“Legend tells of a legendary warrior whose kung fu skills were the stuff of legend.” With this opening gambit, Kung Fu Panda establishes itself as the Jack Black Dreamworks product just as surely as Bee Movie was the Jerry Seinfeld one.
Like that film, and indeed Shrek, it’s all about the casting. Carefully fashioning itself around the ‘pure awesomeness’ of Mr. Black, in Kung Fu Panda stars behave precisely as we want them to. Black is the buffoonish bamboo eater who idolises five plucky warriors – including feisty tigress Angelina Jolie, sultry serpent Lucy Lui, conflicted crane David Cross – at the nearby Jade Castle. Our monochrome hero dreams that he, like these more heroic beasts, might someday become a kung fu master. Sadly, selling and eating noodles seems a more likely career option.
Pixar films might be moving further and further away from the kid end of the kidult spectrum but after some false starts (Shark Tale, anyone?) Dreamworks has mastered this kind of straight-up, genre-based star vehicle. Sticking rigidly to the comedy template once perfected by the Drunken Master series, Panda delivers a neat line in Master-Grasshopper farce.
Mr. Black, an excellent all-ages entertainer once his Tenacious D partner Kyle is sent to the other side of the classroom, is a endlessly cheery presence who knows how to translate adultswim humour for the less sophisticated masses.
As if to reinforce this notion, we find Samurai Jack inspired visuals in the dream sequences and Robot Chicken surrealism in the details. If only they’d ditch the CG animation and do a whole movie like that.