Dirs. Mark Osborne & John Stevenson, US, 2008, 93 mins
Cast: Jack Black (voice), Dustin Hoffman (voice), Ian McShane (voice)
Review by Carol Allen
The basic story is a classic Disney animation one in that the hero is an outsider with an unlikely dream, which he has to struggle to achieve - and all the characters are animals. Once upon a time in a fairy tale version of China lovable, cuddly but clumsy panda Po (Black) dreams of being a kung fu hero. His reality though is his father's noodle shop. Until one day he finds himself literally rocketed into his destiny, when he is chosen by Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), the ageing turtle guru and inventor of kung fu, to fulfill an ancient prophecy and save the community from the evil snow leopard Tai Lung (McShane).
The film is packed with life lessons about such things as the father/son relationship and Buddhist type wise sayings ("there are no accidents"/"let go of the illusion of control"). It also stretches biological credibility with the fact that Po's cautious noodle making father Mr. Ping (James Hong) is a goose. At one point when he is about to impart a secret to Po, one thinks it might be to confess that his son is adopted, but no, its just the secret of his noodle recipe. The film also however has a lot of charm, inventive animation and good voice characterisation, led by Black and Hoffman, endearingly grumpy as martial arts Master Shifu, reluctantly obeying Oogway's orders to turn this lazy, overweight and greedy panda into an unlikely kung fu hero. The facial characterisation of these two is particularly vivid - expressive eyes and fur you feel you could touch. The scenes of Po's training, including Shifu's wheeze to use his pupil's love of food to advantage, are very funny.
Studying alongside Po are his idols, the so called Furious Five: Tigress (Angelina Jolie); Crane (David Cross); Mantis (Seth Rogen); Viper ( Lucy Liu); and Monkey (Jackie Chan), whose noses or species equivalent have all been put out of joint by not being selected as the hero. Tigress in particular is a very beautiful big cat. Tai Lung is genuinely scary and one of the highlights of the film is his spectacular escape from the high security prison where he is incarcerated - an imprisonment so extreme and brutal that he almost engages both our reluctant sympathy and our admiration for his ingenuity. Another landmark sequence involves Po and the Furious Five in battle with Tai Lung on a fragile bridge slung over a gorge, which is reminiscent of some of the breathtaking choreography of films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. And of the very pretty story book Chinese settings one of the most impressive is the long, long flight of stairs poor tubby Po has to struggle up on several occasions. Takes his breath away.
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