2008 animated kung-fu movieRating: 12/20 (Jen: 13/20; Dylan: 6/20; Emma: 5/20; Abbey: 20/20)
Plot: The title panda is the (adopted?) son of a soup cook who just happens to be some sort of bird. He enjoys eating. His dreams involve him evolving into a kung-fu master alongside his heroes, the Furious Five, who I believe got their name from an 80's rap group. When the turtle and mouse decide that it's time to pick a dragon warrior, all the villagers flock (some hop) to the top of a mountain to find out who it will be. The panda is (perhaps mistakenly) chosen, much to the chagrin of the monkey, the tigress, the snake, the stork, and the bug who have trained all their lives in order to someday become action figures and get their visages on boxes of fruit roll-ups. Meanwhile, a deadly kitty cat breaks out of prison and threatens to steal a scroll. Can the chosen panda be trained in time to defeat the deadly kitty cat? Oh, snap! He's too chubby!
Well, I like the idea of the movie better than the movie. As expected, it borrows heavily from traditional kung-fu movies, but it does so fairly clumsily, and the lack of character develop leaves me not really caring about what happens to any of them by the end. The movie looks fine even though the action sequences sort of blitz by and lack any of the real beauty of real martial arts movies. I was really hoping for an homage rather than a parody; unfortunately, this feels more like the latter too often. It's got that Dreamworks feel, but it at least doesn't have a bunch of unnecessary pop culture references. I'm not really sure what the problem was with 2/3 of my children although I do know that one of them is in a pretty bad mood and the other is always surly. Two of them are currently practicing their kung-fu while the third is making fun of them. One of them broke a tiny Christmas tree with some kind of rolling kick thing. Jen thought there were too many similarities between this and the Star Wars movies, but I think that might be more because of the similarities between the Star Wars movies and Kurosawa's samurai movies.
Ok, this makes 365 movies for the year 2008 alone. The Big Lebowski was the 365th movie from last December 27th. Take your pick with which movie completes my goal.
Let's get this out of the way. So far, in this mediocre year, 'Kung Fu Panda' is my favorite movie. I never saw it as a parody or as an intentional homage. At this point, martial arts films have reached a place where most everything can be seen as a mockable cliche. What sets this apart is the character development that you seem to have missed. Po is endearing (and surpisingly Jack Black is not his normal annoying self), Shifu is well defined with great voice-work by Hoffman, and the villian, Tai Lung, has depth and menace. The fight scenes are interesting and fun. The battle in the prison, the fight on the bridge and the final showdown are all exciting and well executed. The other seven main characters are as fleshed out as possible in a 100 minute flick. As for kung fu beauty, I'm not sure if you are comparing it to those annoying films where the laws of physics don't apply like 'Crouching Tiger...', but within the limits of animation it is pretty, well done, and I'm OK with animated freakish powers. No one broke any of my ornaments so I think this is a fun movie that gets an 18.
ReplyDeleteIt's not even the best animated movie of the year though...
ReplyDeleteDid you really think the comedy in this movie worked? Boy, I didn't.
Jack Black might not have been annoying (that might be debatable) but I really didn't like the panda character. Endearing? Couldn't root for him. If I don't like the main character in an animated movie, it's going to hurt the movie. And if I don't like the bad guy? Uh oh. And really I didn't think Tai Lung was all that menacing. And character development? You really think the Furious Five were developed adequately? What can you tell me about any of them other than that a couple of them were jealous of the panda? Which, by the way, doesn't make them much different than the villain of the movie!
The action scenes...ehh. I've seen better in numerous kung-fu movies (not just the wire films like 'Crouching Tiger' either). I've even seen better animated 'kung-fu' action in the television series Samurai Jack.
I expected to like this more and was disappointed.
Why was the panda's dad a bird, by the way?
the panda was taken in by a bird when his father went to the dark side and his mother had to split up the twins to keep them safe. kung fu panda two will bring it all together.
ReplyDeleteI would not argue that it is greater the 'Wall-E', just that I enjoyed it more overall. 'Wall-E' has genius but a flawed second half. I loved the gentle and genial sense of tone and humor in this. It is not laugh out loud so much as a lot of smiling, and again, I really like the main characters. I love that Po is not a superhero, but instead is a normal character who learns through his desire for food. I can relate to this panda. Tigress more hurt from rejection than jealous, Mantis has short-guy syndrome from being judged by his size, Crane is very modest (like hearing the guy from 'Arrested Development'), Monkey has a wry sense of humor, and I don't know jack about the snake. This is a very good film that I would enjoy with repeated viewings. I know I'm in the minority, but I like this more than 'Wall-E' or any other 2008 movie, so far.
ReplyDeleteAh, you're stretching it with those character traits. The Furious Five were, for the most part, background.
ReplyDeleteDavid Cross is always hilarious.
I definitely didn't mind this movie, and if my kid wanted to watch it repeatedly, it wouldn't be the sort of thing that would make me sick to my stomach. Is that a positive review?
I will admit that I find it bewildering that this is really your favorite movie of the year. I hear it wasn't a great year for movies though. Wait, I thought you really liked the Batman movie...not as much? I don't go to theaters, so I haven't actually seen a lot of 2008 movies. 'The Happening' is likely my favorite from the year though.
'The Dark Knight' is probably my second favorite of this very weak year, marred only by Maggie Gy... (can't spell it) and a lousy final two scenes ('Frost/Nixon' is close on its heels). Maybe that is one reason I'm high on 'Panda'. It was one of the few movies this year that was a pleasant surprise instead of an annoying disappointment.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the first Anoymous is not me, but te latest one is. The strange thing is that I had planned to make a witty(?) 'Kung Fu Panda II' remark, but the other Anonymous beat me to it. In honor of Winter Rates I will mention that my security word is dorke.
ReplyDeleteI really really enjoyed Kung Fu Panda. I am shocked to find your rather blah opinion of it here. Its a top notch action movie with a lot of laughs to it.
ReplyDeleteYou seem predisposed to dislike this movie because it doesnt comply with whatever notions you have for kung fu movies in general. So its not Crouching Tiger, (A movie I did not like, by the way.) Its a kung fu movie made by westerners, without having to drop into pure modern pop culture.
And yes, the characters were pretty well defined. I am not sure how much definition you need but I got the motivations behind the Hoffman mouse, the Jolie Tiger and the Black Panda just fine. It wasnt just point and shoot dynamics. Sheesh there was even a complicated back story involving Hoffman and the movies villain.
Oh and it was certainly more entertaining than the overwrought and boring Wall-e as well. Now there was a movie without a shred of character development.
The first half of 'Wall-E' was some of the most thrilling animation I've ever seen. The second half...I don't know if I even care to see that part again.
ReplyDeleteMy problems with the kung-fu aspects of this...I'm probably not articulating those clearly enough. If you're going to use the genre, whether to poke fun or to pay homage, you've at least got to do it cleverly. I just didn't think this movie was clever. And those action scenes? I just didn't care for them. I'll refer again to the animated television show 'Samurai Jack' which I think has far superior, artistic action sequences. This Panda movie just didn't do it for me.
I usually see cartoons more than once, so I'm sure I'll give this another shot eventually.
I'm not sure what my feelings about 'Crouching Tiger' are. I do know that it wouldn't make my top 25 kung-fu movie list if I for some reason decided to make a list like that.