Kung Fu Panda is a media franchise by DreamWorks Animation Created by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris released in 2008. "Kung Fu Panda" is a story that speaks for itself almost in the title. It's hard to imagine a big fluffy panda waging a martial arts battle that intuitively understands (and you'd be right about) a panda that plays a role in the Van Alod formula that will lead him to success. For a target audience of pandas, children, and teens, this will be great, and the film showcases his adventures in beautifully rendered cinemascope animations. (It will also be screened at some IMAX venues.)
The movie stars a panda named Poe (voiced by Jack Black) who is so fat that he hardly gets out of bed. He works for his father, Mr. Ping (James Hong), at a noodle shop that sells the legendary secret ingredient ping. How Ping, a supposed stork or other member of the bird family, gave birth to a panda remains a mystery, especially to Poe, but at the same time, the film is filled with many creatures that do not even recognize their panda. There's a lot of difference.
They live in the beautiful Valley of Peace with an ancient temple towering above their heads, climbing billions of stairs that Chubby Po can barely climb. But he pulls a noodle cart and climbs them as everyone in the valley has gathered there to witness the Dragon Warrior's choice to fight the terrifying Tai Lung (Yang McShane) in a Kung Fu battle. The Furious Five: Five applicants were selected: Monkey (Jackie Chan), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Crane (David Cross). It looks like the tiger can do some serious damage, but the rest is unimpressive. Warts in particular seem to weigh an ounce or so. All five are trained by the wise Shifu (almost forever as far as I understand), with the voice of Dustin Hoffman, one of the most extensive characters in the story and giving no depth to the other characters. In any case, the final choice must be made by the temple owner, the ancient tortoise 'Ugway' (Randall Duk Kim), who chooses Yes and chooses the unfortunate and chubby Po.
Kung Fu Panda is not one of the best-animated movies of recent times. The story is so predictable, and in fact, Po himself did not impress me with his charisma. But it's elegantly drawn, the action sequences are lively, and short enough for an older audience to indulge. Of course, all this is very important for children, and here we are again.
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