludicrous shtick – but save for the zippiest action sequences for an animated film, it kicks, snarls and wins home as a light, lively entertainment for the whole family gang.



RATING: B+