I’m guessing Confucius scribbled something on a drink coaster about not basing judgments on appearances. In any case, the prospect of Kung Fu Panda does not bode well, what with its jokey, high-concept title, assortment of cute cartoon critters who inexplicably wear pants and the name of Jack Black on the marquee. That the latest feature from DreamWorks’ animation department is so clever, energetic and enjoyable is one of the summer movie season’s most welcome surprises. What’s more, the words “kung fu” genuinely deserve to be there. Thanks to its thrillingly kinetic and expertly choreographed action sequences, this Hollywood toon feels more like a vintage Yuen Woo-ping flick than Shrek The Third.

“We didn’t want to make purely a comedy or a parody or a spoof,” says John Stevenson, one of Kung Fu Panda’s duo of directors and a veteran animator, designer and puppeteer for DreamWorks and Jim Henson. “We wanted to make a real kung fu movie. Given that it was going to have talking animals and would be funny, we also wanted to put in all the things that we love about the great martial arts movies.”

Their appreciation of the genre couldn’t be any clearer from the enthusiasm that Stevenson and co-director Mark Osborne — whose CV includes several award-winning shorts, plus live-action segments for SpongeBob SquarePants — express for inspirations like Iron Monkey, Once Upon a Time in China and Hero. And while Kung Fu Panda has plenty of tyke-pleasing slapstick and silliness, there’s no trace of chop-socky mockery.

As Stevenson says in a phone interview with the pair last week, “Anything that was self-referential or winked at the audience or was in there to get a laugh at the expense of martial arts movies, we weren’t interested in.” Osborne also notes with pride that “we fought really hard to be the one movie that doesn’t have a fart joke in it.”

Himself the sort of guy who gets light-headed at the sight of the Shaw Brothers logo, Black took his task just as seriously. The actor lays off the shtick and finds the heart and soul of Po, a panda in an ancient Chinese kingdom who longs to be a kung fu master yet seems more likely to inherit his dad’s noodle shop. Revered teacher Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) is shocked when a prophecy suggests Po is destined for greatness. In full 36th Chamber of Shaolin style, Po overcomes great obstacles to prove that he belongs in the company of a revered group of fighters known as the Furious Five (voiced by Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, David Cross and Jackie Chan).

Though more skilled than the average bear, Po is no one’s idea of a kung fu hero. Then again, you could say the same thing about Sammo Hung, the martial-arts great who was another inspiration for Kung Fu Panda’s creators. “We looked a lot at his films,” says Stevenson. “He’s a brilliant martial artist but he’s not got a very conventional shape to be super-athletic. Obviously, he’s aware of that and he has fun with the shape at the same time as he dazzles you with his acrobatic feats.”

Using Hung as a model also made Po’s size something to embrace rather than overcome. Stevenson says he’s surprised when he hears people suggest that Kung Fu Panda’s hero has weight issues. “Po is exactly the right weight for a panda,” he accurately attests. “That’s why he succeeds when he understands, ‘I’m a panda and I don’t have to be a tiger or anything else — I can be myself and use what I’ve got and win.’ That’s what Sammo Hung does — he uses what he’s got in a way that you’ve never seen anybody of that build or shape do.”

Adds Osborne, “We got to meet him when he came in to read for a part and it was a huge honour. And he’s tiny. He’s shaped like a square.”

“He’s a box, basically,” says Stevenson, laughing, “except one that could kill you!”
They were equally thrilled when they presented footage to Hung’s old Peking Opera School classmate, Jackie Chan.

“We had considered going to Jackie to see if we could involve him more in our choreography but we couldn’t for various technical and artistic reasons,” says Stevenson. “He’s in the film because we couldn’t think of making a kung fu movie without him but our process is so different to what he does in the physical world, we found we had to define our own kung fu style. So certainly, we were a bit shy and nervous when we showed him our finished action scenes to see if he’d think they were cool or legit but he was very enthusiastic. That’s the best Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval we could possibly get: Jackie Chan thinks our action is cool!”