Kung Fu Panda is not going to win awards for originality. It is not a ground-breaking work of animation the way Toy Story was, or cynical and witty like the first Shrek film. Nor is it conspicuously clever or littered with the kind of pop-culture references designed to make mum and dad feel included. You won’t find original use of CGI effects, or those cutesy Randy Newman songs (thank heavens) that people love. But in terms of pure family fun and entertainment, Kung Fu Panda is one of the best animation films to appear for a long while.

This is the story of Po (voiced by Jack Black), an obese kung-fu fan who gets off his large furry bottom and follows his dream of being a great kung-fu fighter. Of course, his dad, Ping (James Hong), would prefer Po to follow in his own footsteps and devote his life to the making and selling of noodles. (To Po, Ping’s dream of selling tofu pongs.) It is amazing that Americans make so many supposedly “wholesome” family entertainment films that essentially say to the young: “Screw your family and go follow your own dreams.”

On the surface, Kung Fu Panda looks like a celebration of Chinese culture and Hong Kong kung-fu films, but its core values are pure American. “Just believe in yourself” is the film’s message, and the Big Idea that American popular culture exports to the world - though, in the battle for hearts and minds, can American self-belief compete with the fundamentalist belief of militant Islam?

Anyway, Po gets the opportunity to realise his dream when the local kung-fu master of masters, the old turtle, Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), has a vision that the evil Tai Lung (voiced by Ian McShane) is going to escape from prison. Oogway decides that a new Dragon Warrior must be found to protect the village. All the villagers rush up the great steps to the mountain top to see the tournament to find the new warrior - including the exhausted but tenacious Po, who ends up being the chosen one. Oogway’s disciple, Master Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman), is horrified by this, and so are his kung-fu fighting pupils, the furious five: Tigress (voiced by Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Crane (David Cross), Viper (Lucy Liu) and Mantis (Seth Logan).

To get Po to quit, Master Shifu subjects him to the rigours of training, which include the horrors of spiked pendulums, spinning wooden dummies and floors that shoot out flames of fire. That’s nothing compared to the pain of being rejected by his heroes, the furious five. But Po refuses to give up. When evil Lung really does escape from prison, Master Shifu accepts the ultimate challenge: to turn roly-poly Po into a kung-fu master.

Po is a familiar type: the lovable loser who is a daydreaming doo-fus. He is a big, bumbling fatso with a personal hygiene problem but a heart of gold. It is his honesty that makes him so endearing. When caught by Master Shifu stuffing his face with food, the anxious Po says to him, “What? I eat when I’m upset. Okay?”

This is Jack Black’s best performance. With most star voicing, you are are always aware it is a star doing the voice; you can see them in your mind’s eye in the recording booth, headphones on, script in front of them and watching the screen. But with Black, panda and performer are one. He manages to make Po one of the great tormented fat characters of the cinema; a kind of animated John Candy with fur. The relationship between Po and Master Shifu dominates the film, and it is good to see Dustin Hoffman back on form. Kung Fu Panda actually boasts a collection of characters voiced by celebrities, though they remain on the periphery of the story and lack distinct personalities.

As well as heart, the film manages to be funny. Most of the comedy is of the slapstick sort. Watching characters fall over and crash into walls is usually my idea of hell, but here, it works. And there are some funny lines, as when Po first meets the furious five and says, “You’re much bigger than your action figures.”

This is essentially a kung-fu film for preteens. It doesn’t try to parody the classics of the genre. The fight scenes have a dramatic and creative inventiveness that holds your attention, particularly the scene in which Po and Master Shifu engage in a battle over dumplings: you can see that great care has been taken to relate fighting techniques to the actual characters.

Along with the gripping fight sequences, we get a gorgeous film to look at - and one that doesn’t last too long. With its pastel sunsets, mist-shrouded mountains and flowering trees, it offers numerous pleasures for the eye. But what it has that so many other animated films lack is heart. Po is one of that special breed of animated characters we actually care about; one who manages to go from zero to hero without losing his endearing humanity.

PG, 92 mins

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