Spooky Pony 

My wife and I, and our good friend Bryant Frazer, proprietor of Deep Focus saw Kung Fu Panda last night. The movie was fun and I enjoyed it, but it lacked a certain something.

For one thing, Po the Panda, Jack Black's title character, performed no kung fu until, oh, about an hour into the film. In addition, when one of the kung fu masters did perform, the animators chose to make the moves so fast you can't actually see them, unless you happen to be a five year old hopped on Ritalin and sugar.

Finally, there was a distinct lack of local color and flavor to the movie. I got hints of flavor, primarily from wonderful performances by James Hong as Po's adoptive father, Mr. Ping, and Randall Duk Kim as Master Oogway, but mostly I was smacked in the face non-stop with Jack Black. And while Jack is a fine comedian, I'm not sure he really has the ability to carry a movie on his own. I'm consistently disappointed by Jack, every movie of his I see I feel it almost hits the mark, but not quite. There's really not quite enough substance to his performances.