No, I haven't seen it yet. This evening, at the Alamo South hopefully, but after reading numerous reviews/stories I have a few thoughts.

It really bugged me seeing Dustin Hoffman's character called Master Shifu (duh, clueless writers, I thought) then I went to the official site and his listed name is Master Shifu. Ah, a joke. It is to laugh. Maybe two people out of every audience will get the joke. Points for making the effort. Of course it's possible he's just called shifu through the movie and the marketing people are idiots.

The other thing I'm seeing in some of these reviews/stories, but not a whole lot, is the term wu xia. Mmmm, I thinks, I haven't seen the movie, but I have seen the trailers and other promotional material and I'm pretty sure none of the leads, at least, uses a sword. Monkey has a pole. My understanding of wu xia, which may be flawed, is that one of the leads has to use a sword or some kind of edged weapon (amongst the other requirements).

Apples and Oranges notwithstanding, I probably will be comparing KUNG FU PANDA with FORBIDDEN KINGDOM. You know, this could be the start of a trend, the Hollywood made martial arts/wu xia movie. Could a Hollywood remake of ZU be far off :rolleyes:

Saw the trailer and this looks truly awful but I can't believe how good FORBIDDEN KINGDOM turned out. Sometimes low expectation can work to your advantage. FORBIDDEN KINGDOM is terrific fun and displays genuine affection for Asian cinema. I suspect this one will "panda" to lowest-common-denominator multiplex toddlers with it's reliance on lame Jack Black humour and ani-mugging*.

Victor


*the animated form of mugging for the camera.

At first, I had about zero interest in seeing this movie, but after reading Jerry Beck's enthusiastic early review back in March, I became somewhat intrigued. I might catch it this weekend.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/ku...panda-kicks-ass

Apparently, the reviews listed on Rotten Tomatoes are 88 percent positive:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kung_fu_panda/

I wonder if the makers of Kung Fu Panda got any inspiration from Stan Sakai's excellent comic book series Usagi Yojimbo. Of course, I would imagine that any similarities between the two are pretty superficial.

http://www.usagiyojimbo.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usagi_Yojimbo

If you liked FORBIDDEN KINGDOM, you'll like KUNG FU PANDA. They both cover alot of the same ground in fact and similar scenery.

Since this is animated the fights can't be held to the same standards as a live action fight, but even so, the fights are good. Everyone struts their stuff at least once. No mentions of Shaolin, but you do get what's basically a wudang call out, which is nice cause Shaolin always seems to get the attention.

There's a nice nod to Disney. If you remember ROBIN HOOD, you'll know it when you see it. Unlike the FORBIDDEN KINGDOM, there was no reference to any other martial arts movies, that I could tell. Well, there was something that could have referenced the BUTTERFLY LOVERS (or the tale).

The animation is bright and colorful and very eye pleasing. The movie's not up to Pixar's standards, but it's likely the best work Dreamworks Animation has produced.

Is the inverse of that formula true? I haven't seen The Forbidden Kingdom, but I'll probably add it to my Netflix queue.

I just got back from Kung Fu Panda, and I second pretty much everything you said. I *LOVED* the opening 2-D bit, and I was slightly disappointed that we didn't get more of that, but I still enjoyed the rest of it quite a bit. It even had a pretty good cover of Carl Douglas's "Kung Fu Fighting" during the end credits. (If you're a little bit sick of Toyomasu Hotei's "Battle Without Honor or Humanity," don't worry. It's just in the commercials.)

Oh yeah, I also enoyed that Kung Fu Panda managed to work in the old "Ming Dynasty Astronaut" story (well, sort of).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_spacefl...man_spaceflight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wan_Hu

I went to see this last night. It made me very uncomfortable. I love the kung fu genre, so I found it somewhat disrespectful to take all the lore and conventions associated with it and use them simply to craft an animated comic vehicle for Jack Black. (I had the same problem with Disney turning an Arabian Nights tale into a Robin Williams vehicle or turning an important Chinese historical tale into Eddie Murphy schtick.)

What if they'd cast Jack Black as the white kid in FORBIDDEN KINGDOM and let him do all his comic stuff there? I would have objected but it really wouldn't have been any worse than the mopey-ass white kid they did have who was whining throughout the movie. It might have made it a little more entertaining. But a more appopriate analogy would be if they remade a classic kung fu film about an eager student and cast Jack Black in the role. E.g. have him play Lee Yi Min's part in THE MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING or SEVEN GRANDMASTERS, and cast the other parts with Hollywood celebrities. Or, worse, cast him as San Te, Gordon Liu's role, in THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN. That's kind of what they do in KUNG FU PANDA. Anyone remember BEVERLY HILLS NINJA with Chris Farley? That's what this one reminded me of.

Actually, I'm like most people posting on this board, a long time fan of kung fu films, having been a teen in the 70s and going to every double feature I could find. And I felt that at least some of the people involved in KUNG FU PANDA must have been big fans. I also don't believe it was crafted so much for Jack Black, as I could easily imagine a young Samo playing the role. Remember his earlier comedies where his size was played for laughs (not for the whole film perhaps)? I really don't think the humor in this was that different then the humor in those earlier Hong Kong Kung Fu comedies.

My only problem with the film was that we don't get to learn enough about the "furious five". My daughters and I often attack each other with cries of "Tiger Style!", "Posion Style!" etc, so I was really looking forward at first to seeing the team in action. But the way it was handled, those roles could have been boiled down to just one student. I really enjoyed the film, and I didn't have to forward through anything like I do when I show my kids some of the early Jackie Chan or Shaw Brothers films.

Having actually seen a film in the theater for a change, I have to say I enjoyed KUNG FU PANDA. I agree with Doran -- the opening sequence is really visually exciting, and I was very sorry to see it go. But the animation for the fight sequences is very good throughout. I hadn't heard who was the voice talent for the baboon, so I was tickled/pleased to hear him when he spoke the first time.

I can't agree that KUNG FU PANDA disrespects the Kung Fu genre -- isn't it basically an exact remake of all those early Jackie Chan/Sammo films where the disciple is a lazy comedic screw up who finally has to learn kung fu for real to avenge their master/whatever? And Brian, you mention 36th CHAMBER, but you've got the wrong one! -- KUNG FU PANDA is similar to the comedic sequel, RETURN TO..., in which Gordon Liu makes fun of his role from the previous film.

I did have a couple problems with the movie, basically revolving around the climax. I'm trying to make this as non-spoilery as possible, but if you're worried, skip the rest of this post. I would have liked to see a moment of enlightment, rather than devestation. A big fight up till that point, sure, but then...? Kids movies have such a hard time with endings. Well, I suppose I can just be grateful that they didn't take the "Disney" out and have the villain fall to his death, accidentally.

-- Peter

Just read off the news that Eason Chan is confirmed to be playing the voice of Po in the Cantonese dub version of Kung Fu Panda. Also confirmed are Josie Ho, Jaycee Chan and Jackie Chan (reprising his role as the monkey in the original).

Hmmm...maybe that's the version I should see. How would KUNG FU PANDA play minus Jack Black's voice and in Cantonese? I wonder if this version will pop up in Chinatown stores.