November 10, 2008

Originally released in theaters in June earlier this year, DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda is a CG animated film that tells the story of Po, a fat and clumsy panda who serves up noodles at his family’s restaurant while dreaming every day of becoming a legendary kung fu master. Through a series of unexpectedly fated events, however, Po learns to embrace his flaws and fulfill his dream.

Having grown up with Asian traditions and strict martial arts training, I have to admit that, though I had read in press interviews that the filmmakers intended to respect martial arts and Chinese culture, I at first had some misgivings about this film based on my frequent disappointments with the portrayal of Asian culture in the popular media. I passed up Kung Fu Panda when it was in theaters, but I’m glad that I didn’t pass it up completely. After watching the main feature and Secrets of the Furious Five for the first time on this 2-disc DVD set, I can honestly say that I’m impressed—not only did the filmmakers keep their word, Kung Fu Panda is by far one of the most entertaining movies, animated or live action, that I’ve watched in a long time.

In movie reviews, there’s often a lot of cheap talk about originality, and it could be easily said that Kung Fu Panda, at its heart, is just another youth movie about learning to accept oneself and develop self-esteem. Even in the world of martial arts movies, the story of the master’s favorite student gone bad is old hat. As Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle once said, however, “The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity.” In this case, the basic plot and character archetypes may not be particularly novel, but Kung Fu Panda stands out in its sincere execution. The humor is funny without being in your face, the action is fast-paced without gratuitous violence, and the dramatic moments are earnest without being sappy. Moreover, the film is surprisingly well planned and internally consistent; without revealing any spoilers, I did note that details introduced near the beginning of the movie came back later—a nice touch that many movies lack.

Filmmaking: 9
A fantastic combination of humor, martial arts action, and human warmth, Kung Fu Panda manages to deftly alternate among well-timed cartoon comedy, story-driven drama that clips along at a lively pace, and—my favorite—fancy wusha (or wuxia, if you prefer) butt-kicking. Given the film’s stylized art style and comically exaggerated animations, I might have expected the combat choreography to be over-the-top cheesy, but instead, viewers are treated to honest-to-goodness combat choreography that rivals that of widely appreciated action flicks like The Matrix. If you’re a die-hard martial arts film fanatic with a discerning eye for choreographed hand-to-hand violence, you won’t really see that niche level of creative brilliance here, but the action sequences in Kung Fu Panda are nevertheless surprisingly solid and enjoyable to watch.

Jack Black very fittingly voices the endearingly exuberant and rotund panda, joined by Dustin Hoffman as his gruff master Shifu who also trains the revered kung fu team, the Furious Five: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Viper (Lucy Liu), Mantis (Seth Rogan), and Crane (David Cross). Ian McShane’s drawling snarl makes for a credibly evil feline villain (Tai Lung), and Randall Duk Kim (the Keymaker from the Matrix movies) plays a lovably venerable tortoise sage (Master Oogway).

Even posing as native Chinese animals, the all-star cast doesn’t disappoint—and thankfully, doesn’t indulge in faking silly accents either. Even the few words spoken in Mandarin are delivered authentically. I can say without reserve that Kung Fu Panda is one of the only mainstream American films I’ve seen that has pulled off references to Asian culture without resorting to exoticizing the East or racial stereotyping, and it does this all while maintaining a healthy sense of humor throughout. It’s a surprising feat to be accomplished by an animated film targeting a young audience, and I wholeheartedly approve.

And, while the supporting characters aren’t entirely fleshed out during the feature film, the Secrets of the Furious Five 24-minute short included in the Pandamonium Double Pack provides some welcome additional backstory for each, adding a bit more depth to each warrior.

