'Kung Fu Panda' - High-Def Digest Review

[pob14]

Originally Posted by D_Strasse

I think for many though it will come down to how you feel about Jack Black. Personally, I love the big guy and find him, with the right material, absolutely hilarious and here is no exception. If on the other hand he bugs you, you will be much less inclined to love the movie beyond appreciating it's technical artistry.

Well, JB in general bugs me, but I really enjoyed this movie. This is where I really miss the HD-DVD combo disks; I bought this for the kids on DVD so they can watch it either upstairs or downstairs.

(But Wall-E . . . screw 'em, I'm getting that on Blu-Ray!)

[cherrygarcia]

received my free copy from Columbia House last night (unexpectedly), and plan on watching this week..great in the theaters, and should be just as fun on BD
Skadoosh!

[Mark Booth]

My copy from Amazon arrives today. However, I wasn't going to have time to watch it until this weekend and I am (was) dying to watch it so I rented Kung Fu Panda out of my local Red Box yesterday. I had a free rental code and the Red Box had the Blu-ray version in stock! So, my wife and I watched it last night... 5 stars indeed!! Excellent video and audio! Delightful story and very entertaining! High degree of re-watchability too!

That said... I'll agree with an earlier post that, as good as Kung Fu Panda is, it isn't quite up to the standards set by Pixar movies like Cars and Ratatouille. I'm not talking about animation or video or audio quality, I'm talking about story and character development. In Kung Fu Panda Dreamworks Animation has created a fantastic showpiece. Whereas, in movies like Cars and Ratatouille, Pixar has created masterpieces.

Despite its lack of Pixar-perfection, Kung Fu Panda definitely deserves a spot on everyone's shelf!

Mark

[E_I]

Very cute movie. Jack Black is AWESOME.

"I'm THE big fat panda!"


There's something I don't understand. It's not really a spoiler, but in the end credits, why does Snake kiss the panda toy? Does she like Panda?

The furious five needed more screen time though.

[Jawsfan]

Well In my opinion.

I thought KFP kicked the crud out of Ratatouille and Bugs Life. (Don't understand the love for the Rat movie.)

I thought it was better then Wall E and Toy Story 2. (Two of Pixar's most over rated films IMO. They were good but not great. Wall E was cute but just a tad too long. I would have prefered no human actors at all.)

It was as good as Cars and Finding Nemo.

It was not as good as Toy Story, Monsters Inc., or The Incredibles. (The Incredibles is by far my Fav.)

WAY BETTER then anything else DW has put out.


Now I have only seen KFP once. But man I loved it. I rented the SD DVD for my son and watced a part of it (The tiger guy's escape) and was impressed with the visuals. So I read up on it. After reading all the great reviews here and on other sites I went out and bought the BR. WOW! What a great looking film. The colors were amazing. just a Beautiful film to look at with a good story with lots of intelligent humor. And as my above comparison show I think it easily fits in with the quality of the Pixar films.

[1LOSTmf]

The one thing about KFP, it had me laughing so hard that I was in tears by the end of it. Wall-E had some laugh-out-loud moments, but it was really more dramatic than humorous.
Let's be honest, Wall-E is a thinly-veiled chick-flick. KFP is for the Boys!
I had a hard time convincing the women in my family to watch KFP, but I had extra women that wanted to come over to watch Wall-E.

My vote: KFP=Best Animated Action/Comedy 2008
Wall-E=Best Animated Drama 2008

[WetLight]

I saw on the theaters both Wall-e and KFP, definetely KFP is a better animated movie in my opinion. Wall-e is very good in the first half of the movie, afterwards it is not!

Man, i have the Bluray of KFP but i almost sold it because 'my version' (i thought that there was another version) doesn't have the extra that the DVD has. Man, i hate the studios, Bluray has enough space to have all of the extras, damn!
Heck, i am keeping it, i hope as well that the BDLive will have the extra.

[lovswr]

Originally Posted by ModernTenshi04

Well that's kinda epic lame right there. Why the hell wouldn't they include the DTV sequel in the Blu-ray package?

I smell an early double dip here . . . .

Is this why this new Blu-ray only has a MSRP of 22 bucks at Best Buy?

[borghe]

No, I'm guessing the $23 price tag at best buy is their first step at more aggressively pricing at least launch week blu-rays. We'll know for sure when we see Wall-E's price next week and Batman's price in 4 weeks.

