[Review] Kung Fu Panda

I took my niece to see Kung Fu Panda yesterday.  It ended up being possibly the most unexpectedly fun time I've ever had watching a movie that on the surface looked absolutely fucking terrible to me.   I was stunned when I learned the film earned a stratospheric 85% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and even more shocked after I sat through it myself. 

Voice talents were supplied by Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan and many other big-name actors.  The film ended up being a nearly ideal combination of physical, verbal and adult-reference humor.  Many jokes went right over the heads of the kids, just like other Dreamworks movies (Shrek, etc).  The highlight of the film was Po (our protagonist) fighting his master over the last dumpling, including a heated kung-fu fight between dueling chopsticks. 

Much of the humor focused on aping and skewering the conventions of martial arts movies -- this was the humor that I'm sure many of the kids didn't get.  There were overt references to just about every cliche of the genre, but they were subtle enough to blend these in with the overall story. 

I can honestly say that I enjoyed Kung Fu Panda about as much as my 10-year-old niece did.  It gets four out of five OP reels.

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