Review of Kung Fu Panda (2008) by Ducknation — 22 May 2014

" There is no charge for awesomeness... or attractiveness.".

Not since Shrek has Dreamworks Animation been on top of it's game, Kung Fu Panda is a delightful animated comedy that thrives on its gorgeous animation, thrilling fighting sequences, its humorous dialog, and its top notch voice acting. Kung Fu Panda may suffer from its cliched story with the whole "believe in yourself" thing but that does't take about from how heartwarming it still can be. I remember when this first came out and it looking freaking beautiful even to this day that the animation is still something to be amazed about.

The film follows Po(Jack Black) a panda working at his father's noodle shop in the Valley of Peace and only wishes that he can be something more. On this participial day it just so happens to be that the dragon warrior is going to be picked, Po rushes to get into the celebration but is late. Determined to see the Dragon Warrior and the legendary "Furious Five" Tigress(Angelina Jolie), Monkey(Jackie Chan), Mantis(Seth Rogen), Viper(Lucy Liu), and Crane(David Cross) Po sticks fireworks to a chair so he can fly over the wall. He ends up putting too much fireworks on the chair and goes flying the air to only drop right down in the middle of the arena in front of Oogway the valleys spiritual leader just as he is picking the new Dragon Warrior and it ends up being Po.

From here we see master Shifu(Dustin Hoffman) and the Furious Five try to make Po leave by being mean to him and taking it hard on him in training as they do not believe he is or can be the Dragon Warrior. It's not till sometime on till some of the Furious Five start to warm up to Po. All that stops when Tai Lung(Ian McShane) the pupil of master Shifu breaks out of prison to came back and become the Dragon Warrior himself, something he thought he deserved all along. The Furious Five sets out to fight Tai Lung while Po questions if he can really be the true Dragon Warrior. Well after a talk with master Shifu Po and him figure out that food is a great way for him to train. Cue the montage and now Po is a great kung fu fighter and worthy the "Dragon Scroll" a ancient scroll said to give limitless power to that who possesses it. Well Tai Lung beats all of the Furious Five makes his way to the palace where him and master Shifu fight until Po steps in and ends up betting him.

The actions scenes were amazing and a thrill to watch, the mix of the slow down/speed up in the fighting was a excellent way to make it still humorous. Jack Black voicing Po Was perfection I do not think they could have picked a better person, the rest of the cast all did solid performances but the way the story plays out Angelina Jolie's character has a bigger role then the rest of the Furious Five. James Hong as Mr. Ping(Po's father) is so awesome, the guy is such a funny actor he plays a goose in the film but they don't address that issue until the second film.

Overall I give it a 8.