Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting
Those kicks were fast as lightning
In fact, it was a little bit frightening
But they fought with expert timing
Thanks to Carl Douglas for that quick excerpt and flashback. We now return you to the present day where I just saw Kung Fu Panda. Today’s outing included Dave, Steve, Evelyn, Karen, and Erin — in addition to myself of course. We met at 9am at the Original Pancake House for breakfast and made it to the theatre just in time for the 10am showing in the Big Theatre.
Jack Black stars as Po The Panda who works in his father’s noodle restaurant but secretly desires to be a Kung Fu star like the Furious Five — Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey. All of them really don’t have much of a role in this film except as cameos for their voice counterparts. Of the lot Jolie stands out as Tigress. Master Shifu, as voiced by Dustin Hoffman, really steals the show as does the villain: Ian McShane‘s Tai Lung (a snow leopard). Po owns this movie and it’s his show except when Shifu is on screen. I really didn’t notice the animation which is a testament to how far it’s come along. You won’t mistake it for “real” but every now and then the animators are clearly trying to knock your socks off.
This is certainly no new modern work of art. But it was better than Ice Age 2 (and 3’s coming soon) and way better than Shrek 3. I’m sure there will be a two, but they’d be better off leaving well-enough alone. I enjoyed it and had fun. Take the kids. Etc.
Afterwards, I went home and the car-shopped some more. No real news but it’s looking more like the BMW X5 (the v6 version, not the v8) will be the winner. More shopping to come though. This is a decision that ought not be rushed.