Kung Fu Panda

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As a special treat, we all went off to the Odeon last night (it's literally over the road from our new flat) to watch Dreamwork's latest animated movie, Kung Fu Panda.

(There's a bit of a back-story to all this. Originally, the girls were going to watch Sex And The City while we went off to the pub. But then I found out that Kung Fu... came out yesterday, and it turns out that the girly film was no longer showing, so a happy compromise was made.)

The film is brilliant. A fantastic combination of visually-stunning films like Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, martial arts games like Tekken, the special effects of The Matrix, and the wonderful humour of Dreamwork's previous creations (Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Shrek...), the film enthrals for a very entertaining 90 minutes. The fight scenes are breath-taking, as are the incredible panoramas of the Chinese countryside. The kung-fu itself will have you gasping (at the incredible physical prowess of its subjects) and laughing (at the slap-stick) in equal measure.

It's not perfect. The story isn't totally original, the casting is a little too celebrity-dominated (you couldn't accuse any of them for being "authentic") and some characters remain woefully under-developed (although this just paves the way for a sequel). But do still go and see it: it's fun.

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