Flash Friday Review: Kung Fu Panda
Directed by: Mark Osbourne & John Stevenson
Stars the voices of: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Jackie Chan, James Hong, Michael Clarke Duncan, Dan Fogler
In honour of the weekend in which this film’s sequel comes out, I thought I’d take a look back at the previous installment of this franchise, the original Kung Fu Panda.
When this movie I came out I wasn’t too big a fan of most DreamWorks movies outside of Shrek, and neither was I a fan of Jack Black. This film managed to change my feelings towards both, but not all that much. Kung Fu Panda is a step up in the right direction for DreamWorks’ animated films, but it’s got a lot of the same tropes and problems that are typically found in all of their animated films. Still, this movie was a fun film to watch and has a lot of review-able traits.
The biggest problem, though, is that this film feels incredibly short, as it just clocks in at over an hour and thirty-one minutes. Also, despite featuring a huge cast of known actors, very few of them are given much to do, which makes a lot of the great talent feel wasted. Regardless, it is one of DreamWorks’ better animated films.
GO Rating: 3/5
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