BOTTOM LINE: This latest animated feature from Dreamworks is a lot of fun, visually spectacular, and has some wonderful characters and original story. However, the film is quite short and as such the narrative feels somewhat two-dimensional and under-developed, leaving the overall experience of watching the film underwhelming and best saved for DVD.

THE GOOD: Eventually Hollywood will turn every animal ever lived in to a loveable cartoon character, but there’s much to like about Panda (voiced perfectly by Jack Black) who is in the unimaginable position of transitioning from a loveable slob to a kung fu master. Panda doesn’t really discriminate or hold grudges, as seen most in the scenes with Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and his students who have no time or respect for Panda and his hopelessness at kung fu. Shifu is a strong character; despite his wisdom, his pride and self-anguish over his split with star student Tai Lung (Ian McShane) who becomes his nemesis make him a somewhat fallible, human character that you can come to love and understand. Tortoise Master Oogway (Randall Dul Kim) is perhaps the best character in the film with his fortune-cookie style responses which lead to some big laughs without being at his own expense. The animators have done a spectacular job with the visuals; watching the images unfold is worth the price of admission alone, with the vibrancy, richness of colour, and texture all creating a wonderful ancient Chinese world that almost looks real. “Kung Fu Panda” is a lot of fun, with a great voice cast which also includes Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, David Cross and Seth Rogen.

THE BAD: The story and narrative are quite original for a film of this type, it’s just a shame that they didn’t expand upon its potential. With a very short running time, the big fat Panda goes from being a wannabe with big kung fu dreams to being a real master in a matter of a few minutes. As a result, you don’t get the feeling his character has gone on much of a journey and it’s underwhelming. A by product of this under-development is that the character of the snow leopard, the evil Tai Lung doesn’t come across that threatening. Although his back story with Master Shifu is explained, it’s only glazed over and it would have been nice to see more there, especially with Panda coming to save the day and defeating him. When the credits roll, you get the feeling that aside from the magnificent visuals which demand viewing on a cinema screen, you could have watched this on DVD and had the same experience.