by Thomas Ferguson

Recently in theaters, you’ve seen rats cooking gourmet meals and bees going on the defensive. Now, a loveable panda bear is kickin butt in the new animation hit Kung Fu Panda.

Po (voice of Jack Black), is a cute little panda bear who dreams of being a Kung Fu Master. The only problem is that he’s lazy and extremely unmotivated. While working at his families’ noodle shop, Po gets the unexpected opportunity to fight alongside the legendary Furious Five… Tigress (voice of Angelina Jolie), Monkey (voice of Jackie Chan), Viper (voice of Lucy Lui), Crane (voice of David Cross), and Mantis (voice of Seth Rogen). These five fighting experts are in competition to become the Dragon Warrior, which is the biggest honor in all the land. Po accidentally enters and wins the competition.

Now, under the leadership of Master Shifu (voice of Dustin Hoffman), Po must train to become an actual Kung Fu Master. Mainly, because the fearless snow leopard, Tai Lung (voice of Ian McShane) is on his way to town to possibly dethrone Po if he is not up to par.

I’m really not an animation fan, but I have to say this was a cute movie. It has witty humor that appeals to both children and adults. The action sequences were also quite entertaining.

I laughed more in this movie than I did in the recent parade of comedies that were supposed to be hilarious. Kung Fu Panda is not the best animated movie I’ve ever seen, but definitely one of the better ones in recent years.

Looking for a good way to spend some quality family time, go see this movie.