The Panda Strikes a Deadly Blow!!!!!!!

Po was eventually successful in defeating Tai Lung, the notorious Kung Fu expert who wishes to have control of the Dragon Scroll. The Kung Fu Panda was by far the best movie by Dreamworks in the recent time (Atleast after The Bee Movie).

The movie has the most common plot as a Kung fu movie, but wait, its an animated movie. That too filmed as a Panda in the main ground. The movie has the best view in Imax 3d.

This is a cute animated comedy that also inspires lessons in life. The audience can relate to people who have dreams of doing the impossible, just as Po. Po ultimately learns that if he believes in himself, he can do anything. Jack Black (Po) and Dustin Hoffman (Shifu) voices were just right for their parts, and the chopstick fight between them is fantastic. Ian McShane (Tai Lung) was also wonderful as the villain, and his battle sequence on the rope bridge is spectacular.
The Furious Five also leave an impact in the film as they are trained to protect the Dragon Scroll, but the Tigress (Angelina Jolie) steals the shows from the rest of them. This film is for the whole family, because adults will enjoy the movie just as much as their children. This stand out comedy and action packed adventure will surely make stirs all over the world. And Shifu can finally have some PEACE (Watch the movie to know how ) :):):)

For me Po is the best......



Harish
signing off.....


Keep Rokin!!!!!
Adios Amigos....

Kung Fu Panda .... The "Pandamonium" Begins Today.......

The "Pandamonium" Begins Today.......

Kung Fu Panda Released in UAE :):):)


Ahhh, grasshopper. Consider the fat panda: half-cooked dumpling, doughy child of destiny. Assassin of doughnuts. His tale of enlightenment is inspired by our people's most venerated text (Stars Wars). He is, at his best, the animated manifestation of the divinely elastic (Jackie Chan). His enemy is directly out of John Milton, whoever he was. Only the irredeemably cynical would suggest that a hero so dumpy had any marketing connection with our ongoing childhood obesity epidemic.

And Kung Fu Panda, directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne, is as much fun as can be had at the movies right now. At a brisk and appropriate 88 minutes, this computer-generated DreamWorks adventure is infectious and inspiring, despite one's best efforts to resist its charms. Dustin Hoffman's red panda Shifu is more Yoda than Yoda. But remember what they used to say around the dojo, grasshopper: mind like water, mind like the moon.

Elaborate dream life

Jack Black - as obvious a choice for Po as Steve Carell is for Maxwell Smart - is the vocal embodiment of the insecure bluffer, the lazy dreamer, whose character's elaborate dream life is far more exciting than his servitude to his father (James Hong), running a noodle shop amid the bustle of ersatz-feudal China.

Po is basically a nerd. He knows everything about martial arts and is immersed in its minutiae the way the batboy might know batting averages. It's all in his expansive mind. Which is supported by a structure too expansive for a sit-up.

This makes Po the perfect protagonist for what is essentially a sports movie. As a bear, he is the ugly duckling and underdog who will be disparaged, dismissed and, eventually, triumphant.

It takes some time, of course: After a riotously comic entrance into the Forbidden City - where Shifu and his master, Oogway the tortoise (Randall Duk Kim), are announcing the fate of the Dragon Scroll - Po is named the Dragon Master, whose selection is something like that of the Dalai Lama, i.e., inexplicable, the stuff of pure, ineffable spirituality. It has to be.

Judging by his looks, the Chosen One (see The Matrix) is less Giant Panda than Double Stuf Oreo, one who will be expected to go mano a mano with the forces of pure, organic evil.

Action and humour

Why does anyone over the age of 5 care about this movie? Because the animation is spectacular and full of action but, more importantly, funny. Since the movie's debut at Cannes, the critical consensus seems to be that it is fun, but no classic. I don't know about that. Sounds like too many critics had too much fun to trust their own judgment.

