Film Review of Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Spinning panda bonzaa death kick coming your way...Yeah, this movie does sound ridiculous - imagine karate kid but with an endangered species as the protagonist, and you're half-way there.

Belief seems to be a common theme amongst animated moves; we have seen the green monster who learns to love and the rabbit who teaches himself to slam dunk, but a fighting panda has, until now, been left alone.

Here we have your average everyday panda (aptly named Po), slightly podgy around the edges but loveable all the same. Jack Black does the voiceover for the movie and whilst perfectly executing a few quotes that will be reeled off in kid's playgrounds up and down the country, he doesn't really take full advantage of his wild side that we have seen in his previous appearances.

Po is a noodler (is that a word? He works in his father's noodle shop, anyway!) and when he isn't slaving behind a hot stove, he dreams of becoming a rather 'scaled-up' Bruce Lee Kung Fu hero! Unfortunately for Po, his kung fu moves leave a lot to be desired; imagine a cross between a black and white dancing elephant and bambi in a head band. An unfortunate occurrence results in Po being entered into the toughest Kung Fu competition in the world, where he will be fighting against the most feared contenders known to Pandas and other species alike: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Viper (Lucy Liu), and the most feared of them all, the Mantis (Seth Rogen); just the sound of them strikes me with fear.

So Po heads up into the mountains to be transformed into a lean mean fighting machine by kung fu guru, master Shifu.

This is a good family movie, although probably a cut under the cream of the crop (films such as Finding Nemo still hold that accolade in my opinion) and teaches kids a great lesson about believing in yourself even when the odds are stacked against you. As you would expect, there is ample punching, kicking and other moves that have never been attempted before but it is all very mild, as is the language content, so parents you should have no worries about letting your kids watch this film from about the age of 5.

I'm pretty far outside of the target audience, being 23, and this film still kept me entertained and chuckling here and there. I almost get the impression that every now and then an 'adult' line is purposely chucked in for our entertainment, flying miles high above the heads of our juniors.

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