I enjoy writing about all sorts really. I love travel and am pregnant at the moment so expect a lot ...
I enjoy writing about all sorts really. I love travel and am pregnant at the moment so expect a lot of baby reviews to come. I also post on Dooyoo under the name Whizz11
Member since:07.09.2007
Reviews:405
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This past weekend my husband and I went to see Kung Fu Panda at the cinema. I had been looking forward to this for months as we had seen trailers for it in America weeks ago and so when it finally came out in England we were excited to go see it and we were not let down.
I really enjoyed this movie. It's an animated movie made by Dreamworks Animation and distributed by Paramount. This is definitely a cartoon for kids and unlike some cartoons does not really include any "adult" jokes like some do but it is still a great film for adults as it is not childish in any way. The film has grossed $356,286,453 worldwide so it is definitely a favourite among movie goers and has now been made into various computer games and merchandising items.
The basic premise of the story is this. The film is set in China, the home of martial arts and Kung Fu. Po is a Panda. Unfortunately
he is rather large (like most Panda's in the world) and is rather lazy and doesn't do very much. He works in his fathers noodle shop. His father is a goose, there is a rather funny part later in the movie when they realise he is different than his father. His father loves the noodle shop as it has been passed down to him from generation to generation and he would love Po to take over once he is gone but Po has other ideas. He dreams of being a Kung Fu Master but unfortunately does not possess any of the skills necessary!
A lucky twist of fate finds Po in a situation to fulfil an ancient prophecy and he is then taught Kung Fu by the guru Master Shifu. He is a hilarious little creature, played brilliantly well by Dustin Hoffman. The character has a reverence around him and makes you obey and believe in him which is great. The scenes where Po learns Kung Fu are some of the best in the movie, really fast, funny and include an excellent part using food (Po's biggest weakness) as a teaching tool.
Po gets help by the legendary Furious Five, his idols of which he has the action figures in his room and talks to them like they are real. The Five are as follows , Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane, Mantis, Viper (Lucy Liu) and Monkey (Jackie Chan) and there are some nice scenes about him finally being accepted by the five.
The land that they live in is then threatened by the treacherous snow leopard Tai Lung and it's up to Po to save them, can he do it and will he save everybody in time????
Po is played by Jack Black and in my opinion he is just the right person for this role. I think he has to be a little bit wacky which he is to pull off the fact that he is playing a giant Panda who can perform Kung Fu. It might also have something to do with the fact that Jack Black is a little big himself so maybe that makes it more believable but he really does do a good job.
The other thing I really liked about this film was the graphics and animation. It was such a wonderfully colourful film, with beautiful scenes of China and the surrounding areas. I think they did a really good job of bringing the screen alive and it almost made it look real and like you were actually there partaking in the scenes. According to the New York Times, the beginning part of the film was "striking" and "visually different from most mainstream American animations." The beginning included a hand-drawn animation, made to resemble Chinese shadow puppetry. I also liked this bit and I thought it set the film up well as a beginning scene and made you excited about the rest of the film. This film does possess a good message as well for kids. I think it is telling them that it is good to have dreams and that if you work hard and put your mind to certain things then you can achieve anything and don't have to work at your fathers noodle shop for the rest of your life. According to one blog I have read about it, it also says that Po, the unlikely hero ultimately finds that his greatest weaknesses turn out to be his greatest strengths.
As this film is not out on DVD yet this is obviously just a film review but one I definitely recommend and would see again once it is out to rent/buy.
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![Kung Fu Panda [DVD] [2008]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/81183581.jpg "Kung Fu Panda [DVD] [2008]")
Jul 15th, 2008
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