Kung Fu Panda

The family and I went to see Kung Fu Panda last night. The last movie we saw was Horton Hears a Who, which was a very well done movie with plenty of funny stuff and humor that goes over a kids head (which means everyone gets a laugh at points in the movie).

Kung Fu Panda was pretty to watch, had some great moments and, most importantly, Jack Black rocks (I'm a big Tenacious D fan). Jack Black acts like a kid in many regards so he's a perfect fit for Po, the Panda. The actors were all top notch (Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie,  Jacky Chan, David Cross, etc.) so the character personality was there, however Dreamworks never really explores the feelings and emotions of most of the characters.

This movie was fun because it involved lots of action packed Kung Fu, played off the old Kung Fu movie style and shots, along with plenty of slow motion into fast motion battle attacks like something out of the Matrix. However, that's about where it stopped. The dialog was fairly flat, the story was pretty basic but entertaining non-the-less but you won't see the characters change in feeling and emotions though the film. For the most part, you either see a dramatic change in a single scene as if magically the characters go from one opinion to another, or you see no change.

Character transformation based on experiences in the plot sorta make up the "round character" which you won't see too much in this movie. However, it's a kids movie so you kinda know what you're getting into. The kids loved it, my daughter now has Master Tigress (her favorite character) on your lapop's desktop background and constantly jumps around like Viper and Crane. Sure, she's going to be 5 so she's not really looking for a huge plot and my 2 year old son just likes action and fighting.

The plot was probably fairly complex for her, and the lessons to be learned are fairly cookie-cutter in fashion: believe in yourself as that's all you need to be great. However, after seeing many Pixar films I've come to expect a "kids movie" to be full of depth, balance, plot and action (oh, and great graphics too). So, compared to other block buster cartoon movies with huge creative ideas (or based on creative ideas like Horton) this one comes up a bit short.

But, if you like karate style moves, it's worth a look! If not, I'll put you in the dreaded Wuxi Finger Hold and wiggle my pinky finger!