Kung-Fu Panda Review

 Kung-Fu Panda Review

Starring: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie

Director: John Stevenson, Mark Osborne

Year: 2008

 

Kung-Fu Panda is one of those movies where if you’ve seen it, you probably love it. And those who haven’t probably just think... no. Kung-Fu Panda as karate fighting Panda, no! And that’s a little ironic since one of the many lessons they teach you is one, don’t just based on appearances, and two, a person like Po, the main character, can do incredible things. But damn, I can’t lie this is a good movie, and one of Dreamworks best. Hell, dispute it for the best. In just an hour and half they give a fairly large cast, and you care about each of them, even members of the Furious Five, who are made by some pretty big voice actors, but they’re all very cool. Being named after different fighting styles is also a plus to it’s character. And then there are the main characters, and none of them let down. Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu gives probably my favorite performance, (then again I’m a sucker for teacher-student stories, and always love the teachers so much) then there’s Ian McShane as Tai Lung, which you could dispute his character, I personally loved him. Then again his back-story and amazing prison break scene could make the dullest character seem great. Then there’s Jack Black as Po. And yeah, he’s what main characters should be. They have personality, but they’re also feeding the other characters enough so they can take a shine, while still not being overshadowed, or feeling smaller than them. And of course, he’s who we learn all these lessons with. And it’s a simple story, and if there are any that seem to make simple stories great it’s Disney and Dreamworks movies that turn movies for all ages into really great stories like these ones. And I haven’t even gotten to what this movie is about! If you haven’t seen it, it’s about a guy/kid/teenager/I really just don’t know how old he is who loves Kung-Fu. He’s basically a little wannabe nerd who loves these guys called the Furious Five. But his father... who isn’t a panda... whatever that’s why we have sequels, he wants Po to take on his legacy of the noodle business. Then when it is foretold that the big bad enemy will break from his clutches of prison, the good guys decide to elect the Dragon Warrior, a warrior of legend. (don’t worry, not your typical overdone prophecy story) And then Po gets mistaken for this warrior and from there you can experience the movie yourself. But I will say the animation is pretty top notch considering this looked like it could have came out yesterday when it’s six years old. If I will say I wasn’t impressed by something, the soundtrack was really whatever. But the reason that’s disappointing is because they have really awesome action scenes that seem to work in cool ideas and surroundings, and work no matter what the character’s size it, but there’s no really cool music to correlate with it. Anyway, thats’ about it, it’s an amazing movie, and hit just about every place it should. It tells a wonderful story, and I put it as one of the best from this company. The movie did the impossible of making Kung-Fu Panda a dope movie, which could only have been a total accident. But then again as the movie states, nothing is impossible, and there are no accidents.

Kung-Fu Panda gets a 5/5

Spoilers: Ugh. It was so sad. Oogway! Definitely would have been my fav if he hadn’t of died. But that’s where Shifu comes in. And a large part of Shifu’s character is that he doesn’t know everything. He’s still learning. And plus a wise old teacher couldn’t get mad at Po and yell at him for doing stupid things. But anyway, Kung-Fu Panda is dope, don’t you fucking forget it. Skadoosh!