I apologise, we feel bad, but there's no trailer available. ~Ed.
Guaranteed household hit right here. The kids will leave the cinema kung-fu chopping the air and pleading for a pet panda. Kung Fu Panda is affable, humorous, visually gorgeous and will charm the pants off many… despite relying on a heavily formulaic story.
Asides from the attention to detail and the pretty colour palette – making the most of a high mountain setting and a mystic haze – there are also some surreal moments that are visually inspired. The characters are lovingly brought to life with great, idiosyncratic movements and solid voice work from Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman and especially Randall Duk Kim as the tortoise Kung Fu guru. The whole design and it's gentle cadence is striking – quite simple, but quite elegant – making for a pleasant place to get lost in for 90 minutes.
It’s also free of the pop culture references and audience winking that is plaguing children’s animation. Pity though it couldn’t break the shackles of the sleepy, animated film formula story-wise. After a few scenes you can guess what will happen and you’ll guess right. Our hero reaches his greatest challenge and realises the key he needs is found in self-belief, just like Nemo, like Woody, like Flick, like Mr Incredible, like Sully, like Lightening McQueen, etc. It makes me sigh. Be that as it may, recommended.
By Paul Scantlebury, Flicks.co.nz
I really enjoyed this movie, but felt that even though i've never seen the whole, fat panda, skinny tiger version of things, it was predictable and it was relatively obvious what was gonna happen. I DID THROUGHLY ENJOY IT THOUGH!
Yes, very spectacular. Po is transformed into a dragon warrior superhero after defeating Tai Lung. An absolute blockbuster. P.S. Oogway is Wu Gui in Chinese, it means turtle or tortoise. P.P.S. Po seems to have been adopted.
My favorite part of the movie was when Panda sat on Tigers head. It was so funny. Daisy 6yrs old
Kung-fu-panda was jump off your seat, roll on the ground, laugh out loud funny and I know it was good for a kid because I am one but I also know that teen-agers love it too, because when I went with faolan, (my friend) his sister was laughing with us... But I can't speak for adults, so my bad. Although, I'm a bit surprised that they got Angelina, Jackie Chan, and Jack Black to be in a disney film. But hey you got to pay the bills, I'm not here to judge. Hope you like my review, bye. P.S I'm only ten if that helps me.
Yep, it leans to the stock standard story wise and humour wise. But its friggin gorgeous to look at, and the character creation/movement is stunning.
The stroke of genius is, of course, the film's hero -- the big, lovable bear that is the Chinese panda.
Looks great and is good fun but Kung Fu Panda is a few surprises, laughs and engaging characters short of leaving a lasting impression.
Rotund actor Jack Black makes a pretty good panda.
Happily shorn of all the in-jokes and pop-culture references that wrecked the Shrek franchise, Kung Fu Panda does it the old-fashioned way: with smart, witty dialogue, beautifully designed animation, and bucketloads of visual invention.
A nice looking but heavily formulaic DreamWorks animation entry.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 26th Jun 2008.
Release date: June 26th 2008.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.