KUNG FU PANDA style!!!

Moral of this story: don't judge a book by it's cover until you got a chance to read and understand the book. I've read and understood this book...er...movie. And it's entirely what you'd expect from the preview (which, by the way, already shows the best parts).

KUNG FU PANDA is a cliche-riddled, hyper-kick action, Pixar animated blah-fest. You've got your wise sensei master, your misunderstood and under-talented student, an evil villain with Dragonball Z type powers, and a remix of the way over used martial arts go-to song "Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting."
Now, to steal a quote from Po, the movie's endearing main character, "I LOVE KUNG-FUUUUUUUUUUU....." but I either like old skool martial arts movies where the cheesy cliches began (like ENTER THE DRAGON), or newer ones that reinvent the genre (Jackie Chan circa 1990's, KILL BILL, CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON, ect). KUNG FU PANDA delivers nothing new to the genre in either martial arts or comedy (the panda acts like Chris Farley in BEVERLY HILLS NINJA).

This movie isn't a total loss. The animation is top notch and the elaborate and entertaining fight sequences are easy to follow and are rarely a blur on the screen. This much I expect from Pixar.

However, I'm finding lately that whenever a brilliantly animated feature stars a huge amount of big name celebrities (this one has Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, and Michael Clark Duncan) it usually equals poor story-telling. Sadly, this holds true for KUNG FU PANDA.

As a result, I've formed a FLICKED UP rule that goes like this: "If an animated movie has greater than three superstar names, the story will suck." Try it out, there are few exceptions to this rule!

Is KUNG FU PANDA horrible? Depends on your tastes. If you're not into martial arts or are not under the age of 12, wait for it on video this Christmas.

5.5 noodle bowls out of 10

(Side note: I'm rather intrigued how bad DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN is if this movie almost doubled it in the box office on the opening weekend.)