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Kung Fu Panda

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Kung Fu Panda (2008)

June. 06,2008
|
7.6
|
PG
| Adventure Animation Action Comedy
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When the Valley of Peace is threatened, lazy Po the panda discovers his destiny as the "chosen one" and trains to become a kung fu hero, but transforming the unsleek slacker into a brave warrior won't be easy. It's up to Master Shifu and the Furious Five -- Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey -- to give it a try.

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Reviews

Pacionsbo
2008/06/06

Absolutely Fantastic

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Chirphymium
2008/06/07

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

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Hadrina
2008/06/08

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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Loui Blair
2008/06/09

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

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doron_dsilva-155-786252
2008/06/10

one of my favorite animations. everything is awesome about this first part in every way. the characters , the animation .nothing disappoints. Great job.. voice actors and animators. I could watch this again and again . INNER PEACE story - 11/10 action - 12/10 characters - 10/10

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vivifan
2008/06/11

I have to say before watching this movie and hearing the title I thought to myself that it has to be the dumbest name for a film ever. The film looked like it was going to suck judging from the trailers.But as it turned out after watching this I found myself engaged and interested in what was going on. This movie is a perfect example of never judge a book by it's cover. The story of the film was very simple yet it was funny, cute, charming, likable and it can be pretty serious at times.The Animation was very impressive and colorful, the facial expressions on the animals looked great and there movements on them were great to. The soundtrack was very good and the action scenes were very entertaining. The acting was good and the characters were all fun to watch. If i had to point any flaws to the film would be two things, the furious five while pretty cool didn't have many lines and it would've been nice to have more development from them. The bad guy Tai lung wasn't a terrible bad guy since he was a cool fighter and he had a good voice that fits him well, but he was underdeveloped and could've been better.Overall Kung Fu panda is a great film that teaches people that they can do anything in life if they put there minds to it no matter what flaws they have.

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ElMaruecan82
2008/06/12

Where does the fascination for Kung-Fu movies come from? My guess is that it relies on three simple levels: first, it's aesthetically appealing and visually gracious for what is still a fighting sport, unlike boxing or say, other martial arts, like Judo, any duel feels like choreography. Secondly, it is over the top in a very spectacular way, and thus explain its exploitation for video games, when the human body became as dangerous and efficient as some robotic armor. Besides, there's something fun in watching Kung-Fu movies, it is comical precisely because of the exaggerated moves and an actor like Jackie Chan based a successful career on turning it into comedy, without mocking the essence of Kung-Fu of course, but rather its applications.Last but not least, there's an inner element of underdog stories in all martial arts, but especially Kung-Fu because it's one of these disciplines where you have the feeling that you can defeat the odds more than in any sports, as most of the learning is in the brains before the brawn, and the cliché of the pint-sized Master, being the sum of all his wisdom and capable to triumph over an army of towering thugs, is inspirational to all the little guys who wished they could master Kung-Fu when it could help them. So, for all its underdog, comedy and spectacular premises, Kung-Fu was a darling for Japanese anime, and I, myself, grew up with a great cartoon called "School of Kung- Fu", but these were hand-drawn classic animation that didn't explore the true potentiality of CGI animation, like for video-games. Finally "Kung Fu Panda", DreamWorks' animated movie, released in 2008, knew how to handle the sports sub-genre with the perfect mix of special effects and comedy, telling the story of Po, a panda who's designated by an old master (or fool, or both) as the new Dragon Warrior, much to everyone's surprise, including Po. Po is a panda, so obviously, he's a fat, a bit lazy, a bit easygoing, so inevitably hilarious character, and he's voiced by Jack Black, who strikes again after his Lenny in "A Shark Tale". But "Kung Fu Panda" is much more fun and engaging, there's no pop-culture reference, only Kung-Fu archetypes. We're all used to: initiations, wise masters delivering wise lines with such a quick wit we all feel dumb in comparison, long stairs to mount, super-choreographed fights, but these elements never feel recycled because the story finds a way to be original within the predictability of its plot.Calling it predictable is a bit unfair actually, because there are many original things that strike: Po is a Panda living in a restaurant, his father for some reason, is a duck (James Hong) and there's absolutely no explanation, but his restaurant waiter Job, would serve the story (so to speak) in the most interesting way. Secondly, the panda has no personal pretension to seek any title, he's a fan of martial arts, but would rather watch the show (after triumphing over the stairs) than play the game. But the old turtle Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), tells Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) that he had a vision of the Dragon Warrior, Shifu displays the talents of his Furious Five, a tigress, a mantis, a crane, a monkey and a snake, but despite their talent, Oogway picks Po who accidentally disrupted the show. As he says, there are no accidents.There are no accidents indeed as another vision of the turtle is proved true as he foresaw: the redoubtable Tai Lung escaped from prison to seek a revenge. I wouldn't dare to spoil the backstory of Tai Lung, but along with Shifu, Po and Oogway, he creates a quarter of great characters. Tigress, played by Angelina Jolie, is a close runner-up but I don't know what the fuss is about with the all-star cast of the Furious Five, they always operate as a whole and are not given much dimensionality or depth as the others. If only for the interaction between Shi-fu and Po, the film was worth to watch, despite Seth Rogen or Lucy Liu's efforts. Tigress isn't really exploited to her fullest, and the training part is rather brief, so I think there was a wasted potential, although the final result is still entertaining.So we get a story where the hero doesn't consider himself a hero, nor does his master, but somewhat they're forced to believe in it, until the prophecy fulfills, it's one of these tales that encourage you to believe in your potential and the result would have been dull if it didn't use a clever use of Po's gluttony, and the wisdom of his father. The fight scenes are entertaining and spectacular, as the film had brilliantly explored the potentialities of CGI to make entertaining and spectacular stuff. In fact, it is a little overplayed as it gets closer to the appeal of video games, to the point you never get the feeling the characters can ever die, they defy gravity, they survive explosions or high falls so we're closer to Street Fighter than the real Kung Fu. But let's not make it a reason to dismiss the spectacle the film has to offer.

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frenchjuice
2008/06/13

Out of all the atrocious things I could spend my time on this "film" was the worst possible thing. If there's any person who would say that this is their favourite movie, I would like to bonk them in the head. I did not laugh once at any of the lines. We get it, Po is fat, but the movie recycles that joke again and again and again. The animation is standard at best, it does not shine nor could it be considered beautiful. The villain is average, the plot is very archetypal and the action scenes are boring. I left the theatre stiff. I only wish that less movies were like this and more like the classic "Jurassic World." Thank you good night

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