Psycho's Movie Reviews #181: Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 American computer-animated action comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is the first installment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise. Directed by John Stevenson (in his feature directorial debut) and Mark Osborne, the film stars the voices of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong, Dan Fogler, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Jackie Chan. The film is set in a version of ancient China populated by anthropomorphic animals and revolves around a bumbling panda named Po, a kung fu enthusiast. When a notorious kung fu snow leopard named Tai Lung is foretold to escape from prison, Po is unwittingly named the "Dragon Warrior" - a kung fu legend that is destined to defeat him.

The film was originally conceived by Michael Lachance, a DreamWorks Animation executive. It was originally intended to be a parody of martial arts films, but director Stevenson decided instead to make an action-comedy wuxia film that incorporates the hero's journey narrative archetype for the lead character. The computer animation in the film was more complex than anything DreamWorks had done before. As with most DreamWorks Animation films, Hans Zimmer (this time collaborating with John Powell) scored Kung Fu Panda. He visited China to absorb the culture and get to know the China National Symphony Orchestra as part of his preparation.

Kung Fu Panda premiered in the United States on June 6, 2008. The film received positive reviews for its mature themes, faithfulness to the Chinese environment and tradition, action sequences, and writing. Kung Fu Panda opened in 4,114 theaters, grossing $20.3 million on its opening day and $60.2 million on its opening weekend, resulting in the number one position at the box office. The film became DreamWorks' biggest opening for a non-sequel film, making it the third highest grossing film of 2008, the highest-grossing animated film of the year worldwide, and also had the fourth-largest opening weekend for a DreamWorks film at the American and Canadian box office, behind all three Shrek sequels. The success of Kung Fu Panda launched a multimedia franchise and a series of two sequels, starting with Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011).

Plot

In the Valley of Peace, a land in Ancient China inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, the clumsy panda Po helps his adoptive goose father Mr. Ping to run their noodle restaurant. Po dreams of fighting alongside the Furious Five, a group of kung fu masters trained by Master Shifu.

Shifu's mentor Master Oogway predicts that the deadly snow leopard Tai Lung will escape from prison and attack the valley to obtain the Dragon Scroll, as he had done once before. Panicked, Shifu sends Zeng the goose to increase the security of the prison. He then holds a tournament for the Five so Oogway can identify the Dragon Warrior, a prophesied hero worthy of reading the Scroll and supposedly gaining limitless power. Po arrives too late to enter the arena; desperate to see his idols, he uses fireworks to launch himself into the Jade Palace. There, Oogway names Po the Dragon Warrior, to the astonishment of everyone present.

Believing Oogway's decision to be an accident, Shifu tries to dispose of Po with a harsh training regime, while the Five dismiss Po as an enthusiast with no potential. Po considers quitting, but after receiving encouragement from Oogway, he endures his training and gradually befriends the Five with his resilience, culinary skill, and good humor. During this time, Po learns that Shifu had raised Tai Lung from infancy and trained him in Kung Fu; Shifu's cold behaviour stems from his own shame over Tai Lung's betrayal. Meanwhile, Zeng attempts to convince the guards to double the security of the prison. However, the guards' commander believes security is tight enough, and shows Zeng around the prison to prove his point. Not long after, Tai Lung escapes from prison by picking his locks with one of Zeng's feathers and vanquishing the guards.

Shifu learns of the escape and informs Oogway, who makes Shifu promise to believe in Po, then passes on to the Spirit Realm in a cloud of peach blossoms. Upon hearing that Oogway has died, and that Tai Lung is coming, Po - still unable to make any progress with kung fu - makes Shifu admit that he does not know how to train him into the Dragon Warrior. Tigress, the leader of the Five, overhears this, and leads her team to confront Tai Lung. The next day, Shifu discovers that Po is capable of impressive physical feats when motivated by food, and successfully trains Po by incorporating these feats into an innovative kung fu style, using food as positive reinforcement.

The Furious Five try to stop Tai Lung, but he overwhelms them using his nerve strike technique. Shifu decides that Po is ready to receive the Dragon Scroll, but the scroll is empty, only displaying a golden reflective surface. Believing it to be useless, Po and the Five evacuate the inhabitants of the Valley while Shifu prepares to face Tai Lung alone. In trying to console Po over what has happened, Mr. Ping reveals that his "secret ingredient soup" has no secret ingredient, explaining that things are special if people believe they are. Realizing that this is the message of the Dragon Scroll, which only displays the reader's own face, Po rushes back to help Shifu.

Tai Lung and Shifu battle in the Jade Palace, until Shifu is brutally beaten into submission. He apologizes to his former student for being too proud to realize what his ambition was causing Tai Lung to become, but Tai Lung refuses to accept. Po arrives with the Dragon Scroll, taking over from Shifu and frustrating Tai Lung with his unpredictable and confusing Kung Fu techniques. Tai Lung temporarily subdues Po and takes the scroll, becoming enraged when he learns that it does not give any mystical powers. Discovering that his body fat renders him immune to Tai Lung's nerve strikes, Po regains his confidence and fights back, eventually banishing Tai Lung to the Spirit Realm with the Wuxi Finger Hold.