Visuals: 9
Presented in a 1.78:1 aspect-ratio widescreen format, the Kung Fu Panda DVD is also enhanced for 16:9 TVs and has crisply readable, easily navigable menus. Kung Fu Panda certainly looks great, boasting smoothly lifelike animation and beautiful, stylized art. The visuals are a delight from start to finish; seamlessly transitioning from a striking 2D animated introduction sequence (rendered in a simplistic style reminiscent of Asian wood block prints) to the colorful 3D CG artwork of the rest of the movie. Taking cues from Chinese art and architecture, the artists have painstakingly constructed a detailed and breathtaking environment that makes great use of rich colors throughout scene-to-scene lighting changes.

Shot angles are pleasantly varied, and the cinematography style distinctly brings traditional animation to mind while also taking advantage of the dynamic fluidity now possible with computer processing. Though slowdown effects are maybe just a tad overused, the special effects are generally a welcome enhancement to the overall movie.

The Secrets of the Furious Five bonus short is comparable to the main feature in the visuals department and starts off with a 3D CG introduction that quickly leads into five separate character backstory sequences that are each animated in a vibrant reprise of the 2D style of the intro sequence from Kung Fu Panda.

Sound: 9
The Pandamonium Double Pack features Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (English, Spanish, and French) and 2.0 Surround (English) sound, and the voice acting and sound effects are excellent. Truth to be told, though, there is no sound that I’ll remember more clearly from the movie than the epic boing! of Po’s paunch reverberating in 5.1 Surround—no lie.

The soundtrack, written by John Powell (Shrek, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Bourne Ultimatum, and other well-known movies) and Hans Zimmer (The Lion King, Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, and too many others to name), is a collection of lively, Chinese-inspired instrumentals that also throws in a Cee-Lo Green and Jack Black version of Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting.” The instrumental themes may not be as memorable as some of the others these two composers have put out, but they agreeably set the theme and feel of Po’s fictional ancient China.

Value: 8
The Kung Fu Panda Pandamonium Double Pack retails for a suggested price of $34.98 (compared to $29.99 for just the Kung Fu Panda DVD) and includes both the Kung Fu Panda DVD, as well as a second Secrets of the Furious Five DVD for the extra five dollars. Each is laden with bonus material, though I did briefly wonder why the 24-minute Secrets of the Furious Five short and accompanying bonus material weren’t just included on the first movie disc.

Anyway, the Kung Fu Panda disc includes:

• Dragon Warrior Training Academy (five mini-games based on scenes from the movie)
• Food Network Exclusive: Alton Brown at Mr. Ping’s Noodle House (demonstrating how noodles are made)
• Help Save The Wild Pandas (a conservation message)
• How to Use Chopsticks
• “Kung Fu Fighting” Music Video (the Cee-Lo Green and Jack Black version)
• Behind-the-scenes material, including a filmmakers’ commentary, a sound design program, a “Meet the Cast” featurette, and a short blurb on the CG technology used in the movie
• Several DreamWorks CG music videos and trailers
• A slew of high-resolution PDF-format “HP Printables” projects that can be accessed on your PC DVD-ROM drive, like stationery, backpack tags, and take-out boxes

• Learn to Draw (Po and each of the Furious Five)
• Dumpling Shuffle (a mini-game)
• Pandamonium Activity Kit (accessible via a DVD-ROM drive: more printables, game demos, and a “sound machine” application that allows you to mess with the dialogue and sound effects of several scenes from the film)
• Learn the Panda Dance (step-by-step instruction)
• Do You Kung Fu? (some brief kung fu basics and demonstrations)
• Inside the Chinese Zodiac (including an application that allows you to check up your zodiac animal by year)
• Animals of Kung Fu Panda (a cultural and natural rundown on the Chinese animals featured in the movie)
• What Fighting Style Are You? (a short quiz)

Overall: 9
Even with the well-worn wizened-master-and-bumbling-student scenario (Karate Kid, anyone?), the bottom line is that Kung Fu Panda is great CG-animated fun in a well-executed package. The Pandamonium Double Pack does an adequate job of maximizing the DVD release and has a variety of activities, especially for young ones. With its PG rating (for cartoon martial arts violence), the whole family can enjoy this DVD set together.