Kung Fu Panda: A-

I'm not going to lie, as Kung Fu Panda drew to a close I experienced The Moment. You know the one -- it's the moment in the movie-viewing experience where it hits you that this film is, at that point in time, the greatest thing since sliced bread. Now, inevitably, that feeling wears off 99.765% of the time. (Personally, only in very rare cases -- e.g., A History of Violence -- has it endured.) But when it hits, it practically forces your face to break out in a massive grin; and when in hit with Panda, my face broke exactly as expected. What's unexpected is the fact that, on paper, the film has no right to do anything to my face whatsoever. (Except maybe to make it pucker, like I was watching Ghost Rider II.)

Surprise is a key element to the movie. It's integral both to the plot, and to its quality. For the former, this involves Po (Jack Black) -- a noodle-making tubby chinese panda -- accidently landing smack-dab in the middle of an uber-important kung-fu tournament (the winner gets to be declared the Dragon Warrior) and then being declared the winner himself. No one perhaps is more shocked than the newly-annointed Warrior himself; no one, that is, but Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), the wise ol' martial arts master who would rather have nothing to do with creatures who are more than 65% body fat. So annoyed is Shifu, in fact, that he sets out on a campaign to -- under the guise of "training" Po -- scare him away from kung fu forever. This very twist, which helps lead from the first act of the movie to the second, is also the key to the second facet of surprise that is itself key to Kung Fu Panda.

You see, everytime Po gets beat down, he picks himself right back up; his fanboyishness (which, one imagines, originally prevented him from getting up out of bed and exercising to begin with) lighting an endurable fire underneath him never to quit. He's in awe of Shifu and "The Five" -- Shifu's prized group of students -- and it's that very awe that inspires him to become on of them. Such is the moral at the heart of what is, essentially, a stodgy animated Karate Kid. But the film is also a display of bravura tongue-in-cheek technique -- an epic of sarcastic minimalism. It comes as no surprise then to find the film's writers, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, are veteren King of the Hill scribes.

It comes to light that the Dragon Warrior will have to face down an escaped baddie, Tai Lung (Ian McShane), and can only do so with the Dragon Scroll. Basically, what this means is the last act of the film is mostly action sequences, but their drawn and imagined with such rambunctious, infectious, energy, not a second of it sags or grows repititious. All the more power then to Black, who delivers another one of his rare comedic masterpieces -- his trademark soul-on-the-sleeve scene-stealing -- and Hoffman, who is like Yoda's cranky uncle. True, Kung Fu Panda is a kid's movie, and since it's been developed by Dreamworks, it has none of the inherent sophistication of Pixar, but it's also quick-witted and sly enough, fast-paced and beautifully-colored enough, to satisfy all age groups. (Plus, it's far more satisfying for six bucks than, say, Speed Racer.)