| | | Prepare for Awesomeness.
Features: Widescreen
Prepare for awesomeness with DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda, "a delightful movie that can stand among the very best animated features" (Leonard Maltin, Entertainment Tonight). Jack Black is perfect as the voice of Po, a noodle-slurping dreamer who must embrace his true self -- fuzzy flaws and all -- in order to become the Dragon Warrior. With groundbreaking animation, an all-star cast and high-kicking humor, Kung Fu Panda is "Ultra-satisfying entertainment. There's heart in this movie and that's the secret ingredient." (Richard Corliss, Time)
"Infectious and inspiring, despite one's best efforts to resist its charms." John Anderson, The Washington Post
"At once fuzzy-wuzzy and industrial strength, the tacky-sounding Kung Fu Panda is high concept with a heart." Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
"One of the best movies of the year." Michael Phillips, At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper
"Light and goofy, yet the fight scenes, which are the heart of the film, are lickety-split mad fun." Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
"Yet another celebrity-voiced animal adventure, but it stands out from the crowd of similar films with its lightning wit and whirlwind brio." Tasha Robinson, The Onion A.V. Club
Editor's Note
With 2008's KUNG FU PANDA, the talking-animal CGI film enters a new era, one that makes room for both painterly artwork and fierce martial-arts action. Po (voiced by Jack Black), a clumsy and ever-hungry panda, is a huge kung fu fan, but seems destined to sell noodles like his father, Mr. Ping (James Hong), who inexplicably happens to be a goose. When Po literally crashes a ceremony involving martial-arts masters Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) and their pupils, the Furious Five--which includes Tigress (Angelina Jolie, in a surprisingly small part) and Crane (David Cross)--he ends up being selected by the latter elder as the revered Dragon Warrior. As the skeptical Shifu reluctantly trains the hapless Po, his former star pupil, Tai Lung (Ian McShane), escapes from a high-security prison, setting up a collision course between the bumbling bear and the powerful villain. One of the finest animated films released under the Dreamworks banner, KUNG FU PANDA deftly avoids many of the pitfalls of the genre (i.e. cheesy musical sequences), juggling action, heart, and humor in a highly entertaining way. While Black (in endearingly restrained mode), Hoffman, Kim, and McShane voice their characters with verve, the real stars of PANDA are directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson and their animators, who lovingly depict ornate Chinese chambers and vast mountainous vistas, as well as blazing kung fu battles. A movie with remarkably wide appeal, KUNG FU PANDA delivers on its quirky, high-concept title with gleeful aplomb.
| Features | Kung Fu Panda Shuffle | | Kung Fu Panda Sound Machine | | Audio Commentary With Filmmakers | | Audio: English Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 Surround Sound | | Audio: French, Spanish, Portugese Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | DreamWorks Animation Video JukeBox | | Dubbed: French, Spanish, Portugese | | Featurettes: Meet The Cast, The Tech Of Kung Fu Panda, The World Of Panda - A Look At China's National Mascot, The Sounds Of Kung Fu Panda, Learn The Panda Dance, Do You Kung Fu?, Mr. Ping's Noodle Factory, Chopsticks, Inside The Chinese Zodiac, Animals Of Kung Fu Panda, A Day In The Life - Shaolin Monks In Training, & Learn To Draw Kung Fu Panda | | Interactive Menus | | Interactive Set-Top Game: Panda Kicking Gallery | | Music Video: "Kung Fu Fighting" | | Picture-In-Picture Commentary Track | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Portugese | | This Is A Blu-Ray DVD Made For Blue-Laser Format Players Which Produce Higher Quality Picture & Sound | | Trailers |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Paramount |
| Release Date: 11/7/2008 |
| Running Time: 88 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2008 | | Catalog ID: 138684 | | UPC: 00097361386843 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew | Jonathan Aibel - Screenwriter | | Cyrus Voris - Story | | Glenn Berger - Screenwriter | | Randall Duk Kim - Voice | | Dan Fogler - Voice | | Angelina Jolie - Voice | | Hans Zimmer - Composer | | Bill Damaschke - Executive Producer | | James Hong - Voice | | Jonathan Aibel - Co-Producer | | Lucy Liu - Voice | | Michael Clarke Duncan - Voice | | Jackie Chan - Voice | | Seth Rogen - Voice | | David Cross - Voice | | Ethan Reiff - Story | | Melissa Cobb - Producer | | Dustin Hoffman - Voice | | Jack Black - Voice | | Glenn Berger - Co-Producer | | Ian McShane - Voice | | John Stevenson - Director | | Mark Osborne - Director |
