With school out for the summer, I’m already having to deal with a bored kid looking for something fun and different to do every single day. I decided to kick things off the right way by taking him to a movie of his choice at the theater. Of course, the film had to be family-oriented, so that pretty much left us with Kung Fu Panda and not much else. I wasn’t particularly keen on seeing this movie, but my son was calling the shots, which meant I just had to go along for the ride.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Po (voiced by Jack Black) is a panda who lives in a small Chinese village. He works at his family’s noodle shop, but doesn’t have his heart set on learning how to make the perfect bowl of ramen. Instead, he dreams of being a kung fu fighter like the legendary Furious Five warriors that train and live at a temple near the village. Unfortunately, nobody takes Po’s kung fu dreams very seriously since he’s fat and lazy.
One day, the villagers learn that old Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) will select the Dragon Warrior at a special ceremony. The Dragon Warrior tapped by Oogway will essentially become the Chosen One who can defeat the dangerous Tai Lung (Ian McShane) in battle and restore peace of mind to everyone in the area.
It is expected that one of the Furious Five — Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Viper (Lucy Liu), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), or Crane (David Cross) — will be chosen, as they’ve been specially trained by Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). However, by a series of accidents, Po ends up standing in front of Oogway when the selection is made, meaning that Po is the new Dragon Warrior.
Shifu and the Furious Five are outraged by the development, and decide on the spot to do everything in their power to expose Po as a poser. They give him the cold shoulder, don’t offer him any help, and generally try to ignore them. Po won’t give up, however, so Shifu eventually warms up to him and decides to train him for real.
The rest of the film then deals with Po’s transformation into a real kung fu fighter. Along the way, Po learns important lessons about self-image, self-esteem, and friendship. Oh, and of course he ends up defeating Tai Lung in their hand-to-hand battle as well.
My Reaction: Frankly, I was disappointed by Kung Fu Panda. Since it is currently the No. 1 movie in America, I figured it would be enjoyable by viewers of all ages, but this one was clearly for kids. I guess I’ve been spoiled over the years by filmmakers who develop animated films that appeal to both adults and children, but this particular flick seemed far too one-dimensional for me.
The storyline was fairly basic, so it was easy for kids to understand. That’s a good thing in an animated film, but at the same time, there weren’t any nuggets aimed at the adults. No jokes with double meanings, no pop culture references, nothing of that sort. This made the film pretty boring for me, though my son was enthralled by the characters and the martial arts sequences.
Speaking of the characters, the only two that were developed to any extent were Po and Shifu. I guess that’s to be expected since they were the main characters and the film only ran for 88 minutes, but this was yet another obstacle to enjoying the film. Oh, and if you’re planning on going to see Kung Fu Panda to hear the voice work of Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, or Lucy Liu, don’t bother. Those characters barely have any dialogue at all (I think Jackie Chan probably had fewer than five lines — no joke).
Overall, I thought Kung Fu Panda was a rather mediocre animated film that will appeal far more to children than to adults. I would have been better off bringing my iPod into the theater and listening to tunes instead! As a result of all the problems I mentioned above, I give this film just 5.0 stars out of 10.