Kung Fu Panda is the new Dreamworks animated picture about a clumsy, overweight panda who through a series of unique events becomes name as the successor to the Dragon Scroll and must then convince those around him and himself that he is worthy of this position and worthy to take on the recently escaped threat Tai Lung.

The Awesome

This film is extremely pretty to look at. The opening animations, which were 2D, while the rest was in that now classic CGI style that has become a staple of children's films, is gorgeous and really sets the mood for the entire film. It is probably one of the best looking of these types of films that I have seen thus far. The voice acting is above standard with voices such as Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, and Jackie Chan to name a few. When you look at that list, you know you are in for something. Jack Black was great as the title characters voice and he had the perfect sense of comedy and seriousness to make this film more than just the regular "Shrek" type film. The story is really good and kept me interested the whole time. The villian, Tai Lung was great, and the action/fighting sequences were really nice to look at (animated kung-fu that looks realistic? AWESOME!). The jokes were pretty on target, and for the most part on target for laughs.

The Not So Awesome

There really isn't much to complain about in regards to this film other than one kind of big thing. The great cast of character voices are extremely UNDERUSED. I think that most of the Furious 5 had about 1 or 2 lines each. With talent like that behind the reigns, it seems to be just a dumb idea not to use these people to their fullest extent. When they used then, it worked, and I just don't quite see why they weren't used more than they were.

Overall

Overall there isn't much to complain about in regards to this film, and the praise outweighs the small complaints. It is one of the best of these types of films I have seen in a while and I really enjoyed myself sitting and watching this movie. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good. As most people will say, it's no Pixar film, but it definitely fills that void until Wall E comes out. One word - Skadoosh. I give this film an 7.5 out of 10.