Po is honoured by the Valley and gains the respect of the Furious Five, while Shifu recovers and achieves a state of inner peace. In a post-credits scene, Shifu and Po share a meal while a peach Shifu had planted earlier in the movie grows in the background.

Production

DreamWorks had previously produced the PlayStation video game with a similar premise, T'ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger under its defunct video game division DreamWorks Interactive (now known as Danger Close Games). Publicized work on the film began in October 2004. In September 2005, DreamWorks Animation announced the film alongside Jack Black, who was selected to be the main voice star.

In November 2005, DreamWorks Animation announced that Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu and Ian McShane would join Jack Black in the cast. This is also the second DreamWorks Animation film in which Black and Angelina Jolie have co-starred together, the first being 2004's Shark Tale.

The idea for the film was conceived by Michael Lachance, a DreamWorks Animation executive. Initially, the idea was to make it a spoof, but co-director John Stevenson was not particularly keen on it and instead chose the direction of a character-based wuxia comedy.

Reportedly inspired by Stephen Chow's 2004 martial arts action comedy film, Kung Fu Hustle, the co-directors wanted to make sure the film also had an authentic Chinese and kung fu feel to it. Production designer Raymond Zibach and art director Tang Heng spent years researching Chinese painting, sculpture, architecture and kung fu films to help create the look of the film. Zibach said some of the biggest influences for him are the more artful martial arts films such as Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Stevenson's aim for the film, which took four years to make, was to make "the best looking film DreamWorks has ever made".

The hand-drawn animation sequence at the beginning of the film was made to resemble Chinese shadow puppetry. The opening, which was directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and produced by James Baxter, was praised by The New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis as "striking" and "visually different from most mainstream American animations".

Other reviewers have compared the opening to the evocative style of Genndy Tartakovsky's Cartoon Network series Samurai Jack. The rest of the film is modern computer animation, which uses bright, offbeat colours to evoke the natural landscape of China. The end credit sequence also features hand-drawn characters and still paintings in the background.

The computer animation used throughout the film was more complex than anything DreamWorks had done before. When the head of the production handed the script to VFX Supervisor Markus Manninen, she reportedly laughed and wished him "good luck". "When we started talking," said Manninen, "the movie was still a high concept. But for everyone that looked at it, it screamed complexity. We launched off by saying, how can you make this movie tangible? How can you find smart ways to bring this world to life in a way that makes it a great movie and not feel like the complexity becomes the driver of the story, but the story and the emotion being the driver?" In preparation, the animators took a six-hour kung fu class.

Producer Melissa Cobb said that originally Po was "more of a jerk," but that the character changed after they heard Jack Black. According to Black, he mostly worked "in isolation", although he and Dustin Hoffman did spend a day together, which Cobb said helped with the scene where their characters face off. Lucy Liu said that the film "was quite different because it was such a long process." Liu said that when she was presented with the project they already had artwork of her character as well as a "short computerized video version of what she would look like when she moved."

Release/Reception/Box Office

The film held its world premiere at the 61st Cannes Film Festival on May 15, 2008,where it received massive and sustained applause at the end of the film's screening. Kung Fu Panda later had national premieres in IMAX in the US on June 1, 2008 at AMC & Regal Entertainment Group in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, and on June 26, 2008 at Leicester Square in London, for the UK.

Kung Fu Panda was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 9, 2008, and on 3D Blu-ray on December 6, 2011 as a Best Buy exclusive. The DVD double pack release of Kung Fu Panda also includes a short animated film Secrets of the Furious Five. With 7,486,642 DVD units sold in 2008, Kung Fu Panda was the fourth highest-selling film and the first highest-selling animated film of 2008, right before WALL-E, which sold 7,413,548 units. As of February 2010, 17.4 million home entertainment units were sold worldwide.

Rotten Tomatoes reported that 87% of 190 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 7.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Kung Fu Panda has a familiar message, but the pleasing mix of humour, swift martial arts action, and colorful animation makes for winning summer entertainment." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 74 out of 100, based on 36 reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Richard Corliss of Time Magazine gave Kung Fu Panda a positive review, stating the picture "provides a master course in cunning visual art and ultra-satisfying entertainment". The New York Times said, "At once fuzzy-wuzzy and industrial strength, the tacky-sounding Kung Fu Panda is high concept with a heart," and the review called the film "consistently diverting" and "visually arresting". Chris Barsanti of Filmcritic.com commented, "Blazing across the screen with eye-popping, sublime artwork, Kung Fu Panda sets itself apart from the modern domestic animation trend with its sheer beauty... the film enters instant classic status as some of the most gorgeous animation Hollywood has produced since the golden age of Disney." Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune called the film "one of the few comedies of 2008 in any style or genre that knows what it's doing". However, Tom Charity of CNN criticized the action for tending "to blur into a whirlwind of slapstick chaos" and considered the character of Po too similar to others played by Black. Peter Howell of The Toronto Star awarded the film two and a half stars, considering it to have a "lack of story" that "frequently manages to amuse, if not entirely to delight".

