There's just so much money involved in the creation of the current breed of animated/cg movies that they rarely strike out. Indeed, I found even mediocrely-reviewed fare such as "monsters vs aliens" to actually be quite good and appreciable on an adult level with lots of intelligent jokes and the occasional innuendo.

But not "Kung Fu Panda." Kung Fu Panda is awful.

Here's the plot: fat, lazy, wisecracking panda boy is surprisingly chosen to be "the one" to defend against big bad guy, much to the chagrin of five sidekick kung-fu master animals who have spent their lifetimes in training and work. initially, they reject him since he's a fat lazy panda. will he find the solution, a combination of 'believing in himself' and taking advantage of his 'alternate but just as good talents' (he's fat, so he can be motivated by food) to defeat the bad guy and save the day? alas, yes. the plot is just that stupid, sending all the wrong messages. in kung fu panda's America, you don't have to do the math or practice for more than a few token montage scenes. you just 'believe in yourself.' this line of nonsense used to what they used to console kids on the slow bus with, but is now what passes for 'inclusive education' or some-such. and mind you, I'm an extreme political liberal (though a well educated one) writing this.

but, even such inanity could be salvageable if the jokes and acting along the way were any good. they're not. the A-list quality supporting voice talent in addition to B-list quality lead Jack Black are utterly miscast. Angelina Jolie is wasted and unnecessary, though I'm sure she was glad for the check for her afternoon of work. did anybody here go see the movie because Angelina Jolie or Dustin Hoffman were cast? then why did they bother? one suspects a massive kickback scheme is in place - how else to explain why major stars land well paying voice animated rolls that probably do nothing to drawing audiences? the only good to be gotten out of this absolutely miserable movie are the fight scenes. i'm not usually one for fight scenes (and this movie didn't change this), but at times they were clever enough. there was no groundbreaking animation in this movie; I just mean to say that if you happen to like kung fu fight scenes, then you'll probably enjoy the ones here. i personally found those in 'crouching tiger hidden dragon' far more satisfying, but I can't say that those here were in any way bad for what they were. the 'dumpling scene' was particularly well done.

the only thing that this movie had that in any way broke the usual stereotypes was the depiction of the prison that held the 'long caged' bad guy in the beginning. his jailers, for once, were not total dupes.

i, however, felt like a total dupe after watching this very poor movie - doubly so since it was recommended to me as being particularly well written.

conclusion: worst animated/cgi film i've seen in at least the last decade.