Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Kung Fu Panda appears to be a light romp of a kidflick at first glance. I wasn't particularly keen on going to see it, frankly. But a particular opportunity presented itself (went with another family to a drive-in movie and saw this as a double-feature with Indiana Jones - an overall fantastic experience for those nostaligic for family drive-in outings) so I went. I was not only not disappointed, I was impressed.
Chock full of star-power led by Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman, Kung Fu Panda is a story of an unabashed kung fu fanboy shlub of a panda thrust into a very precarious situation. A long-time fan of the martial arts and its practitioners, Po (Jack Black) gets selected as the mythical Dragon Warrior by old and possibly nutty Master Oogway. Everyone, of course, assumes this is a mistake except Master Oogway. The main instructor, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), is resigned to begin the training but also resolves to drive Po away with the challenge. Complicating matters, a great criminal, Tai Lung, escapes captivity bent on stealing the monastery's great secret scrolls and increasing his power. Po, as the Dragon Warrior, must somehow bear the responsibility of confronting and defeating Tai Lung, after becoming trained, and without making enemies of the monastery's other, more accomplished, students.
As the movie progresses, Po worries that he never will fit in, either in his previous life as a noodle restauraneur or as a martial artist. Nevertheless, he perseveres with good-natured stubbornness of a doofuss determined to see his fate through. Master Shifu, in turn, is confounded by this perseverence and the challenge of whipping Po into shape to resolve the problems left by his own past history that threaten them all.
Ultimately, the movie explores topics ranging from how to motivate someone to exceed your and their own expectations, winning the respect of your peers, and the secret to... well... secrets. It does all of this with a fairly predictable kind of anthropomorphic and martial arts humor that, nevertheless, manages to be consistently entertaining.
Letter Grade: B+