Hollywood has enjoyed a long and storied lineage of animals in lead roles. Old Yeller, Lassie, Babe, and even Remmy the Rat from last year’s Ratatouille effortlessly capture the hearts of audiences everywhere with their often human-like personas, showing a range of emotion and stirring the soul through the good times and the bad. DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda, stands with the best of the best of the cute-and-cuddly animal world movies. Rivaling the animation, storytelling, and characterization of the best Pixar films, Panda will tickle the funny bone, pull on the heart strings, excite with its death-defying action, and leave viewers with a warm and fuzzy feeling.
Kung Fu Panda is set in an unspecified time period in an unspecified Chinese village where anthropomorphic animals live ordinary peasant lives. Po (Jack Black) is a panda whose father (James Hong) runs a noodle restaurant and assumes Po will one day go into the family business. (Po’s father is a goose. This is not explained.) But Po has bigger dreams. A major fan of martial arts, he idolizes the Furious 5, a quintet of warriors who train at the palace on the mountain that overlooks the village.
As overweight as he is, Po finds it difficult to even climb the stairs of his father’s noodle shop. As a result, the prospect of him becoming a martial arts warrior seems rather slim. To his great surprise, Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), the ancient turtle who oversees all the fighting masters, declares that he, Po, is the Chosen One. The fates have decreed it. Po must be trained as the new Dragon Warrior who will fight against Tai Lung (Ian McShane), the murderous leopard who is about to break out of prison. The Fabulous Five, particularly star pupil Tigress (Angelina Jolie), are less than theilled, but Oogway insists that Po is indeed the chosen one, and Master Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman) is charged with the task of training the excitable Panda
The screenplay is by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, a duo that has written for TV’s King of the Hill and MAD TV, from a story by writers Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris. The martial arts on display are very well animated; the attention to detail throughout the film is amazing, and stands as a good example of how much animation continues to grow. First time directors, Mark Osborne and John Stevenson, pull off some dazzling fight sequences and a prison-break scene that is nothing short of amazing.
The story itself is rather formulaic, with Po’s unusual talents proving useful in battle and everyone learning a lesson in the experience. That’s not a bad thing when it comes to Kung Fu Panda though. The film espouses an important message about believing in yourself: the film never insists that a character need drastically change in order to fulfill his dream, prophesy or to discover who they really are. Po’s physique never alters — he becomes capable of great things in spite of his waistline, the film smartly stating that it’s what’s inside that really matters.
Kung Fu Panda is definitely a film for the whole family. Aside from its positive message of self belief, the film is a wildly, exciting ride that should entertain kids and adults alike, for years to come.
Translating computer-generated animation over to both standard-definition and high-definition mediums produce near-faultless results on average, which undoubtedly is the case for Kung Fu Panda’s 2.35:1 widescreen image that’s enhanced for 16×9 televisions. The level of detail, color richness, and motion rendering is absolutely fantastic on this disc, though it does show a few instances of edge enhancement and macro blocking. The only place where it suffers is during massively-active sequences, such as when confetti flies about and character models move a hair too fast for the digital image to keep up — as it renders a bit of block-ish pixelation. All together, Kung Fu Panda’s visual treatment is close to the highest shelf that you’re going to get to in the standard-definition digital medium, and the average viewer will likely not be bothered.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound option is excellent. Vocal strength stays clean and clear all the way through, while the great Asian-infused score carries appropriate all the way through the film. It matches the visual treatment in strength, melding to its efforts to create a splendid digital treatment for a ravishing effects-driven piece of work. Subtitles are available in optional English, Spanish, and French languages, while a Spanish 5.1 surround track and English and French 2.0 Stereo options are also options for consideration.
Kung Fu Panda has a good selection of special features.
• Audio Commentary — Directors John Stevenson and Mark Osborne deliver a relaxed but informative track that covers the genesis of the project, the various decisions made throughout pre-production, the scripting process, the voice casting and recording sessions, the animation and characters, and a variety of other topics.
• Inside Kung Fu Panda Featurettes (23 minutes) — “Meet the Cast” is a fairly lengthy series of interviews with the voice talent, “Pushing the Boundaries” briefly explores the animation and character design, and “Conversation International: Help Save Wild Pandas” is a PSA with Jack Black.
• Sounds and Moves Featurettes (35 minutes) — “Do You Kung Fu?” is a hefty twenty-four minute introduction to kung fu for kids, “Sound Design” explores the film’s audio, “Kung Fu Fighting Music Video” features the title song as performed by Cee-Lo, and “Learn the Panda Dance” is a self-explanatory how-to short.
• Land of the Panda Featurettes (26 minutes) — “How to Use Chopsticks” is an instructional short for children, “Inside the Chinese Zodiac” looks at the Chinese calendar and its representative symbols, “Animals of Kung Fu Panda” focuses on the animals that inspired ‘Kung Fu Panda’s characters, “Mr. Ping’s Noodle House” focuses on a chef making noodles, and “What Fighting Style are You?” is an interactive quiz.
• Po’s Power Play Activities — “Learn to Draw” introduces the ‘Kung Fu Panda’ artists as they showcase the various characters in the film, “Dumpling Shuffle” is an interactive game involving three bowls and a shifty dumpling, and “Dragon Warrior Training Academy” is a second game that lets players attempt to achieve fabled hero status.
• Dreamworks Animation Video Jukebox — A now standardized feature that pops up on nearly every Dreamworks Animation release, this jukebox contains short music videos from other notable Dreamworks Animation films.
• Theatrical Previews (5 minutes) — A pair of trailers are included for the upcoming Monsters vs. Aliens and the recently released Madagascar 2: Escape from Africa.
Secrets of the Furious Five (Disc Two)
As an added bonus, DreamWorks have also assembled a short animated feature entitled Secrets of the Furious Five as an exclusive two-pack for the standard DVD. Running at around twenty-four minutes, this feature focuses on Po as he begins instruction on a class of soon-to-be kung-fu bunnies. Instead of teaching different punches, stances, and the rest of the stuff that young kick-happy students might want to learn, he tells them the stories of each member of the Furious Five and the qualities that they lacked before they started to train in the art of kung-fu.
With Po’s stories being fleshed out in a similar hand-drawn technique to that of the core film’s dream sequence and end credits, Secrets of the Furious Five is a beautifully animated and decently entertaining supplement. It gives interesting insight into each of the characters, none of which that were boring or felt tacked on. The way that Po ties in each thing that they learned from their pasts, from courage and control to zen-like patience, works as a great lead-in for kids who are interested in all the physicality of martial arts.
Secrets of the Furious Five contains some special features aimed at younger viewers:
In Po’s Power Play, there’s a Learn to Draw feature that instructs the viewer on basic techniques in sketching each of the main characters, a Dumpling Shuffle game which is basically like the old magician’s “three cups, one ball” game, and a Pandamonium Activity Kit which activates inside of the PC-DVD Rom.
In Land of the Panda, there’s a Learn the Panda Dance where you learn a few dance moves, a Do You Know Kung Fu basic featurette, an Animals of Kung Fu feature which talks about the real nature behind each of the animals in the film and their geographical importance in China, What Fighting Style Are You question game. Last, but not least, there’s an Inside the Chinese Zodiac feature that talks about your Chinese Zodiac sign — that is, as long as you’re born after 1995. Just subtract 12 year increments from each number and you’ll be able to use it. This feature, interestingly, provides a wonderful quotable: “Famous Pigs in History are Ernest Hemingway, Elton John, and Arnold Schwarzenegger”.
