The movie easily bested Adam Sandler's latest comedy, the PG-13 rated "You Don't Mess with the Zohan," and pushed the disappointing "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" out of the winner's circle (probably for good).
Too often when we talk about "family" movies what we really mean is a picture that adults can enjoy as much as their kids. Hence the rise of the clever Pixar cartoons which often are filled with pop cultural references that are way over the heads of kids under the age of 10.
Disney has also tapped into this trend of courting the parents who attend movies with their kids through the company's long series of cartoons that have the feel of Broadway musicals, starting with "The Little Mermaid" in 1989.
"Kung Fu Panda" is a throwback to the pure kiddie matinee movie — it's silly and fast (90 minutes) and comes with almost no adult pop culture baggage.
Whenever I go to see a movie geared to younger audiences, I try to sit in the back row to check out the number of times kids ask their parents for an impromptu intermission.
I feel more like a consumer reporter than a movie reviewer when I attend something like "Kung Fu Panda" and it was nice to see a large group of kids riveted to the action on the screen for the film's entire
With so many PG-13 movies containing material that is completely inappropriate for pre-teens — the Sandler movies are never rated R, but are always full of sexual innuendo — it's refreshing to see a "family" picture that won't lead to any embarrassing questions from the kids after the screening.
Too often the PG pictures designed specifically for young kids are saccharine time wasters. "Kung Fu Panda" is basically light fun, but it also has an Asian cultural dimension that separates it from many of the Disney cartoons set in bland Middle American locales.
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