Remember... when the software is priced low it causes consumers to look at the hardware... and when they buy the hardware they rarely walk out with just one movie. When I bought my first DVD player I grabbed Twister, Batman (1989) and Austin Powers with it. When I grabbed my BRD and HDDVD players I grabbed Transformers, Meet the Robinsons and Ratatouille with them.

Get the consumers in with the low priced software, sell them the hardware, and then watch them grab another 1-3 titles off of the shelf. If Best Buy continues with this kind of opening week loss leader pricing I would say it's a pretty big show of confidence that they feel the format is ready to begin mainstream adoption.

[BluFan1]

As the holidays approach, I'm fairly certain we can expect to see new BR releases at consistantly lower prices. It has nothing to do with the quality, but rather, as people have said- they're trying to more aggresively push sales, especially as hardware prices continue to fall. I've been working with Warner Home Video on some blu-ray projects and they're really looking forward to a strong forth quarter in sales (Dark Knight helps obviously).

[Son of Odin]

Wall-E had some major film critics thinking "best picture" of the year. for how good KFP is, Wall-E is a masterpiece. it's all about character developement. KFP had none besides po. none. pixar nails that in every movie. wall-e, cars, ratatouille>KFP.

[will9631]

Originally Posted by Son of Odin

Wall-E had some major film critics thinking "best picture" of the year. for how good KFP is, Wall-E is a masterpiece. it's all about character developement. KFP had none besides po. none. pixar nails that in every movie. wall-e, cars, ratatouille>KFP.

While I hold KFP in high esteem, I agree that it doesn't compare to the pixar greats, they just work on very different levels. KFP is a wonderfully fun and entertaining movie, but it didn't exactly push the boundaries of moviemaking, it didn't need or want to- it knew what movie it wanted to be and just made that movie really well. Walle and others from pixar manage to change what we think of as an animated movie. They push the limits of story, art, character, and cinema as (non-indie) animated movies usually never even try. Instead of going for an easy laugh or convenient plot device they strive for something more, something new. Of course, in the short run that may not entertain as many people, and you can make the argument that the entertainment is more important.

I, for one, am on the verge of starting a pixar-based religion and pray to John Lasseter before I go to bed each night. Such is my love of their work. Still though, I see where the KFP devotees are coming from. It is a remarkably fun, engaging, and charming movie I'm sure I'll watch dozens more times.

my two cents anyway. I can't wait for KFPII (the real sequel, not that DTV thing that came on DVD)

[Jawsfan]

Originally Posted by Son of Odin

Wall-E had some major film critics thinking "best picture" of the year. for how good KFP is, Wall-E is a masterpiece. it's all about character developement. KFP had none besides po. none. pixar nails that in every movie. wall-e, cars, ratatouille>KFP.

I felt Po's Master had plenty of character development.

I failed to see the character development in Wall-E. Sure there was some for Wall-E himself but not much for all the others.
Far from a "Best Picture" IMO. I enjoyed it and thought the animation was by far Pixar's best and can't wait to see how great it looks on Blu. But as a story I felt it was average.

PIXAR as a whole is far and away the best at what they do. Even thier misfires are better then other studios animated "Hits". With the exception of the Rat movie I have been very entertained by PIXAR. I was still slightly entertained by ratatouille but got bored real quick. No real good humor, an original but below average story, and wonderful but not exciting animation make this a yawner for me.

KFP has way more Awsomeness.

[GearsOfWar]

I Loved KFP and Im dying to see WALL-E along with my 19 month old baby boy who wont stop saying GOOUGLIE !

Everytime he sees the trailer on my various Bluray's he looses his mind, and this is the same kid that for the past 3 months watches Cars at least 2 times a day.

Im thrilled to here it's long and very good and I cant wait to see it. As far as movies go, Cars is wonderful and if you get to see it over at least 15 times like I have because of the kid you will pick up on things that are incredible. Rattatouile was ok IMO but not even close to cars.

I will say this ... I just bought Pixar's Short Story's Volume 1 and I can say it was the worst Bluray I have ever purchased. Except for about 6 of the story's the rest are garbage and 5 min cant ever get anybody interested in anything. Thank god I got it on sale $19.99 cause those that paid $35 should be shooting themself's.

[BBE]

Any word on whether or not Wall-E is going to be up for best picture as opposed to just best animated picture?