Kung Fu Panda

With Pixar pretty much dominating the CG animated movie scene (and even though I am a huge Pixar fan) it's nice to see that the other CG animation houses aren't giving up. Dreamworks seemed to be riding just a little too high on the Shrek wave, so it's nice to see that their new movie isn't about the great green giant, but sadly it is still about a group of animals - imagination is what makes Pixar the head CG animation house, guys. That said, Kung Fu Panda isn't crap.

One of the nicer things about animated movie is that they are one of the few moveis that can manage to bring in a large cast of big name actors - joining Jack Black in this one are Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu and Seth Rogen, along with Ian McShane who, although not a huge name, appears to have replaced Brian Cox as the English actor who is being cast in every movie these days, particularly if they are family movies. However, big names are all very well, but in animated movies the best actors are those with the most distinctive voices and as such Jack Black shines with his exceptionally distinctive voice, alongside McShane whose voice just reeks of evil. Sadly, the majority of the rest of the cast don't really stand out at all. Don't get me wrong, they are all accepatable in their roles, but they really pack a punch. That said, Hoffman's comic timing is exceptional.

The animation in the movie is, as usual, excellent, but let's face it, these days if the animation isn't above the norm the audience just wouldn't tolerate it. What actually becomes the question is how far can you styalise the characters before they become something that the audience finds ridiculous. Fortunately that doesn't become a problem in the movie.

The movie itself is well written and quite funny, but it's a traditional sort of "misfit finds his true calling" kind of movie with the misfit in question having a master who believes in him and a rival who doesn't, but ultimately accepts she is wrong when the misfit beats the big bad villain.

Bearing in mind that the true audience for this movie is, if not children then definitely family and as such there is really nothing wrong with this movie. You could do worse than taking your kids to go see it.

"B+"