(andPOP) - Perhaps it's because making a kung fu movie with animals was a legitimately good idea. After all, kids love violence and by using anthropomorphic animals instead of humans the action is kept at a safe distance from reality and genre fans don't have to cry that it's unrealistic when it isn't bloody.
Perhaps it's because, like the best comedies, Kung Fu Panda takes itself seriously - there are laughs to be had, certainly, but the directors obviously wanted you to care about the characters.
For whatever reason, a good 60 percent of Kung Fu Panda doesn't feel like a typical DreamWorks film. The medium was obviously chosen because the studio thinks 3D animation is more profitable than 2D, there are lots of stars among the voices (it's strange that Black's name is the only one above the title even though Dustin Hoffman, of all people, has the other leading role), and the company's trademark snark rears its head more than once, usually after Family Guy-esque moments that go on too long, but somewhere underneath it all the film has preserved the impression its creators wanted to make a good movie.
For instance, that Lucy Liu plays one of the two female roles (a snake) goes without saying (the other, a tigress who doesn't have breasts - congrats directors! - is played by Angelina Jolie). But next to Po (played by Black) and Shifu (Po's sensei, a red panda played by Hoffman), the third-largest role is handed to comparatively unknown character actor Ian McShane. Shifu's sensei, Oogway (a tortoise), is played by one Randall Duk Kim. Dan Fogler, Seth Rogen, David Cross and Jackie Chan (!?) are also among the supporting cast, but don't leave an impression nearly as strong as McShane or Kim.
Like the recent Forbidden Kingdom, Kung Fu Panda is an American take on an Asian genre, and thus filtered through American sensibilities. This means individual heroism is emphasized over cooperation, and ambition over accepting one's place in the world and destiny. Po may be a slob, the "chosen one" and gets winded easily, but he also collects action figures, worships the "furious five" (the kung fu masters shown in the trailer, played by Liu, Jolie, Rogen, Cross and Chan) and wishes he could be just like them, if only he could find the inner strength and wasn't constrained by working in his father's noodle house...
Your enjoyment of Kung Fu Panda will depend on how easily you can suspend your disbelief. If you didn't buy The Lion King's savannah take on Shakespeare you certainly won't enjoy this. I wasn't kidding when I said the movie takes itself seriously (the villain, Tai Lung, a snow leopard voiced to gravelly perfection by McShane, is easily the most threatening antagonist I've seen in a CG film - not that he has much competition), but it is funny; the jokes are usually character-based and move the plot along, and more likely to yield a smile or a chuckle than a laugh. By making a kung fu movie DreamWorks has basically traded their usual formula for another, but it's at least refreshing to not deal with pop culture references, fart jokes or smart-aleck children for once (though Po still gets hit in the balls).
My only gripe with the movie, and it's a personal one, is that I don't think 3D animation was the right medium for it. The credits (and most likely the opening dream sequence, which I missed thanks to the TTC) are presented using traditional animation, and the characters are adapted so perfectly, and the animation is stylized just well enough to make me wish the whole movie could have been done the same way. This is what historians and animators meant when they said the medium doesn't make a difference to box office - it's the story. If DreamWorks' shuttered 2D animation division, or any studio's for that matter, had created a film like Kung Fu Panda that was engaging (unlike The Road to El Dorado), animal-based (unlike Titan A.E.), with likeable characters (unlike Sinbad), an interesting story (unlike Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron) and action that didn't feel censored (unlike Treasure Planet) and appealed to adult sensibilities - and, most importantly, that was actually good (unlike Atlantis), it would have been poised to be just as big a hit. C'est la vie.
Animation fans know that calling Kung Fu Panda the best DreamWorks film since Shrek isn't saying much. But on the other hand, maybe it is.
