Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #316 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-11-17
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Dutch, Flemish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
What's a panda to do when his dreams of kung-fu awesomeness awake to the cold reality of noodle-making? Clumsy, overweight Po (Jack Black) dreams of becoming a kung fu master like China's revered "furious five," but instead seems destined to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather in the restaurant business. When great leader Oogway has a vision that the imprisoned kung fu warrior Tai Lung (Ian McShane) will soon escape, he declares it time to choose China's dragon warrior--one kung fu master deemed worthy of possessing the dragon's scroll and its secret to limitless power. Po and all the townspeople rush to the Jade Palace atop the highest mountain to witness the contest between Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Crane (David Cross) and Viper (Lucy Liu), but Po is locked outside the palace. After a miracle of sorts, Po lands inside the palace gates, where he is chosen as the dragon warrior and placed under the tutelage of the decidedly non-plussed master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). An unconventional student to say the least, hilarity reigns as Shifu tries desperately to make Po into some semblance of a kung fu warrior. Can Po possibly fulfill his destiny as dragon warrior, or was Oogway's final decision a critical mistake? A film rich with hilarious moments, superior animation, and an important message about believing in oneself and the power that comes from within, Kung Fu Panda is great entertainment that will have the whole family laughing and begging for more. (Ages 3 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Stills From Kung Fu Panda

Synopsis
With 2008's KUNG FU PANDA, the talking-animal CGI film enters a new era, one that makes room for both painterly artwork and fierce martial-arts action. Po (voiced by Jack Black), a clumsy and ever-hungry panda, is a huge kung fu fan, but seems destined to sell noodles like his father, Mr. Ping (James Hong), who inexplicably happens to be a goose. When Po literally crashes a ceremony involving martial-arts masters Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) and their pupils, the Furious Five--which includes Tigress (Angelina Jolie, in a surprisingly small part) and Crane (David Cross)--he ends up being selected by the latter elder as the revered Dragon Warrior. As the sceptical Shifu reluctantly trains the hapless Po, his former star pupil, Tai Lung (Ian McShane), escapes from a high-security prison, setting up a collision course between the bumbling bear and the powerful villain.
One of the finest animated films released under the DreamWorks banner, KUNG FU PANDA deftly avoids many of the pitfalls of the genre (i.e. cheesy musical sequences), juggling action, heart, and humour in a highly entertaining way. While Black (in endearingly restrained mode), Hoffman, Kim, and McShane voice their characters with verve, the real stars of PANDA are directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson and their animators, who lovingly depict ornate Chinese chambers and vast mountainous vistas, as well as blazing kung fu battles. A movie with remarkably wide appeal, KUNG FU PANDA delivers on its quirky, high-concept title with gleeful aplomb.

Customer Reviews

A Great Movie With A Great Message
Kung Fu Panda is one of those movies that comes along once every couple of years, it gives you a good message without being patronising in the Disney movie type of way. It shows you a positive outlook on life while giving you genuine laughs without shoving slapstick comedy in your face. I would generally consider constructing my reviews on a pros and cons basis but it's difficult to do that with a film that is simply perfect in every way. I will, however, give you a list of my favourite points of the movie and discuss them in a bit more detail.

The Cast: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jacky Chan, Lucy Liu and many more. I don't think you can get a more star studded cast than this and they all deliver their own special brand of humour and great voice acting to the roles. Some characters are less funny than others which with a movie like this is to be expected. Together they all make this movie even more memorable.

The Animation: With a fully CGI movie it's going to get put in the same category as films like Shrek and Toy Story for the simple reason that it's a fully computer animated movie. Of course if you're going to make a movie about a panda who wants to learn Kung Fu, CGI is an inevitable way to go in order to bring this story to life. The animation for this movie is incredible, it gives us a slick blend of cartoon animation and detailed surroundings which helps make the movie that bit more realistic.

The Comedy: From one of the first opening lines being "He blinded his enemies with his awesomness" you knew this movie would be a high quality comedy. Jack Black as the lead character, Po, makes this movie great as he brings his typical silliness and projects it through his voice and into the character. At times I could genuinely believe Jack Black would be capable of playing the physical role of Po as the slapstick moments are something you can imagine Jack being a part of.

The Story: The story itself from the get go you can sort of work out where they're going with it. Po, a clumsy Panda bear works for his father making noodles but he dreams of one day becoming a Kung Fu master. Meanwhile up in the jade palace current Kung Fu master Oogway decides he must choose a Kung Fu warrior to receive the dragon scrolls which are believed to be the key to becoming the greatest Kung Fu warrior in history. Po must see this ceremony and whilst trying to get over the walls of the jade palace he finds himself being chosen as the one to receive the scrolls but first he must be trained by Shifu.

Overall it's a really good movie and when finally released on DVD is something that everybody must own.

Best kids film in a long time
The kids never get bored of this and to be honest I love it as well. A number of times my three year old has woke up and told me he has had the noodle dream.

Great voice over's, good animation and very funny.

A must own DVD for kids of all ages

Predictable, but nonetheless brilliant...
OK, you could probably figure out the ending of the movie in the first 10 minutes if you've seen enough chop-socky/ underdog overcomes adversity movies, but reaching that ending is still a huge amount of fun.
Jack Black and the many designers and animators have done a great job on Po the Panda, playing him as a hopeless wide eyed flabby fanboy that dreams of being a Kung fu master but who can't even climb upstairs without sweating buckets. You empathise with all his triumphs and setbacks and you want him to succeed. The range of facial expression is some of the best I've ever seen in an animated movie.
In lesser hands it could have been an uninspired trudge through training montage after training montage, but the choreography keeps it fresh and funny without the usual knowing references. The food-based training session reaches the dizzy absurdity of "Ranma 1/2" in it's head on collision between kung fu and food cravings.
The scenery is lush and the supporting performances, especially Hoffman as the impatient Master Shifu and McShane as the villainous Tai-Leung make their universe one that you're happy to explore for the duration.
I only dropped 1 star for predictibility, but in every other respect it's a triumph.
One of those rare movies that entertains kids and grown-ups in equal measure.