Review by Brian Tallerico

There's been an interesting trend in CGI animated films over the last few years - they've become commonplace. The "wow" factor has worn off as each summer has seen more and more throwaway animated films like The Ant Bully, Open Season, and Surf's Up. Despite occasional advancements in technology, the repetition in the storytelling has bred mediocrity. On that note, there's nothing that wrong with Kung Fu Panda, but, considering this genre's potential to blow our collective minds, should we be satisfied with "nothing that wrong"? Reaction to Kung Fu Panda is a matter of expectation and the growing realization that CGI animation has become as varied as its cel-based ancestors. The sad fact is they can't all be Pixar.

Like last year's Surf's Up, Kung Fu Panda is a physically-driven animated comedy that's got one decent idea and some interesting action for the kiddies, but it's likely to leave anyone of driving age a little bored. If you're old enough to remember Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you might want to let the babysitter take the little ones. The title character is the lovable Po (Jack Black), a panda whose father wants him to go into the noodle shop business, but who instead dreams of meeting his martial arts idols, the "Furious Five" - Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Viper (Lucy Liu), Crane (an oddly cast David Cross), and Mantis (a far-more-oddly cast Seth Rogen). The five masterful warriors are led by Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and the wise turtle Oogway. Why some characters are merely named after their species and some aren't remains a mystery, except that maybe having a prophetic sage character named "turtle" just doesn't have the same power.

After Oogway has a vision of the legendary villain Tai Lung (Ian McShane) escaping his impressive prison, the gang of butt-kicking forest creatures knows that it's finally time to pick the long-prophesized "dragon warrior" to protect the world by learning the secrets of the "dragon scroll", a mysterious document that will give its reader untold power. A massive coronation ceremony is held at the martial arts school and Po just wants to be another spectator, but he ends up being the one that Oogway points to as the savior of the entire village. Can Master Shifu and the Furious Five turn a portly panda into a fearsome warrior? Of course they can. And, of course, it's going to involve a lot of physical humor and bouncing panda belly.

There’s nothing truly hateful about Kung Fu Panda. The action is always light on its feet (there's nothing worse than animation that isn't - see Doogal and Open Season for recent examples) and sometimes visually inspired (when you don’t even have pretty pictures to look at – Happily N’Ever After is a prime example – bad animation writing can be torture). As you would expect, the fight choreography is the real draw with the boundaries of what a kung-fu battle can include truly expanded by the form. As a visual experience, you can't fault the film. And the voice work is uniformly strong with Cross bringing a welcome originality to everything he does and sometimes over-exuberant actors like Liu and Jolie playing it very subtle - letting the panda have his day. Even Black, who can easily push his comedic style to annoying, as he did in Nacho Libre, reins in some of his more frustrating vocal tics.

Pretty pictures and good voice work seems to be enough for most fans and viewers of modern CGI, and, as such, they'll be happy with Kung Fu Panda, but we've seen proof that this form can be more than just a way to make kung fu even more cartoony than Jackie Chan. Panda could have gone beyond the relative mediocrity that has seeped into the genre if it had focused just a little bit more on the script. There's a scene early in the film when we get to see the villainous Tai Lung in a prison manned by a thousand guards for just its one legendary prisoner. It's a creative moment in a film that could have used just a few more. Of course, not every animated movie can be "Pixar grade", but it feels like audiences have become too accepting of the mediocrity that's seeped into the form. Kung Fu Panda isn't “bad”, but it also never feels like it aspired to be anything more than "good enough."

Rating: TWO AND A HALF BONES

Release Date: June 6th, 2008

Rating: PG

Starring: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, David Cross, Seth Rogen, and Ian McShane

Directors: Mark Osborne & John Stevenson