So can Jack Black do Kung Fu? Based on the movie
Kung Fu Panda, the answer is yes.
I really had no idea if I was going to like this film. As a young boy, I grew up with Bruce Lee and the The Shaw Brothers. I knew that it was going to play at the IMAX and I knew that I had to see it.
THIS WILL BE A SPOILER ALERT REVIEW. IF YOU DO NOT THE FILM SPOILED FOR YOU THEN PLEASE STOP READING THIS REVIEW.
I saw a lot of Kung-Fu film growing up in the 70's and 80's. I heard that Dreamworks was working on an animated 3D film about a Kung-Fu Panda. I was thinking that this will either be good or this will be a huge disaster. Well, I did not like the film. I loved it.
The film opens up as A Panda (Jack Black) has gone to war to save the innocents and he soon has the "Awesome 5" join him and they are going to fight an epic battle. There is only one problem, Its all a dream. You then see the panda wake up and go to his father (A Crane) and work in his noodle store. I loved the little joke about ownership and the "noodle dream"
We are then shown Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) have a premonition that the Evil warrior Tai Lung (Ian McShane), the former protege of his own protege, Shifu,(Dustin Hoffman) a muskrat, will escape from prison, and return to destroy their valley. Oogway orders a formal ceremony to fulfill a prophecy of a mighty Dragon Warrior who can defeat him. To everyone, that is obviously one of the Furious Five, a quintet of supremely skilled martial artists trained by Shifu. Should be picked. So when Po the Panda is selected the story begins and I loved it.
It reminded me about all of the Kung-Fu films that I have seen in the past and I knew that they were going to give it a little twist. It was usually the one who you never expected to be the hero to save the day. What I loved what how Master Oogway said good-bye and gave his little advice to Shifu. You can see Shifu has a task but how do you train a panda?
What was funny was when he realized the it was food that could make the Panda become the warrior and it sure sounded stupid, but it works and it was great.
Then near the end of the film, you see the final battle between good and evil. It took a lot from the Shaw past films. It was a great action scene and it well worth seeing a few times, to see if you really saw all that this part has to offer.
END SPOILER ALERT...............................................................................................................
The film works and was a nice tribute to the past Kung-Fu films. The only complaint I have about the film was that Korean Singer "Rain" sang Kung-Fu Fighting during the end credits. His version was horrible and never needs to be heard, ever again.
Please see the film on the IMAX Screen and it will be worth it.
Grade A
How I saw it. Yongsan IMAX
Opens In Korea. June 5, 2008
Extra scene at the end. Yes
Tai Lung: What are you going to do, sit on me?
Po: Don't tempt me.
Hold on, Kurt - HORTON HEARS A WHO, a quality picture? Seriously? That looked like more of the same old same old to me - radio with colorful pictures.
Oh yeah I know, the American remark was more an explanation I came up with as to why this movie seems to be so praised on the internet, while people over here seem less enthusiastic. I also didn't mean to say that Americans would like the message of the film more, just that maybe they'd enjoy it more because they can see one of their beloved Dr. Seuss books come to life. But then again, they weren't that enthusiastic about those earlier Dr. Seuss movies, so I don't know.
Anyway, you make some valid points, but I just didn't like it. Maybe they took the "take a stand" message just a bit too far for me, as in that it felt as if they were trying to say it's alright to take a stand against reason and believe in a higher power. Or maybe it was just because to make the film feature-length they had to pad it with lame pop-culture references and other nonsense. I mean, how much did the mayor had to go through before people finally started to believe him? He had proof all along, but they just stretched it.
Not only all these computer animated flicks bore the hell out of me, i'm not paying to see another stereotype-fest of asian culture.
Chevalier - Amen to that!
Am an Asian and I didn't think there was much stereotyping. Good homage to asian martial art films.
Maybe you guys really need to watch a film before criticising.
Also I think the main reviewer gives too much away. *shrug*
Kurt: I took the boy to see this yesterday and we both absolutely loved it. I'd see it's the best thing Dreamworks has ever done by a pretty comfortable margin.
I also grew up watching Kung Fu movies. I absolutely loved this animation. I laughed as much as any comedy I have watched in the last several years. My god-child loved it as well. Highly recommended.
CC
"Shifu" is the Mandarin term for master, while "Sifu" is the Cantonese version.
btw, Pandas eat leaves. the movie stretches that fact a little bit much.
Ah, good to know.
WOW !! Thats all i cud say about this movie wonderfully scripted....executed and animated...wonderfull voice actions....gr8 comedy,,ill give ita flawless victory but for one or two points....1)--> The movie shd have agiven itselda stronger ending...withthe eleavtionthat it created in the whole movie...well i think that wa the actual peculiarity of the movie.....
2)-->wonderfull direciona and aniamrion good voices of angelina joe lee lucy liu...gr8 worki thumbs uppp to the cast and crew of KUNG FU PANDA
I'm sure I can be accused of giving this film a snub when I first heard about it, but I'm glad I gave it a chance and was proven wrong! Plenty of homages to anime and kung-fu movies to keep the geeks happy. Oogway, Po and Shifu were really interesting and thought out characters. Beautiful artwork, epic sweeping music. Wonderful mix of comedy and some drama .
Actione scenes were well choreographed and lengthy. The training scenes reminded me of how I used to enjoy Jackie Chan movies (Even some of his older movies had more stereotypes than good taste should allow)
Best summary I heard on the radio: "It has fun -with- the kung-fu genre, without making fun -of- it!"
Spot on!
Dreamworks: Don't make the inevitable CGI sequel, please? Comission a 2D "Awesome Six" spin off like the dream sequence. I'd pay money for that.