Kung Fu Panda is a sort of bittersweet salute to two-dimensional animation; DreamWorks has announced that after next year's Madagascar 2, everything will be made in 3-D (albeit with versions released in 2-D). But something's bound to be lost, as the entire industry genu

Furious Five

The same can be said about the vocal casting.

Hoffman is terrific, giving a real performance as Shifu, who is alternately wise, worldly, irritated with Po's hapless acclimation to the world of high-end kung fu, and mournful over the traitorous defection to the dark side of his once-prize pupil Tai Lung (Ian McShane). A combo Lucifer-Darth Vader, Tai Lung is a cat with hyena markings, which makes him all the more menacing.

To deflect Tai Lung's inevitable attempt to seize the Dragon Scroll, Shifu has assembled the creme de la creme of his student body, a.k.a. the Furious Five - Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen) and Viper (Lucy Liu).

They forgot Grandmaster Flash. And they also forgot to assemble a cast with much personality. None of the supporting players brings anything to the party, although it should be said that there's not much for them to do.

It is the Po Show, though, the triumph of the adorable over the malevolent. As such, it is not a documentary. It is, however, a really good time.

Kung Fu characters

Tigress

The Tigress's style is very direct and aggressive, opinionated, outspoken and direct. Director Osborne says working with the Tigress's voice - Angelina Jolie - was "pretty surreal". "I mean, she's amazing. You have to kind of look away, you know? You can't look at her directly while she's performing, or your brain goes to mush."

Jolie recalls, "When I first came in and saw all the characters, and I didn't know who I was, I was secretly hoping I got to be Tigress. I love her. She's cool." Then they told me and I was stoked."

Jolie had many reasons for accepting the role of Tigress, and chief among them was her family. The setting is absolutely beautiful. I love that part of the world. I have two children from Asia, so the fact that I get to be in Kung Fu Panda, which is set in China, and I get to play a tiger, that is very cool."


Crane

If Viper's style is compact, coiled and ready, Crane is her fighting opposite. In the traditional crane style, fighters use their hands in a beak-like way. Filmmakers made an early decision that Crane would not employ his beak when fighting - the effect might be a little too violent. Instead, they concentrated on some of the style's other attributes. Crane is graceful and uses his enormous wingspan to deflect with sweeping gestures. Despite the beauty, Crane can and will still put up a good fight.

David Cross was cast in the role of Crane. His signature dry wit gave the elegant bird a distinctive voice among the Five. "I think Crane represents the Everyman," says Cross. "My kung fu's far superior, though."


When the student is ready, a teacher arrives
A great team is not what master trainer Shifu envisions when Po is plopped in front of him as the prophesied Dragon Warrior - that honour should have gone to one of his prize students in the Furious Five. So, the small red panda immediately sets about doing everything he can to get rid of the flabby panda.

Shifu is not only short in stature, but also short on patience. To bring their two-foot-tall kung fu master to life, the filmmakers approached one of cinema's finest actors, two-time Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman.

When Hoffman was approached, he was told he could make suggestions about his character. He remarks, "I liked the fact that they were looking at a collaborative way of creating Shifu. They would ask 'How do you like the face?' Well, I didn't know much about animation - they put a video camera on you when you're recording and they watch your gestures, and then construct the character and include little bits of your idiosyncrasies and gestures. I thought that was interesting. I made a couple of suggestions, because I'm very nose sensitive. Why, I don't know. I wanted a little nose correction. I told them I demanded a nose change - I was just looking for a cheap joke. But they opened up the mouth and widened the teeth. I think that was their idea."


Monkey

Monkey is a bit of a cut-up. As a fighter, he is very unpredictable and playful. He uses his four limbs and tail in a fluid way, intending to distract the opponent, to trick him. And Monkey can use his limbs and tail simultaneously, plus he's flexible and agile and, as a result, can lay a series of pummelling blows in a brief amount of time.

Who better to give voice to such a creature than Jackie Chan, who combines flashes of good-humoured wit with an undisputed mastery of martial arts?

