Kung Fu Panda is the best Jack Black comedy since School of Rock

* * * 1/2 (out of 5)

Unlike Pixar, Dreamworks Animation has been pretty hit and miss with its output. For every Shrek, there's a Shark Tale that makes you look at your watch. Kung Fu Panda works so well because its star, Jack Black, is a human cartoon. Sometimes that works great in his live action movies, but sometimes it gets in the way. When it seems you are working too hard for a laugh, you become Robin Williams and that's no longer a good thing.

But in animation, you can never overact. Ask Bugs Bunny, ask Daffy Duck. Black's character, the noodle-making Panda named Po is an underachieving, overweight bear who dreams of seeing others become the Dragon Warrior. When he is named the Dragon Warrior by a wise old turtle, everyone is as shocked as Po. Including his new master, the Yoda-like, Shifu (Dustin Hoffman).

What's funny about the story is that while all the kung fu masters make fun of him and his skills, he's the biggest guy in the room. If he ever lost his soft panda ways and took his training seriously, he'd be a scary bear to fight. But even scarier is Shifu's adopted snow leopard and now arch enemy, Tai Lung (Ian McShane from Deadwood). When word comes that Tai Lung might escape prison, everyone is scared including the kung fu masters. And they should be. There is nothing funny or cute about Tai Lung. There is one scene of him going crazy that made me think this movie shouldn't be viewed by anyone under 8.

Except for Hoffman's droll Shifu, the comedy almost strictly belongs to Po. The rest of the cast is a good one though. The five kung fu masters are Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, David Cross and Superbad's Seth Rogen. Let me take that back. Rogen's preying Mantis is pretty funny in his own right.

The animators obviously have a great love for martial arts movies, because the fight scenes are well choreographed and the training sessions conjure up images of great saturday afternoon Channel 5 Drive-In Movies like Master Killer. Definitely an animated film that any adult should be happy to see without kids.

The Freditor