Quick Review:

Even if you’re not a fan of kung fu movies, you’ll probably still enjoy Kung Fu Panda! Its definitely geared towards a younger audience, but more than anything, this movie was a lot of fun!

I enjoyed this movie so much that I have found myself paying attention whenever I see a commercial for Kung Fu Panda, just to relive a little of my experience in the theater!

The voice acting was top-notch! I was particularly worried about Black’s tendency to overact, but he did an excellent job voice-acting the main character. In fact, this ensemble of A-list actors has shown they also have talent for voice-acting. (Of course, many have had previous experience, but I didn’t know about that until after I saw this movie.)

The action sequences were many and awesome! One in particular was well worth the price of admission. Kudos for the animators! Action sequences can be hard to animate, let alone one that involves quick body movement - they often look too quick and choppy - but these animators did a great job and I never once spotted movement flaws …

I was, however, surprised to see that the animators made the same mistake that many Hollywood movies make these days; the “camera” was too close to the action! I mean, you have these aforementioned awesome fight scenes, but there are a few shots where you can’t see all of the awesome because the “camera” is just too damn close! You might argue it’s a stylistic choice, but I say it’s a stupid choice! So there!
That’s actually my biggest gripe. And let’s face it, it’s not that big of a deal. That’s how much this movie rocked!

As I said in my quick review, its definitely geared more towards a younger audience, so the humor and plot aren’t terribly witty or complicated, but the movie is very enjoyable and fun to experience! However, I do admit that I went into this movie expecting a slightly different type of movie. Because it is a Dream Works film, I was expecting Kung Fu Panda to be more like Shrek - a kid’s movie on the surface, but with some humor particularly geared towards adults; a movie that you don’t necessarily need to be in a cartoon-mood to watch. Kung Fu Panda definitely feels like a cartoon … albeit, a cartoon filled with AWESOME!

Final Grade: A-

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 15th, 2008 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Movies, Silver Moon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.