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Kung Fu Panda

A Review by Techtite

As always, a review of The Show and the DVD extras.

What an incredibly pleasant surprise this is. For months we've all seen the trailers, which made Kung Fu Panda seem like little more than a slapstick comedy about a fat panda who wanted to be a mighty kung fu fighter. The idea sounded funny, yet I'd bet many viewers came into this film with relatively low expectations.

Surprise! Not only is this movie far more than one running gag; it's got more humor, depth, and innovative characters than many CGI animated movies these days. It's also, quite frankly, Dreamworks Animation's best work to date.

The story begins as the trailer implies. Po (voiced by Jack Black) is a Panda working in a Chinese restaurant, who dreams of one day trekking up the hill, and joining the local band of mighty kung fu warriors. One day, the revered master of kung fu, Oogway, must finally choose which of his apprentices is the kung fu warrior of destiny; the "Dragon Warrior." The whole village is invited to attend this long-awaited ceremony. In a mishap that is hard to translate in text; Po falls in between the kung fu master and Tigress (Angelina Jolie), just before he could point to her. While this is an obvious accident to anyone else, Oogway insists, "There are no accidents." Po is the chosen one!

The resulting mishap is what it is to Oogway...much to the chagrin of everyone else. It is up to Shifu (voiced perfectly by Dustin Hoffman) to train Po, and he makes it a point to make each lesson particularly hard, in an attempt to make Po realize this is one big mistake, and quit. As he survives each kung fu lesson, however, he slowly earns the respect of his fellow kung fu students. He'll need all the help he can get; Shifu's old nefarious student, Tai Lung, has escaped prison and has heard of the announcement of a chosen one. He is on his way to battle this mighty warrior once and for all...though you can imagine his surprise, when he finds out the chosen one is, in his words, "just a big... fat... panda!"

What sells this story are the characters. Each character is a different animal with a totally different look and personality. While this makes perfect sense, it somehow is done with an added "flair" in this movie. One of many brilliant decisions made by the animators, was in making characters that looked more like cartoon characters than actual animals. Like any good cartoon character, the attributes of each animal are greatly exaggerated, enhancing their charm. For example; although Tigress doesn't look like a "real" tiger, she is a well developed character. Likewise for the elderly kung fu master, whose exaggerated wrinkles and slow movement (he's a turtle, after all!) enhance his charm.

Here's what pulls the story over the top: the writing. Not just the twists and turns and wit of the story, though the dialog is surprisingly sharp for an animated movie these days. Kung Fu Master Ooogway never seems to run out of life lessons to tell, my favorite being: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present." The banter between Shifu and his new apprentice Po is equally well written, as Shifu slowly learns that he might indeed be able to teach Po, even though Po is beginning to wonder if he actually can. Oogway stays optimistic, however. As he puts it: "One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it."

Of course, as an animated movie this is supposed to be funny as well, and in case you wondered: the best jokes of the movie are not spoiled in the film trailer. Surprisingly; very little of this story is one big running gag about fat people trying to be kung fu artists. There's a lot more humor than just a bunch of fat jokes, which was a pleasant surprise. One of my favorite moments: Po's supposed "dad" is played by a duck, leading to added humor when Po says something like: "Wait...am I adopted?"

The end result is a rare gem in animated movies, particularly CGI. While I am a big fan of CGI animation when used to enhance a story (like, say, Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles), it more often is used as a tool to simply slop together animation and act like it's good animation "because my computer drew it." This is a rare exception. It's a well written, humorous, yet extremely heartfelt modern fairy tale. It might even become the movie of which all future CGI is judged. Clearly, the bar has been raised.

The DVD Review: So here's the bottom line: what's with the extra disc? You can get the movie itself for a discount. You can also get it with that extra disc. What's so cool about this disc...and why didn't someone just put it with the movie in a two-disc case?

In short, the Two-DVD set includes the same disc you'd get individually, plus "The Secrets of the Furious Five." This is a 20 minute animated short (if you can call 20 minutes "short") which showcases the other kung fu masters, like tigress and monkey and crane. I wish I could review this with more intensity though it's really just a matter of how much you liked the movie. To give you the general idea: you know how the movie took everyone by surprise because they thought it was just what it looked like: a movie about a panda learning kung fu? Well, the movie surprised them all. This second DVD is for all intent exactly what it appears to be: a 20 minute disc, fully animated, of the additional characters. There's really no extra review required here. You either liked the movie enough to want to see more, or you did not.

I will say this much: the additional movie has many of the voices of the supporting cast changed. No; Angelina Jolie is no longer the voice of Tigress. The only returning voice is David Cross as Crane. To be fair; the story shows most of the characters at a younger age, so "they sound different because they're younger" is a suitable defense. Yet if you sell a disc as an addendum to the original story, it should have everything the original had, including the original voice talent. I'm just saying. However, it is amusing to note than monkey is now voiced by Jackie Chan's real life son, which was a nice added touch.

Extras include audio commentary from directors directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson; a 13 minute look behind the scenes of the acting talent (see the actors in real life who voiced each role); a shorter featurette about "pushing boundaries" (in a nutshell; the challenges of putting animals on screen with fur); an additional featurette on sound design; a music video by Cee-Lo singing the movie's theme song, "Kung Fu Fighting"; a featurette about how to make noodles; another featurette about how to use chopsticks; a "Dragon Warrior Training Game." playable on DVD. for the kids; an animation "jukebox"; and on a more serious note, a fee words from Jack Black about helping wild pandas in the real world.

Surprisingly, however; the extra DVD has features all its own added to the "Secrets of the Furious Five" disc. Many are strictly for the kids, like a dumpling shuffle game, a DVD-ROM activity kit for your computer, and tips on how to draw the characters (without CGI software, of course). Additional video covers kung fu poses, learning your Chinese zodiac symbol, the animals from the movie in real life, and a game that lets you see which kung fu animal you're like (panda, crane, tiger, and so on).

So in case this wasn't obvious yet; the extra disc is pretty much of a necessity if you have kids, though just a curiosity if you don't. The good news is that it's available via many rental stores as well, and isn't one of those "just available for sale" deals, so if you bought the DVD at discount by itself, feel free to rent the "Furious Five" disc. The movie itself, however, is most than worth buying.

---Techtite

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