Kung Fu Panda
December 2008 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: Blu-ray	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Have you ever wondered how voice characterizations influence the look of an animated film? Or what the balance is between voice and computer realization? There’s an extra on this set that helps answer that question, at least in part, and certainly for this movie. Watching the actors mug their parts, one can easily see how they have inspired the animators. Though none of the finished characters looks exactly like the flesh-and-blood human beings who give them voice, there are some startling similarities. Besides, it’s just inspiring to watch first-rate actors having fun and conveying that spirit to the audience.

Jack Black, showing his sweeter nature, stars as Po, an overweight panda who dreams of being a kung fu fighter. Through a series of misadventures (or not) he is named Dragon Warrior, the one who must read a sacred scroll and protect the Valley of Peace from Tai Lung, a recently escaped, vicious, and powerful snow leopard. Po is trained by Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), a red panda who is strict but not without a sense of humor. The lovable oaf gradually wins the support of the "Furious Five," also students of Shifu: Monkey (Jackie Chan), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Crane (David Cross). Po looks like a lost cause until Shifu discovers a clever way to motivate him. The characters are all warm and friendly (except Tai Lung), and the movie has lots of heart and a simple but important message: "there is no secret ingredient."

In production for over four years, Kung Fu Panda broke new ground for the DreamWorks animation team. Its animation is incredibly complex, not far behind that of Pixar. A trivia pop-up feature can be enabled, which, among other important and frivolous information, tells us how many feathers crane has, how many planks there are in the suspension bridge that acts as a location for one of the movie’s intense fight scenes, even how many specs of dust are in an explosion toward the end of the movie. They are all high numbers, indicating that the animators wanted to produce characters that would be able to pass the highest visual scrutiny.

That they do, and the Blu-ray transfer preserves it all handsomely. Po’s thick fur has believable texture, as do all the animals, as well as the clothing that some of them wear. The fight scenes are full of action, yet everything is so sharp and focused that one is always sure about what’s going on. The colors are vivid, bright, and rich, and the sense of three-dimensionality is excellent, except in the opening and closing, which are deliberately meant to be 2D. The sound is robust yet clean and clear with imaginative use of the surround channels, yet it seems a little lacking in presence.

In addition to the extras mentioned, there’s a directors’ commentary and a wealth of featurettes. The latter not only present topics directly related to the movie, but also cover adjunct activities. One teaches how to eat with chopsticks, another how to do the panda dance seen in a not-so-bad music video on the disc, and there are also lessons on each style of kung fu fighting as well as a quiz where the viewer can find out what kind of kung fu fighting would be best for him to pursue.

There’s also "The Animator’s Corner," which looks like a fascinating picture-in-picture commentary and tutorial that runs the entire length of the movie, but though my player has been updated to be 1.1 compliance and has played other picture-in-picture commentaries without issue, it would not play the sound on this one, just the picture. Time for another update because this looks like a very interesting supplement, as is the movie. If you missed it, don’t hesitate to check it out.

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