An overweight, noodle cooking bear finds that fate has bigger plans for him in Dreamworks animated summer film, KUNG FU PANDA. Jack Black voices Po, a Chinese panda who works at his father’s restaurant serving homemade noodles, but dreams of one day becoming a Kung Fu warrior. His day may have finally come, as Po attends a festival where the Dragon Warrior will be chosen, an individual selected to defend the Valley of Peace where Po and his father reside. 
Just when I thought that Jack Black’s shtick had run thin, an animated panda comes to the rescue. KUNG FU PANDA enables the wild man to unleash his silly and off-the-wall humor to perfect affect. Directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson keep Black’s impromptu comedy in check, and the result is a rather funny, mildly amusing, but overall winning kid’s film. The general plot is as old as the genre itself; an underdog and outcast protagonist are thrust into a situation where he must overcome great odds and hardships to save the day. In spite of the familiar and predictable story, KUNG FU PANDA succeeds in large part to Black’s voice work, exciting and well-done kung-fu scenes and a screenplay filled with more than a few nods to the STAR WARS series. In addition to Black’s voice-work, the rest of the high profile voice talent is also good, but many go unnoticed. Seth Rogan, Dustin Hoffman and David Cross’s voices are well-suited and distinguishable for their characters, whereas Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu are well cast, but undetected. KUNG FU PANDA recycles many a scene from similar pictures, but the originality of Po and Black’s unique touch make this animated tale kick.
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