"Kung Fu Panda" 2008

[Drunk Monk]

We have a winner. It's a laugh riot. As entertaining as Shrek, but about kung fu. What more could a DOOM dad ask for? LB (and son) & HO were at the same showing, and voiced similar enjoyment. CF & LCF had passes, but I didn't see them if they made it. It was an early screening, 10 AM, way out on Blossom Hill Rd.

Eager to hear HK's opinion.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

When the sound is turned up, you know you are going to have a problem with audience noise. In our case, it should have been turned up louder. Plus if I had had some duct tape to glue the little girl down the aisle from me to her chair, the pleasure level would have been higher.

It was still fun. There were some good jokes. There was nice Kung Fu. It had a good moral center. And who couldn't love a turtle as a zen master?

[Haggis Killer]

I've now seen it three times and still like it. It's far and away my favorite movie from the studio that is my future employer. I start in a couple of weeks.

But this, yep. Enjoyed the turtle in particular. Also sparked a fun conversation with the SO who didn't know the furious five actually represented actual kung fu styles. I tried to tell DM's story about the Shaolin temple monks who hang out smoking butts until it's their turn to demonstrate their particular thing - invisibility, laser fingers of death, floating on clouds - you know... the stuff DM has described seeing on his visits.

Benzilla's seen it twice. The fact that he went to the theater ONCE without having a scream-fest is huge. That he asked to go again gives us hope that we may actually enjoy a movie-going experience with him. Someday. Maybe soon, even.

[Drunk Monk]

Now we want to know what you thought of Wall-E? Since you're the pro and all...

[Drunk Monk]

It's ok - kind of like Shrek the Halls is to Shrek. Part CGI, but mostly Samurai-Jack-like animation - not quite worth the extra $10-20 for the double DVD pack. It should have just been an extra on the regular DVD. They couldn't reassemble the cast (Jolie's price would have sent it through the roof) but they got Black and Chan, so it's all good.

[El Dingo]

Really - I'm the first one to review this?

I did a search for 'Panda' but only got a hits from side-mentions in the 'Up' and 'Wall-E' threads. DM reviews every 'Barbie's Pink Princess Unicorn Fairy Adventure' but not 'Kung Fu Panda'?

I'm a sucker for anthropomorphic 3-D animal movies. I liked 'Ice Age', 'Madagascar'. 'Surf's Up', 'Happy Feet' etc. I did not like 'The Barnyard'. Well - it got better after a couple scotches when I realized how bad it actually was. Every scene kept setting the bar lower than the previous one until we were nearing 'Chicken Little' bad. 'Chicken Little' was another bad anthropomorphic 3-D animal movie.

But I digress.

Here's the plot: Po the Panda (Jack Black) is picked by the head priest of the local temple to be trained as the next Dragon Warrior.

OK that's the plot.

The writers and animators obviously had a deep love of old-school martial arts films. Bringing to life the Crane, Mantis, Serpent, Tiger(ess) and monkey as actual characters was awesome. At first I was worried this was going to be a mean-spirited bully-fest but was pleasantly surprised to see them tolerate Po as he attempts to alternately learn and worship their skills.

There is a LOT of 'Drunken Master' in here, substituting wine for kid-friendly food items. As Po trains there are lots of nice messages about being all that you can be and stuff we learn is a lie as we get older.

Anyway. I liked this better than both 'Wall-E' and 'Up'. The characters are likeable, the villain is scary, the humor is laugh-out-loud slapstick and the fight scenes are very creative.

Check it out.

[Drunk Monk]

I guess that was covered more on KFM: http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/sh...hp?t=39752

We even did a sneak preview of the film when it premiered. And we did a sweepstakes giveaway for it. I've seen it too many times now. Did you see Secrets of the Furious Five too?

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Plus there was the stand-up. Who has that now and why didn't it end up on someone's porch? I know I ragged on JC's performance in the JC posts.

[Drunk Monk]

We actually awarded it to this one dude. Then my teacher convinced him that he should have it. Not sure how he did that exactly, and I don't really want to know.

Po stood guard in our school lobby for a year or so. I'm not sure what happened to him in the end. He's been replaced by a grand piano that someone left behind when they returned to China. All the Chinese kids know how to play. They just put a sign on it telling them not to play it unless requested by management.

In other assorted trivia, in the Furious Five short, Monkey was voiced by Jackie's son, Jaycee.

[El Dingo]

Just checked out the KFM thread. Glad I'm not alone in appreciating the amount of work that went into making a good martial-arts film, not just a goofy animal movie.

Added 'Secrets of the Furious Five' to my Netflix queue.

[Drunk Monk]

It's one of those DVD extra shorts - only 15 mins tops. Some of these are really lame, like the one for Up. Some are better than the movie itself - Burn-E is like that for Wall-E if you didn't like Wall-E.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Who didn't like Wall-E? Heathens.

[Drunk Monk]

Well, he didn't like it as much as KFP.

[Drunk Monk]

merge, merge, merge!!!

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[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Don't you have a job? Or is your OCD getting the better of you?