Kung Fu Panda

If you have spent any amount of time talking to me about movies it will inevitably come up that Jack Black annoys the crap out of me. I think Tenacious D sucks and typically Jack Black being in a movie spells trouble. He has this obnoxious hipster mentality that grates on my frontal lobes like a fingernails on a chalkboard. His act in School of Rock was tolerable, though and I actually liked him in Be Kind Rewind. I also have a soft spot for animated movies. Well, animated movies that look as if adults can enjoy them as well, not that Shrek nonsense. I was not impressed by any of the trailers and it looked too silly for me, but I had the chance to see it and as you all know, I rarely pass up a chance to watch a movie.

Po the Panda(Black) dreams of being a Kung-Fu master, but he is fat and lazy with no skill inside of him. He longs to fight beside the furious five- Tigress(Angelina Jolie), Monkey(Jackie Chan), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogen) and Viper(Lucy Lui). The day has come when the dragon fighter is to be chosen because it has been reported that Tai Lung(Ian McShane) will brake out of prison. Po wants to go watch the ceremony, but his father wants him to sell noodles at the event and climbing the stairs is impossible and Po misses the event, almost. Right before the dragon fighter is chosen, Po ends up on the main stage and is picked to be the dragon fighter. Shifu(Dustin Hoffman), the kung fu teacher thinks it is a mistake and the furious five treat Po terribly. Is Po the kung-fu master? Can Shifu teach him to fight in time? How many jokes will be made out of Po climbing the stairs?

When Kung Fu Panda is in the midst of an action sequence it is a pretty dazzling movie, unfortunately it is not a 90 minute action sequence. Jack Black does do a pretty good job of replacing his obnoxious hipster attitude with an obnoxious innocence, but it actually worked for the most part. He shines most in the opening sequence when he gets to say the word "awesome" in a few different ways. The opening sequence is a weird anime sequence that reminded me of Horton Hears a Who from earlier this year. Ian McShane, doing his third voiced villain in 4 years, is an excellent villain. However, he should be glad Jeremy Irons decided not to do such things anymore. The scene with Tai Lung breaking out of prison is exhilarating, but the scene where Tai Lung fights the furious 5 on a bridge is the best scene in the movie. The action moves and the fights are gorgeously choreographed.

Yet, the comedy falls short. The overuse of jokes based on Po being a fat panda get tired after the first 5 minutes, but the continue for at least an hour. We get it, Po is fat and nonathletic, move on. Of course, Po overcoming such things is the point of the movie. The morality tale here is that if you put your mind to it, you can be as great as you hope you can be. You can take on giant animated tigers if you use your weight as a strength. Your fat lazy ass can actually be a weapon in battle, that will show those people who mocked you! The animation is amazing, but all movies seem to have that now; the problem is that there is too much stop or slow motion. This movie suffers from Matrixitis and it just doesn't work in this movie.

Final Grade: C