Friday, March 06, 2009

Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting

So tonight Ginger and the kids headed off to Richmond so Ginger could visit her Mom and Grandmother again. Her grandmother had been sent home so Ginger thought she would be able to help her Mom some and basically allow her to take a break. Since it's the First Friday (first Friday of the month) the kids were only in school until noon. After that they attended a play date for a couple hours and then they were all off to Richmond. Since I had the place to myself it allowed me to watch Kung Fu Panda. While this looks like one I should be watching with the kids, I can't because we have a rule where Ginger or myself has to watch it first. Now this movie is made by Dreamworks and their CGI movies always come across as looking and feeling like Pixar Light. I think they got lucky out of the gate with Shrek, but then they had a long list of decidedly average films like Shark Tale, Madagascar, Flushed Away, Over The Hedge, etc. Well, I'll admit to being more than a bit surprised at how well this one turned out and I typically don't even like Jack Black (he does the voice Po, the main character). I think going in with the lowered expectations really helped my enjoyment of this movie. There's a lot of big name voice talent in this film (the only time I even really noticed a voice that stood out was Seth Rogan's character, but that's probably just because he has such a distinct voice), but none of it distracts from the film itself (and I might even say because of that they probably could have gotten away with lessen known voice talent). Overall I found myself laughing during this film a lot more than I have in previous Dreamworks films. The film still isn't quite Pixar quality, but it's not that far from it either.

2 comments:

wtfree3 said...

I really like this one. Good pacing, imaginative (yet pays obvious homages), and just a fun time. Even the 2-year olds generally follow along (though most of it goes over their head). Nothing really objectionable I can think of (other than a couple of shots to the "tenders," as they call it in the movie).

Buddy Tignor said...

Seamus loved Kung Fu Panda. There is something about Jack Black that makes him funny to so many people.