If you have difficulty imagining a great big cuddly panda performing kung fu, you have the main point of John Stevenson and Mark osborne's animation epic for Dreamworks. Sometimes even a panda has to get out of bed, stop eating and learn how to strike out against evil. The weak can sometimes inherit the earth.
The panda is Po (voiced by Jack Black), who works in a noodle shop in the beautiful Valley of Peace, and gets taught kung fu by Shifu, who looks like a wise mouse and is voiced by Dustin Hoffman.
The reason Po wants to learn martial arts is that Tai Lung (Ian McShane), a dreaded fighting master and an absolute swine, is disturbing the Valley with his threats and Po - somewhat surprisingly - has been chosen as the Dragon Warrior who will defeat him.
Helping Po out are Monkey (Jackie Chan), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu) and Crane (David Cross), and when they all get beaten up by Tai Lung, the panda has to take his turn.
The film, never more than the sliver of a story, degenerates into a series of kung fu battles that are beautifully animated in a humorous kind of way but don't sustain a lot of dramatic interest since you know perfectly well who will win in the end.
But kids will enjoy the trip and parents will note with relief that it is only about 90 minutes long and feasts even a rheumy eye with its images. Dreamworks is obviously trying here to copy the real kung fu movies from Hong Kong and does so with some skill. I hope Jackie Chan approves - even if they made a monkey out of him.
Kung Fu Panda
Cert: PG
