Movie Rec: Kung Fu Panda!

"Kung Fu Panda" may not have an especially original storyline, but it has some of the prettiest background art I have yet seen in an animated feature, a stellar voice cast, and digital texturizing that made me wish I could walk up to the screen and pet the characters. Therefore, I am happy to overlook its plot flaws! The opening sequence, in particular, is so vivid and imaginative that the rest of the movie pales a little in comparison. In a nutshell, the story is one that every kung fu movie/current kid-friendly animated film borrows from: Outcast Hero has tremendous opportunity, botches it due to ineptitude, and then, with the help of friends and family, realizes that if he Believes In Himself, he can succeed. It's been told a thousand times, but it's still a good story, and the characters in this version were quite appealing, the villain appropriately scary (small children in the theater were actually rather frightened--I heard whimpers and cries from behind us whenever he was onscreen.) And the characters' fur! So pretty, so soft-looking, every tiny hair fully articulated... to me, the villain wasn't that scary, but it was mostly because I wanted to find out if his ears were as soft as they looked. So. Highly watchable, lots of fun, perhaps a little too intense for the smaller members of the audience. A morning well spent!