Kung Fu Panda

Released by: Dreamworks
Released on: 11/8/2008
Director: Mark Osborne, John Stevenson
Cast: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogan, Lucy Liu, David Cross Year: 2008 Purchase From Amazon


The Movie:

Kung Fu Panda follows a panda bear named Po (Jack Black) who loves kung fu. That said, he's lazy and oafish and he spends his days not practicing the martial arts but by toiling away in the noodle shop that his family runs. Po's dreams come true, however, when he's selected to fulfill a mysterious ancient prophecy and before you know it this unlikely warrior is honing his skills alongside a group of martial arts masters known as The Furious Five made up of Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogan), Viper (Lucy Liu) and Monkey (Jackie Chan) and lead by Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman).

What Po doesn't realize, but which he'll soon find out, is that a dangerous snow leopard who used to train under Master Shifu called Tai Lung (Ian MacShane) is heading to town and he's the only one who can stop the villainous cat from wiping out the local martial arts community and taking over. You see, Po's been chosen to become the new Dragon Warrior - a title that Tai Lung once held and now intends to take back…

On a visual level, Kung Fu Panda is pretty darn impressive. The animation is about as slick as it can get and at times is almost three dimensional in its level of detail and depth. The color schemes used throughout the film combined with the creative character and background design work show a real knack for style while the animal characters themselves move around fluidly and fairly believably (given that this is an animated movie about animals who know kung-fu). This, coupled with the sound work and the film's score, really ensure that the picture, on a technical and stylistic level, is incredibly well made.

On top of that, there's the cast of voice actors that the film makes good use of. Jack Black does the bulk of the heavy lifting but supporting efforts from Jolie and Liu make the female contingent stand out while Jackie Chan, David Cross and Seth Rogan provide some fun comic relief. Ian MacShane and Dustin Hoffman play slightly more serious parts, which is appropriate given their skills, and they too do an admirable job with the material.

Ultimately, however, the film doesn't really break any new ground. It's absolutely a lot of fun and younger audiences will definitely have a good time with it but most of the humor is of the slapstick variety and a lot of the jokes stem from the easy target of Po's weight. The script moves at a good pace and contains a lot of fun sight gags but the humor is fairly superficial, as is the rest of the picture. Maybe it's asking too much for a film like Kung Fu Panda to have much in the way of genuine substance but as it stands the movie is a lot of fun but ultimately a bit on the disposable side.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Kung Fu Panda looks great in this 1080p AVC encoded 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, which isn't surprisingly when you consider how good animation can look on Blu-ray. Colors are wonderfully lush and full and there's plenty of detail to ogle throughout the film. Being a straight 'digital to digital' transfer, you won't notice any grain or print damage and the disc is well authored ensuring that there aren't any problems with mpeg compression artifacts or edge enhancement. In fact, it's hard to find any flaws with the image here at all - it looks remarkable.

The best way to watch the film is by way of the English language Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track but alternate language standard definition Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mixes are available in Spanish, Portuguese and French with optional subtitles supplied in English, English SDH, Spanish, French and Portuguese. The TrueHD track is just as strong as the transfer. There's plenty of fun surround activity occurring throughout the movie and nice, strong, deep bass response that keeps the low end rumbling throughout. Levels are well balanced and there aren't any problems with hiss or distortion at all. Dialogue stays clean and clear from start to finish and attentive viewers will notice a lot of fun ambient and background effects in various scenes throughout the movie.
Dreamworks has loaded this release up with plenty of supplements that are conveniently broken up into sections, the first of which is called, appropriately enough, Inside Kung Fu Panda. This section starts off with a filmmakers' commentary featuring directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson that does a good job of explaining the basics behind the origin of the film. They discuss what it was like working with the various voice actors and about films that influenced the picture as well as some of the tweaking that was done to get the film finished on time and properly. This track won't blow you away but it's worth a listen if you really liked the movie. From there check out a brief segment entitled Meet The Cast (HD) that allows us to get to know the voice actors who brought the film to life. Pushing The Boundaries (HD) talks about the character design and animation while Conservation International: Help Save Wild Pandas (HD) is a brief but pertinent PSA from Jack Black meant to enlighten us about these endangered animals.


In the Po's Power Play section we get a look at the Dragon Warrior Training Academy which is essentially an interactive game. A second game, Dumpling Shuffle is also included. The only real featurette here is Learn To Draw (HD) in which the animators show us how to draw some of the characters from the movie.


The Sounds and Moves of Kung Fu Panda section starts off with a featurette entitled Sound Design (HD) that explores, well, the sound design employed in the film before moving on to a fun "Kung Fu Fighting" Music Video by Cee-Lo (HD), a Learn The Panda Dance (HD) segment that shows you how to dance like Po, and last but not least, a segment called Do You Kung Fu? (HD) which is basically a video that explains the merits of kung fu for just over twenty-four minutes. It's geared towards a younger audience but it's fun to watch regardless.


The Land of the Panda section shows us how noodles are made by way of Mr. Ping's Noodle House before enlightening us on How to Use Chopsticks (HD). Inside the Chinese Zodiac (HD) explains the country's astrology while Animals of Kung Fu Panda takes a look at the different animals featured in the film. The What Fighting Style Are You? Featurette is a fun interactive quiz that lets you answer questions to find out which style featured in the film best suits you personally.

The DreamWorks Animation Video JukeBox (HD), which we've seen pop up on other HD releases from Dreamworks, contains some music videos and rounding out the disc are a batch if trailers for other Dreamworks properties, some animated menus and chapter selection. This disc is also BD-LIVE enabled, so you can go online and do your thing with other Kung Fu Panda fans if that's your bag. All in all, a very healthy selection of supplements!

The Final Word:

One of those rare movies that really is fun for the whole family, Kung Fu Panda gets a remarkable and impressive Blu-ray debut from Dreamworks.