Burlaki on the Thames

When I do get to see a new release at the cinema, it is usually something that my kids want to watch. We did not have any specific plans for this weekend, my Aunt went back home, and while Becky has a booming social life with almost daily events, Kimmy was a bit bored with the lack of exciting activities, so Natasha and I decided that a trip to the movies would be a perfect antidote.

We went to see Kung Fu Panda, which opened in the UK just a couple of days ago. Kimmy loved it, and I found it tremendously entertaining myself. The story of a lovable misfit, who suddenly finds himself thrown into the middle of events for which he is clearly ill-suited, but from which he emerges triumphant and with a sense of finding his place in the world, is as old as anything, and this animated take on it tells the story at a close-to-prefect pitch.

The art of animation has long achieved an ability to portray emotions rather vividly, but I was actually amazed at how meaningful the facial expressions and the body language appeared. Our hero, Po, was at turns embarrassed, dejected, confused, scared, mischievous, jubilant, tender… All with brilliant expressiveness. The other characters were not far behind. Coupled with the excellent voice-overs by an all-star cast (Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, to name a few), the animated characters truly came to life in the movie. As far as Jack Black is concerned, I certainly like him a lot more as the voice of the panda than in his flesh.

There is a lot of, well, cartoonish violence in this movie, but the fight scenes are rendered breathtakingly, which more than makes up for the implausibility of Po excelling in martial arts practically overnight, when it takes everybody else a lifetime to master. But then, we are discussing drawn-up talking animals, so who’s to say what’s plausible… I did not get the concept of Wuxi Finger Hold, but I guess that a device to defeat a rather indestructible foe was needed, and that was it.

I have a slight issue with the main message of the story, which seems to be that believing in being special is what makes you special and what allows you to do things that you only dreamed about. I’d rather the message was framed as believing in yourself is what makes you special (a notion that actually gets dispelled in the movie by the example of the Furious Five and especially Tigress, who, despite extreme confidence in her abilities, is no match for Tai Lung, the bad guy). But that is a minor nitpick compared to the overall fantastic entertainment.