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***SPOILER ALERT***

A bit obvious, at this point, that I am a HUGE movie-goer. It is my vice. I even spend the money to see the so-called kiddie movies. So yes, this summer I wanted to see how Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E would hold up next to the blockbusters that were released. I received a special request to give my honest opinions on Kung Fu Panda, so here you go.

Animated movies, especially the G or PG-rated tend do to very in the summer since parents can bring the children. This is good and bad for the industry. Sometimes, garbage is generated for the sake of those precious ticket sales with no regard for the intelligence of the audience. Neither was the case for Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda.

Kung Fu Panda

Let me start by saying, with an all-star cast, PG rating, and DreamWorks Animation at the helm it seemed that this movie was destined to be great, and well it was. What I often find falls short is the humor. There is a delicate balance that has to be struck when creating comedy that has to transcend generational gaps. Honestly, it cannot be easy to find a movie that is as equally amusing to a 8 year old as it is the 38 year old parent. And what of the young movie lover that just want to check out a great animated film? The writers of Kung Fu Panda somehow managed. Then they added a stellar cast. The actors got the timing of the jokes and the one-liners down and Jack Black (whose humor I do not always care for) was downright hilarious.

The basic premise of the story surrounds the life of Po, the panda that wants more than work in the family noodle shop for the rest of his life. He unwittingly becomes the chosen one, the Dragon Warrior, when ends up disrupting the demonstration of skill by the Furious Five. Obviously, one can see how this is going to turn out. He is tested and pushed and somehow, usually comically and accidentally, passes and perseveres. There is even a training montage, think Rocky or the Karate Kid. Eventually, he has to fight Master Shifu's protege, who believes he is the rightful Dragon Warrior. In the end, very predictably, Po wins the battle and the shows that the highly coveted Dragon Scroll was not what everyone expected and there a moral to the story.

Though predictable, it is still incredibly funny. I rarely have truly LOL moments in a theater anymore and to laugh for nearly the entire 90 minutes is even more rare. I do not, however, recommend seeing at a peek time for children to be in the theater with you since the giggling, childlike banter and roaring can tend to interrupt the movie-going experience. [Although I did think it was mildly amusing when my 2-year-old niece did it.] There is a good reason this movie has grossed over $360 million so far and is still among the top 10 in the box office 2 months after its release.

Wall-E

The other big animation release this summer is Wall-E. This movie was conceived over a decade ago back at the inception of, the now very popular, animation studio, Pixar. There were always reasons for shelving the project, the number concern being that at the core, this is a love story. Most of Pixar's movies have been hits such as Toy Story, Monsters, Inc. and The Incredibles. Wall-E may be a departure from the norm for Pixar but it is well done and a refreshing change. Since Wall-E doesn't talk, well not really, most of the humor in the film comes in the form of his actions while alone, bored on Earth in the year 2815, with only a cockroach as a friend.

While on an expedition for plant life, Wall-E meets Eve, a futuristic robot that Wall-E quickly falls in love with. Opposites attract and Wall-E's gentle nature finds Eve's take-no-prisoners way extremely attractive. Wall-E begins his mission to win Eve's "heart" by taking her to his home, showing her Hello Dolly (yes the old musical circa 1969) and showing off a bit. One of my favorite parts is how he tries to revive her after she shuts down. Wall-E gives her a plant he found, not realizing that her directive would require to protect the plant and enter a hibernation mode until retrieved. He tries everything to wake her up. In one scene, he tries to get her to play a video game! Something is definitely wrong with poor Eve because it doesn't work - would have worked for me.

As the story progresses Wall-E follows Eve to this intergalactic cruise ship where all the humans evacuated to some 700 years prior. In this world, no one is active. Humans have become lazy, overweight and unproductive and Wall-E unintentionally creates massive havoc in this world. I adored his fight with the robot who, programmed to clean in neurotic fashion, could not get Wall-E clean enough. In animation predictability, there is a battle between man and machine, in which man eventually wins by overcoming the fact that they have forgotten how to walk. In some ways, it felt like an afterschool special, just not an okey-doke way. All films with a target audience under 12 have a moral and this one is plain as day from the beginning but that was also part of the fun of the movie. It makes fun of the direction we seem to be going as the human race begins to rely more heavily on our gadgets and technology.

This movie is still going strong in the box office and continues to pull in the audiences week after week despite the big releases over the last few weeks. Another movie that would be lighthearted fun for anyone, at any age.

Wall-E vs. Kung Fu Panda

These two films are quite different but equally good films. Admittedly, Kung Fu Panda has more in your face humor while Wall-E was the romantic comedy of the two. I am happy I got to see both movies and would not want to choose one over the other, though that is what I originally intended to do. I was pleasantly surprised and recommend both of them.

I give them both a big A!

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