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This Film On

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Kung Fu Panda

(2008)

95 min. Paramount Pictures. Cast: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Ian McShane, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, Jackie Chan, David Cross.

If you're looking for risk-free fun at the movies this summer, bet on Kung Fu Panda, a lighthearted animated adventure built on the comic skills and unbridled enthusiasms of Jack Black. Already an animated personality, Black voices Chinese panda Po, who harbors fanatical dreams of achieving kung fu "awesomeness" and "bodacity" despite some pretty tall obstacles: he's fat, he's lazy, and he has no demonstrable talent or ability. Luckily, his ineptness is matched by resilience. Under that fur and fat, Po is a hero waiting to happen.

Thanks to a consistently clever screenplay by Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger, and direction by Mark Osborne and John Stevenson, DreamWorks Animation's latest has the right stuff to make audiences laugh but also care about the film's characters. The film's surest gambit is to set up serious kung-fu beats with dialogue and music, then systematically undercut those beats with surgical jokes. Or do both at the same time, as accomplished by the opening title: "Legend tells of a legendary warrior whose kung fu skills were the stuff of legend." Though the laughs come in large part due to our history with kung fu movies, the comic timing and visual touches mean the jokes won't be lost on kids either.

The inventor of kung fu-an ancient, doddering turtle named Oogway (Randall Duk Kim)-has long prophesied the arrival of one known as the Dragon Warrior. Shockingly, he identifies Po as the fabled hero who can save the Valley of Peace by protecting the Dragon Scroll from escaped baddie Tai Lung (Ian McShane), a nasty snow leopard itching for a showdown with the Dragon Warrior. No one can believe it, least of all Po's dad, a goose (don't ask) and noodle-shop proprietor named Mr. Ping (James Hong).

The Dragon Warrior will be trained by Master Shifu (a dryly amusing Dustin Hoffman) alongside local heroes the Furious Five: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Viper (Lucy Liu), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Crane (David Cross) and Monkey (Jackie Chan)—literalizing the classic styles into their animal equivalents is a bit of pure-gold inspiration. The problem: none of these experts remotely believe in Po. But their master Oogway is insistent that Po "will bring peace to the valley and also to" Shifu, who's beside himself at the prospect of training a butterball (news flash: the way to his heart is food).

Naturally, kids will go ape (go panda?) for Po's antics, but adults will likewise find them hard to resist. Kung Fu Panda's other secret weapon is expertly choreographed action, such as a kung fun tournament, Po and Shifu's instructional fight over a dumpling, and the climactic showdown (the final blow of which is memorably accompanied by the Blackian exhortation "Skidoosh!"). The plot is strictly standard-issue, but the dynamic animation, and performers of the caliber of Black and Hoffman, take it a long way. The movie's crackpot message—"To make something special, you just have to believe it's special"—may best be proven by the existence of this funny, unpretentious, more than bear-able crowd-pleaser.