Well, I hadn't originally planned to go see Kung Fu Panda, because most Dreamworks animated films are dreck. Seems to me they even have a few films named Dreck or Wreck or Shlock or some such thing. Whatever.

But when positive reviews started showing up on Cartoon Brew, I thought I'd go see it anyway. The readers on Cartoon Brew tend to be pretty merciless when reviewing animated films that don't live up to their (generally over-inflated but often accurate) standards.

So, as part of work-related research, I skipped out... I mean... took an extended lunch... and went to go see it today. And I have to say, it's not bad.

Actually, it's pretty good. Not great. But pretty good. Very watchable, in fact. And, at times, even funny.

Okay, it's not exactly a ringing endorsement, but I'll admit I'm more than a little biased against Dreamworks, and have a hard time admitting they made a... okay... I'll say it... a good film.

And actually, I'm glad they did. Moreover, I'm glad it's a success at the box office, because maybe it will encourage them to make more good films. It's certainly a better film than Meet the Robinsons or Chicken Little. Way, way better. Way, way, way better.

So, what did I like about it? Well, Jack Black was funny as the title character - Po. I'm not sure how much leeway he was given when laying down the dialogue, but I would think it was quite a lot. It sure sounds like stuff he'd come up with anyway. At the very least, someone knows how to write for him very well. The main villain was fun, although his voice could have been better, but he still came across as menacing and still super-cool at the same time. There's a delightful turtle character in there which is wonderfully animated (I almost typed "acted" - which is really what animation is, at its best). Also, the rhino prison guards were very cool, as were some of the bird characters (a crane and some ducks). Good voice work and really fun, expressive animation. The animation for the action sequences was absolutely amazing, and given the different character types and complexity of the movements, that stuff must have been a nightmare to animate, yet it all came off beautiful and fluid. The film looked good, too. It wasn't particularly ground-breaking in terms of visual styling (although the prison and misty chasms were very cool), but everything was well designed and built, and felt very true to the world it takes place in. There were some character design issues with the feline character faces though - as if they weren't very well thought-out from every angle. Some angles just didn't look right, as if the faces were pasted onto the fronts of the heads. There is an opening sequence done in 2-D however that's really very cool looking (as are the end credits). I wouldn't mind seeing a whole film done in that style actually, although Dreamworks actually had to farm that animation out to a former Disney animator, since they aren't set up for any 2-D work.

What didn't work? Well, most of the voice casting, except those mentioned in the previous paragraph. The problem is with "celebrity voice casting" rather than "casting the right voices for the characters". Actually, going into the film, I only knew of Jack Black's character. I wasn't aware Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu and others were in there, because their voices were so bland and lifeless for these characters, they were unrecognizable. That isn't to say you should recognize a character's voice and dwell on who's behind it, but rather that the voice should be distinct, interesting, and help convey the character - rather than just sit there and read through the script, half-asleep. Dreamworks needs to cast for characters, not for name recognition. Also, the plot was extremely predictable. It's hard not to figure out exactly where the film is going pretty-much right from the start, and to stay ahead of it for the entire film. No real surprises, at least none that are important to the plot. But there were some jokes and sight gags that caught me off guard. I'll admit to laughing out loud a number of times at this film, which is pretty rare for me (although I didn't laugh nearly as much as the "dudes" who were behind us, who thought everything was funny). I'll also give mad props to Dreamworks for keeping pop-culture references out of the film and keeping butt jokes to a minimum. Very refreshing to sit through a film, and not have that stuff thrown in my face.

Overall, I liked Kung Fu Panda, which surprised me. I'll probably even get the DVD to watch the fight sequences. Despite the largely bland voice acting, Jack Black really makes the film fun to watch (and as the lead character - he'd better), and although the plot is predictable, at least it's still an engaging plot with likable characters. Hopefully, Disney is paying attention.

Definitely worth checking out. Especially if you like Kung Fu films.

8/10

P.S. And stay through the credits of this one, too. Not as cool as Iron Man, but still worth seeing.