nan | 楠木

I watched Kung Fu Panda from the corner of the second row in fully packed multiplex in Jakarta. The only other seat available, by the time I purchased my ticket, was the corner seat of the first row. And I’m sure most of my fellow audience were not disappointed. Young or old, the audience laughed the whole way.

Kung Fu Panda, in most ways, is not groundbreaking in concept, but excellent in execution. The story is surprisingly satisfying in capturing the “nuances” of kung-fu (there are plenty of materials that feels authentic to the typical contemporary Chinese world of martial arts – the fabled technique of paralyzing an opponent by hitting acupoints (点穴), and close-quarters fighting at the table with chopsticks, for example), and the artwork is delightful in portraying Chinese scenery.

The moral of the story is nothing new – one should never quit in pursuit of one’s dream, but thrown against a lazy panda it never fails to amuse. The star-studded voice cast doesn’t offer anything special, but adds another layer to the humor – for example, Jackie Chan is the voice behind Monkey, which makes all of Monkey’s scenes more comical (if you think about this connection).

The real stars of the film, is the panda and the action. Jack Black’s helplessly lazy panda provides all the laughs (and then some), but the action often takes center stage and is highly entertaining (and steals the show in letting me temporarily forget that this is a comedy).

8/10