Kung Fu Panda

(USA, 2008, 93 minutes)

In medieval China, an overweight panda is unexpectedly chosen to become the Dragon Warrior of prophecy — to everybody's astonishment. Sweet dreams-come-true comedy that is thankfully short on smart-aleck wisecracks but doesn't quite do justice to its inspired premise; not a problem when the animation is this extraordinary.

A Paramount Pictures release of a Dreamworks Animation presentation/production. With the voices of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong; and Jackie Chan. Directed by Mark Osborne, John Stevenson; produced by Melissa Cobb; screenplay by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, from a story by Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris; music by Hans Zimmer and John Powell; production designer, Raymond Zibach; film editor, Clare Knight.