Harry bows before the power of KUNG FU PANDA... his belly fu is more powerful than my belly fu!

There really wasn’t anything about KUNG FU PANDA’s trailers or advertisements that made me interested in seeing the film. While I was out in Los Angeles to visit some friends and to do some business – Moriarty called me and asked if Yoko and I would be interested in checking out KUNG FU PANDA at the Universal City Walk’s IMAX. Damn… I can’t say no to Moriarty, he’s kinda like the Billy Carter of AICN… you drink his Billy Beer when offered. Besides – there’s not a great IMAX facility in Austin that shows “Commercial” presentations. We have the Bob Bullock IMAX – but it specializes in the great IMAX documentaries, not the feature presentations – and it’s a major pet peeve of mine. So Yoko and I decided to go see the film with Mori. First off, the film is stunning in IMAX, most films are. If you are lucky enough to be able to choose between a regular screening and IMAX – go IMAX… duh. Second – Damn – I had no idea this was going to be an enjoyable film, much less a supremely geeky fun film. The day before I saw this I was at DreamWorks Animation watching about 20 minutes of MONSTERS VS ALIENS and I fell in love with that project – but the stuff they showed me from KUNG FU PANDA… well it just didn’t capture me. The entire presentation kinda fell flat. They showed just the Martial Arts battle stuff – and I think that’s the problem with DreamWorks’ whole marketing of this film. They’re focusing on the Kung Fu. I know – its KUNG FU PANDA – but nothing they’ve shown us has shown the heart of the character. That the film is actually about pursuing a passion, that the Panda is an incredible geek and fan of Martial Arts that just feels that because he was born in a Panda shaped body – that he would be laughed at – and that the only reason he got chosen was because he’s the biggest fan in the world of these Martial Arts masters and was desperate to see the new ultimate warrior chosen. What makes this film fantastic… has nothing to do at all with the ACTION in the film. The action is Kung Fu. We’ve seen it before, albeit not with this combination of animals… but what I wasn’t expecting was a film without Scatological humor – a film without a swarmy sense of modern pop-culture references. You see, this isn’t a typical DREAMWORKS ANIMATION film – it isn’t of the SHREK universe – it’s trying to be something significantly more than that… it simply wants to tell a fun story about a Panda that doesn’t want to sell noodles, but dreams at night of being the greatest martial artist of all time. We’ve all dreamt of being a Kung Fu god. Usually when we wake up… we’re not. Maybe we sell noodles. Maybe we write about Pandas that do Kung Fu, but there’s very few of us… that really can Kung Fu. KUNG FU PANDA is basically a message film. A film that tells us… yes, you have silly dreams – but as long as you take your dreams as being silly, you’ll always be a shadow of your dream self. However… if you strap a bunch of fireworks to a chair outside a martial arts contest choosing the ultimate warrior and you send yourself skyward… you could be chosen by a mystical turtle that will then assign a crazy little critter voiced by Dustin Hoffman – to train you to be… well, whatever that dream version of you is. Jack Black’s Po is sweet. He’s a fan. Every miserable moment he spends training and being treated like shit – he loves it. Sure, he’s getting his furry ass handed to him, but damn isn’t it better than cooking noodles? He’s here with the heroes he’s only ever had wooden jointed toys of. He has no shame. He is living a dream – and damn if it isn’t enjoyable. The 5 masters that he looks up to are fun… in particular I love the design on Monkey. The characters all work – and in the context of the film – it absolutely works perfect. It’s not as funny as OVER THE HEDGE, but it isn’t trying to. I really respect that first and foremost they are trying to tell a story. That’s what DREAMWORKS should make a habit of. I’m really hoping this film does well for them, because I hope they’ll see the success as an excuse to just try new things and not just returning to the sequel well. I think Moriarty is going to write up a real real happy piece on KUNG FU PANDA – you’ve no idea how loud a laugher he is during a movie like this. I missed lots of dialogue because of him. So if you see him – put an earplug on the side facing him. The oddest thing about his laugh… it’s a little Fran Drescher-like. Seriously. Very weird.