Chan remarks, "For all these years, I've liked comedy. I use comedy together with my kung fu. I think it really fits me. And for all these years, jumping around and fighting, I'm just like Monkey. I think the writers and the animators have watched my movements, my characters, my…everything! It seems like they copied me, which is nice.

Chan even sees a future for himself combining what he does with an animated persona: "I hope, for the future, I can use animation with my action together - that would kind of make my action more 'wow!'"

Viper

The Viper's style features sly, quiet surprise attacks and fierce and violent lightning-fast strikes. In Kung Fu Panda, it doesn't hurt that Viper is beautiful and charming - another way to sneak up and distract her opponent. Then, by wrapping her body around the opponent's striking limb, she forces the blow back onto the instigator.

When Lucy Liu first visited the DreamWorks Animation campus, she was a bit uncertain about the project and distracted by the exquisite renderings on display before her - almost like one of her future character's opponents. Liu remembers, "When I first came onto the project, they showed me a room completely filled with all these incredible animated images. And they had a computer version of what they had in mind for the different characters, including Viper. It all looked so incredibly rich and beautiful. They talked about the story, and I just loved the idea of the underdog having something he doesn't know he has - great potential. They didn't really have to sell me hard on it, you know?"

Despite the fearsome reputation snakes have earned, Liu admits that Viper is "quite lethal, but she's actually quite sweet. She's the first character to warm up to Po and have some compassion for him."

Mantis

Mantis is one tightly-wound insect. Tiny and very, very fast, Mantis is also extremely precise - which renders him almost invisible. He can sneak up and pummel you without your knowing what's happening to you. Precision with quick strike - meet Mantis, voiced by Seth Rogen.

"When they called me, I thought, 'perfect.' I've always wanted to play a mantis, so I thought it was oddly coincidental that they had called. And I was literally just talking to someone that day, saying, 'You know, I never played a mantis.' And then the phone rang and it was kismet, I guess," says Rogen.

Jack the bear

How much of Jack Black is there in this character?

There's a lot of me in there. I can relate to a lot of Po's dreaming of being a kung fun master and being world famous. I had dreams similar to that when I was a kid, wanting to be a comedian. I've had my issues too so I think it was tailor made for me.

A major theme of the movie is people telling Po he can't do what he wants to do? Did anyone ever tell you that?
Actually my parents were very supportive, they never told me that it was a pipe dream to do what I wanted to do. But when you look around at the other people who are in the industry, …it's just very… looks driven. It can make you insecure if you're measuring yourself up against the other hunks of the trade.

We all have fun when we see Kung Fu Panda on the big screen. Was it fun to do?

I had tremendous fun making this. It's spread out pretty thinly over many years. I just go in once a month and do a few hours of voice work, so it never felt like a lot of work. Doing the job is always a joy.

Usually these things are done in isolation but I believe you actually got to work with Dustin Hoffman? Did you request it?
No I would have been too nervous to say "I demand to work with Dustin Hoffman". I wouldn't presume to control his schedule but I was thrilled that it worked out because he's been a hero of mine. He is the master, the true master of acting.

Were you able to improvise with him?

We were always encouraged to improvise but we remained faithful to the text. He had some good tips for me. There was this one line, I can't remember which one, but he took me aside and was like "I think that one line might be better if you just whisper it, if you just make it as quiet as possible". It was cool to share the spotlight with him for a moment.

Are you a fan of kung fu movies?

Definitely. When I was a kid I loved Bruce Lee along with everybody else and I loved Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Steven Chow has a couple of films that really blew my mind. Shaolin Soccer is incredibly funny. I hope that we've captured a lot of the spirit and magic of you know, kung fu films at their best.

Did you know the rest of the cast?

I had worked with Angelina on Shark Tale. Seth Rogen I know personally, he's great and he really jumps out of the screen as the grasshopper. He's very funny. Ian McShane had a small role but a very powerful performance. I was thrilled when we got him to play Tai Lung, the super villain. He brings a real class to it and a chilling calmness.

Kung Fu Panda is released in the UAE on Thursday.


With Thanks To: GulfNews.com

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