#69 Kung Fu Panda

March 7, 2021
Kung Fu Panda (2008) ****
Google Play
$3.99
Wildcard

“Panda, we do not wash our pits in the pool of sacred tears.”

For today’s movie I didn’t choose carefully, Kung-Fu Panda just leapt into my brain like the Dragon Warrior getting cookies from the top shelf, and who am I do deny him?

Po is a panda obsessed with kung fu, and who accidentally gets chosen to be the Dragon Warrior and defend his village from Tai Lung, the big bad who thinks that he should be the Dragon Warrior. Can a big fat panda be the Dragon Warrior, or was it a mistake? There are no mistakes.

I missed this movie when it first came out, and only saw the second movie first, but loved it so much that I went back and watched the original, which is so charming and so fun. The voice work is terrific, and the character design is entirely lovable.

Jack Black was born to play the teenage girl in Jumanji, that is a given, but other than her, he was born to play this goofy, enthusiastic, and ultimately heroic panda. Other great performances are the great James Hong as his dad, the goose (how is a goose the father of a panda? It gets explained in the sequels, never fear), Randall Duk Kim as Master Oogway, the turtle, and Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu, the red panda.

Thank you for leaping into my brain, Kung Fu Panda, this was the perfect movie to watch at the end of a somewhat tricky day.