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| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"[T]he fight scenes, which are the heart of the film, are lickety-split mad fun..." -- Grade: A- 06/13/2008 p.49Los Angeles Times
"[I]t looks fantastic....[The filmmakers] have inserted vast, moody, misty landscapes, fanciful interiors and traditional Chinese colors to give the movie an epic, expansive, ancient quality that's a real pleasure to inhabit." 06/06/2008 New York Times
"At once fuzzy-wuzzy and industrial strength...KUNG FU PANDA is high concept with a heart....Visually arresting." 06/06/2008 Sight and Sound
"[H]ighly entertaining....Full of verve, visual panache and sock-it-to-you action scenes." 08/01/2008 p.68 Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "There's a level of visual beauty here that's a notch above anything DreamWorks has attempted before..." 08/01/2008 p.62 Premiere
"The animation is beautiful, from the ethereal Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom to the elegant Jade Palace and its Moon Pool." 06/05/2008 Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "Armed with a sublimely silly concept and an A-list voice cast....This is energetic, exciting and consistently funny..." 12/01/2008 p.135 ReelViews 8 of 10
Kung Fu Panda adopts a different, less zany tone than one might expect from a movie with that title, especially considering that Jack Black has been brought on board to provide the lead voice. While it would be unfair to say that the movie doesn't present its share of comedic moments, the animated production as a whole jettisons non-stop jokiness in favor of something a little more serious. Thus, Kung Fu Panda ends up presenting a message about believing in oneself that might not have come across as successfully had it tended toward outright fatuousness...The film contains plenty of martial arts action and, without the constraints of needing live action actors, it's able to play fast and loose with the laws of physics...As Po, Jack Black brings his usual mix of puppy dog eagerness and rambunctious humor to the panda. One never forgets that Black is Po - his voice is too distinctive - but that's not a distraction. The reality is that Black plays most of his live-action roles like a cartoon character, so this is perfect for him...Although the basic storyline and moral are standard animated film building blocks, Kung Fu Panda contains enough funny material, low-key thrills, and moments of genuine pathos (a flashback detailing Shifu's past connection to Tia Lung) to prevent it from seeming too much like a re-tread. This is a solid family film material, although one suspects the children will get a little more out of it than their parents. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
"Kung Fu Panda" is a story that almost tells itself in its title. It is so hard to imagine a big, fuzzy panda performing martial-arts encounters that you intuit (and you will be right) that the panda stars in an against-all-odds formula, which dooms him to succeed. For the panda's target audience, children and younger teens, that will be just fine, and the film presents his adventures in wonderfully drawn Cinemascope animation...The film stars a panda named Po (voice of Jack Black), who is so fat he can barely get out of bed. He works for his father, Mr. Ping (James Hong) in a noodle shop, which features Ping's legendary Secret Ingredient. How Ping, apparently a stork or other billed member of the avian family, fathered a panda is a mystery, not least to Po, but then the movie is filled with a wide variety of creatures who don't much seem to notice their differences...The story then becomes essentially a series of action sequences, somewhat undermined by the fact that the combatants seem unable to be hurt, even if they fall from dizzying heights and crack stones open with their heads..."Kung Fu Panda" is not one of the great recent animated films. The story is way too predictable, and truth to tell, Po himself didn't overwhelm me with his charisma. But it's elegantly drawn, the action sequences are packed with energy, and it's short enough that older viewers will be forgiving. For the kids, of course, all this stuff is much of a muchness, and here they go again. - Roger Ebert
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