Kung Fu Panda (C+) Pretty good effort from Dreamworks Inc. They've learned the valuable lesson that going to the 'Shrek' template of goofy accents, MOR pop song montages, and dated pop culture references in your animated movie is going to wear thin after, oh, the first twenty movies in your stable. What we're getting is the American animated film version of a Stephen Chow film. The story is solid, the characters have enough going on to have an audience empathise with them, and heck, the Kung Fu action stuff is thrilling. I'd like to think Dreamworks has turned a creative corner, in a good way, but one of the trailers in the theater was for "Madagascar 2". Not a good sign.

While I'm here, let me just make a quick observation about the IMAX theater I saw this in. After I pay my fifteen-fitty for an IMAX 'experience', why should IMAX spend ten minutes selling me on the virtues of the IMAX experience? Don't they have my money already? You won, guys! Stop rubbing it in! When 'Kung Fu Panda' is playing on 'normal' screens, do they taunt the audience? "Ha, ha! You stupid hayseeds could be seeing this on an IMAX screen! Suckers! Oh, be sure and pick up the Blu-Ray version in September, where you can watch this on your 42 inch LCD T.V. with surround Dolby sound at your home! It'll be exactly like IMAX, except you won't have to put up with surly teenagers talking on their cell phones during the movie! And sticky floors! And retarded people carrying on conversations behind you! Um, wait... Why is the movie industry dying, again?"