Kung Fu Panda: Pandamonium Double Pack – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Nov 10, 2008, 15:06 GMT

Po the Panda is the laziest of all the animals in the Valley of Peace. With powerful enemies at the gates, all hope has been pinned on an ancient prophesy that a hero will rise to save the day. But among all the martial arts masters who come forward, none has shown the mark of The Chosen One ... until now. When Po unwittingly shows up in the midst of ...more

Jack Black is kung fu fighting and he’s fast as lightening.  The animated martial arts comedy hits DVD with some great kicks and special features.  The voice cast is perfect and this two-disc “Panda”monium edition has a fun new adventure of our furry friends.  

Elderly tortoise master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) has a vision that the evil leopard warrior Tai Lung (Ian McShane) will escape his prison and return to the Valley of Peace. 

Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), a red panda, panics and sends Zeng (Dan Fogler) to tell Commander Vachir (Michael Clarke Duncan) to double his efforts at keeping Tai Lung imprisoned, these events actually lead to Tai Lung’s escape. 

The masters know that they must pick the Dragon Warrior to read the fabled Dragon scroll and learn all of the secrets of kung fu and defeat Tai Lung. 

In the village, the panda Po (Jack Black) is working in his father Mr. Ping’s (James Hong) noodle restaurant.  Po only dreams of kung fu and joining his heroes the Furious Five – Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), Crane (David Cross), and Monkey (Jackie Chan).

Po sees a poster advertising that the Dragon Warrior is going to be chosen.  He hurries to see the Furious Five in action, but can’t get into the Temple to see the action.  When Po does finally does get into the Temple to his shock, and everyone else’s, he’s picked to be the Dragon Warrior. 

Shifu is not very excited to have to train the overweight Po in the ways of kung fu and plans to make it so difficult that he’ll quit.  Po, however, isn’t going anywhere and when Master Oogway becomes one with the universe he makes Shifu promise that he’ll make Po into the Dragon Warrior.  

Kung Fu Panda is a fantastic film.  It’s really a typical fish out of water story, but is influenced by some “believe in yourself” mythology. 

The voice cast is picture perfect with Jack Black playing another likeable loser that finds that he’s more than he imagined.  Dustin Hoffman is properly gruff as the master who doesn’t want Po as a student and Randall Duk Kim exudes wisdom as the slow but powerful wise Master. 

The Furious Five each get a chance to shine, but Angelina Jolie gets the most lines since she has the most star power.  I’m always a sucker for the villain so I thought that Ian McShane did an excellent job. 

This release is dubbed the “Panda”monium double pack because it features a new adventure called The Secrets of the Furious Five.  In that tale, Po (Jack Black) is told by Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) to teach some young rabbits the secrets of kung fu.  So he tells them some tales of how the Furious Five learned their lessons of kung fu.

The only returning vocal talent of the Five for this short (24 minutes) addition is David Cross as Crane.  The rest are either revoiced or show the character at a younger age so different voices are used. 

Ironically Jaycee Chan, Jackie Chan’s son, voices Monkey – nice touch that.  Both the film and the new adventure are delightfully animated.  I had my doubts about Secrets from the box art since it looked like it was done in a cartoon style and not CGI. 

However, the film is like the cartoonish opening credits of the film when we flashback to the tales of the Five, but is in CGI when Shifu tricks Po into teaching the class.  Kung Fu Panda is a wonderful film and Secrets of the Furious Five is a worthy, but short, follow-up.  

Kung Fu Panda is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  The Secrets of the Furious Five is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  Kung Fu Panda’s special features include a commentary from directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson.

The 13 minute “Meet the Cast” takes a look at the vocal talent behind the animated characters.  The 7 minute “Pushing Boundaries” is about the technology used to bring the furry CGI creatures to the screen.  The 4 minute “Sound Design” is about the sound effects, which have to be created from scratch for animated films.  Next is the 2 minute “Kung Fu Fighting” music video by Cee-Lo.  The 4 minute “Mr. Ping’s Noodle House” has food network host Alton Brown seeing what it takes to make a noodle. 

The 3 minute “How to use Chopsticks” teaches the kids, and the adults, to use the elusive dinnerware.  There’s also a 2 minute PSA hosted by Jack Black to save the Pandas.  Finally, there’s a “Dragon Warrior Training Academy” game, DreamWorks Animation Jukebox, and trailers for other DreamWorks films (but no Panda trailers).  The DVD-ROM features include printables and weblinks. 

The Secrets of the Furious Five special features include Po’s Power Play which has sections on how to draw the characters, a dumpling shuffle game, and a DVD-ROM activity kit. 

The Land of the Panda has a 4 minute featurette that show you how to do the panda dance, how to do some kung fu poses, learn you Chinese zodiac symbol, the animals of kung fu panda (6 minutes), and some questions that determine what fighting style you are (my kids were panda and crane if you’re interested since this was their favorite feature).  

Kung Fu Panda is a great film that kids of all ages can learn something from. The vocal cast is top notch.  If you’re a fan then you’ll want to spring for this two pack since it adds a fun new adventure (even if you’re not you’ll probably want to spring for it to since the movie is so fun that you’ll want to see the short film).  It’s a great movie that’ll have you kung fu fighting.  

Kung Fu Panda: Pandamonium Double Pack is now available at Amazon. It is available for pre-order in a 2-Disc Edition at AmazonUK. Visit the DVD database for more information.