Kung Fu Panda was actually…one of the first CGI Dreamworks titles I enjoyed since the first Shrek. And I’m relieved they didn’t weight it down with an endless array of pop culture gags, like all of their previous movies. I worry also about the sequels though…they killed the Shrek franchise by the 3rd movie, I’m REALLY hoping it doesn’t happen with this one. Though, however…unlike Shrek, it has potential room for more story, and definitely more character development from the Furious Five, who, despite being major characters, had little screentime.
i enjoyed it, but i think 2 is good, however 3+ won’t work!
Arguably, some of that was covered (with some success) with “Secrets of the Furious Five”
This movie definitely exceeded my expectations of it. To be honest, I expected it to suck like most of what Dreamworks has put out, but KFP actually was pretty damn good. It had good storywriting, was free of pointless pop culture references (and the ones that were there actually made sense,) and the scenery and action scenes were astounding.
It wasn’t as good as WALL-E, mind you, but its definitely one of the best animated films this year.
Oh, and Master Viper is incredibly cute. Absolutely adorable in Secrets of The Furious Five, even. 
KFP was a pretty good movie, IMO, but I’m honestly a little bugged at how it seems to be getting praise for being a decent animated film not made by Pixar. Does anyone else feel that way? I mean, look at the Annie Awards nominations for this year.
What awards did KFP get nominated for?
Best Animated Feature and individual awards for best Animated Effects, Character Animation (3), Character design, Directing, Music, Production design (2), Storyboarding (2), Voice Acting (3-Ian McShane as Tai Lung, Dustin Hoffman as Shifu, and James Hong as Mr. Ping (Po’s dad) ), and writing
Lots of Noms for Wall-E, Bolt, Waltz with Bashir too, some for Despereaux, 9.99, and Horton.
Script available for download at [url]http://www.paramountguilds.com/movies/script/kfp.html[/url] for anyone interested.
Thanks for sharing nubetre.
Thank you for pointing to the site with the script nubetre. Oddly, I had been on other awards sites, (of which I had found scripts on most), but I could only ever get to the part on the Paramount site with the screening times. So anyway, thanks for pointing the way to the scripts - I had been looking for these ones.
Kung Fu Panda was amazing. i love that movie, bought it the day it came out!
Jack Black is hilarious!
Has anyone seen the DTV sequel ‘Secrets of the Furious Five’? I wouldn’t call it so much a sequel as more of a short film that’s longer than the Pixar variety (about the length of a Saturday morning cartoon episode, half an hour).
I watched it yesterday night and it was quite fun! Black and Hoffman reprise their roles (pity about the rest of the cast, though), as Po recounts the tales of how the Furious Five came to “be awesome” to a gang of restless bunny kittens.
The 2-D animation is beautiful like the opening dream sequence and the end credits in the original feature film, and the stories, though a little predictable and preachy, had some witty humour and adorable character models to admire.
Like I said, it’s pretty entertaining, not deep or anything, but if you’re a fan of the Flash-style paper-cutout animation that opened and closed the original movie, you should not miss this.
What does anyone else who has seen this think?
thedriveintheatre - Your opinions on the short feature film pretty much mirror that of mine. The animation, although not superior in quality as compared to that of the traditionally-animated sequences in Kung Fu Panda, is playful and entertaining. The stories are equally as fun, if not a bit predictable, like you stated, but they keep you watching nonetheless.
So, yep, I definitely enjoyed it. Viper’s history has to be my favorite of the “Five”.
Coincidentally, my mom, sister, and I are watching Kung Fu Panda right now. Such an awesome piece of genius…
– Mitch
Mine too! She’s so cute as a kid, right? I never thought snakes could be so adorable! 
Like, right now? First time or repeat viewing? What a coinkydink!
Ha-ha! I know. She’s adorable. 
Nah, we’ve seen it a thousand times before. We were just watching it again for kicks. Heheh.
– Mitch
Kung Fu Panda is one of those movies that was actually really good. I don’t see Dreamworks as a bad animation studio, but some of their movies are questionable. Kung Fu Panda, IMO, was an amazing example of what Dreamworks could do if they tried hard enough. I can’t compare it to Pixar though, that’s like Cargo’s and Jeans, they both do the same job but they feel and fit differently (I donno of that’s a good example.)
Here’s hopes that the sequel will be just as good or better (it better be for DW’s sake XD)
Personally, my favorite of the Furious Five stories was Tigress’s, which is saying a lot since I’m not a big fan of her 
. It was interesting to see a side of Shifu not shown very often in the film, that of the nurturing parent figure. I enjoyed seeing this dynamic explored, since it was obviously one of importance to Tigress in the movie.
Plus, Shifu is my favorite character, so that might have tipped the scale somewhat.