Kung Fu Panda was also well received in China. It made nearly 110 million Yuan by July 2, 2008, becoming the first animated film to earn more than 100 million Yuan in China. The Chinese director Lu Chuan commented, "From a production standpoint, the movie is nearly perfect. Its American creators showed a very sincere attitude about Chinese culture." The film's critical and commercial success in China led to some local introspection about why no film like Kung Fu Panda had been produced in China, with commentators attributing the problem variously to lower film budgets in China, too much government oversight, a dearth of national imagination, and an overly reverent attitude to China's history and cultural icons.

The film topped the box office in its opening weekend, grossing $60.2 million for a $14,642 average from 4,114 theatres and performing much better than analysts had been expecting. It also was the highest-grossing opening for a non-sequel DreamWorks Animation film at the time. In its second weekend, the film retreated 44% to second place behind The Incredible Hulk grossing $33.6 million for a $8,127 average from expanding to 4,136 theatres. It closed on October 9, 2008 after 125 days of release, grossing $215.4 million in the United States and Canada and $416.3 million overseas for a worldwide total of $631.7 million. Kung Fu Panda was the highest-grossing non-Shrek film from DreamWorks Animation in the United States and Canada before it was surpassed by How to Train Your Dragon in 2010.

My Review

After various 3D animated movies ranging from lacklustre "star" movies ("Madagascar"), boring tripe ("Shark Tale", "Bee Movie"), and over-rated, over-hyped overkill ("Shrek"), Dreamworks can finally be proud of a truly great film. (Sidebar: I actually enjoyed "Flushed Away" and "Over The Hedge".) First, the bad. If I could complain about ANYTHING it may be a few of the voices. Besides Po, Shifu and Oogway, the rest of the cast seemed pretty 'phoned-in'. Thankfully, those characters are pretty inconsequential so they're not really missed.

Now the good... or rather great. While classic kung fu movies are poked fun at, Kung Fu Panda does an excellent job of treating the genre with great respect in a movie geared towards kids. And while it IS kid friendly, it is not dumbed down to the point where it's childish. All the classic elements of those great kung fu flicks are there, while still keeping it pleasantly G-rated.

Let me get this out of the way: this movie has some of the greatest 3D animated fight scenes. Ever. What elevates them from good to great is that while I expected the unbelievable, gravity-defying stunts that are REQUIRED of a good kung fu movie, there is an amazing amount of 'realism' to the physics in this movie. Just watch the jailbreak and you'll understand.

Speaking of animation, the cinematography, character design and backgrounds are all done very, very well. Whether it's flying through the air alongside a leaping character, the painting-like backgrounds, or the wonderful opening sequence (reminiscent of Samurai Jack), they're all beautiful. Snap zooms, slow-motion, and flying cameras are also used with great skill to further the experience.

Even the music and sound is outstanding. Asian drums rumble in the background of intense fights... stones shatter and crumble away... fight sequences rise and fall with each of the music cues, or is that the other way around? Beautiful.

What helps make this a new classic in my eyes is what it doesn't have. There are no Matrix, Spiderman, or other dated references. There are no inside jokes related to the voice actors. There isn't even any double entendre or unnecessary crude humour. Much like "Finding Nemo" or "Monsters Inc", there's just plenty of pop-culture-free goodness that is terribly entertaining.

The last great part of this movie is often the most overlooked part of a good family film... heart. This movie has oodles of it. Other movies have tried to have a lesson in the end like 'be yourself' ("Shrek"), or 'the value of friends' ("Madagascar"), or... 'be yourself' ("Shark Tale"), but "Kung Fu Panda" has genuine cinematic moments with dialogue that carries real weight. Best line: Oogway regarding yesterday, tomorrow and today.

So, finally, as a complete sucker for Pixar animation, I'm glad that another animation company can actually put proper thought and execution into a FAMILY movie. What else can I say? Congratulations Dreamworks. 10/10

{Hans Zimmer's best soundtrack, prove me wrong. Top 3 score songs}

1} Oogway Ascends

2} Tai Lung Escapes

https://youtu.be/MobCvOtXS9Y?list=TLPQMDUwMTIwMjLD_3v4sYfRDw

3} The Bridge

https://youtu.be/v8TDS5zFAg8?list=TLPQMDUwMTIwMjLD_3v4sYfRDw