Some things no amount of animation can salvage. Kenny Rogers' face, for instance.

And then there is Jack Black in Kung Fu Panda, swaddled in layers of black and white computer-generated fur and delivering a performance that rates among his most persuasive and appealing.

As Po, the pot-bellied panda at the centre of this energetic all-ages dazzler, Black crafts a character that is all awkward-limbed, plush-bodied charm -- a roly-poly reinvigoration for the actor who hasn't been this winning (CG-rendered or not) since School of Rock.

Grousers may gripe about a threadbare plot recycled from multitudes of other Hollywood epics about underdogs who achieve greatness under the watch of a sage but cranky teacher.

But even within those formulaic confines, Kung Fu Panda is hugely rewarding. As directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne, it's visually lavish (the renderings of China's landscape are an eye-popping blast) and gratifyingly arch. Moreover, it never devolves into the smart-ass pop-culture referencing that has become commonplace in our post-Shrek age despite some genuinely sly vocal work from its assembled A-listers.

Chief among them is Dustin Hoffman, cast as Shifu, the red panda and martial-arts master who comes to train Po to transcend his portly frame and

meagre origins as a waiter at his father's (James Wong) noodle shop. (Despite the fact his dad is a goose, Po has apparently never clued in that they might not be biologically simpatico.)

All his life Po has dreamed of one day joining the "Furious Five" -- Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Snake (Lucy Liu), Crane (David Cross) and Monkey (Jackie Chan) -- even though he's a burly, bumbling bear.

When wise -- or merely borderline senile -- turtle Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) prophesizes that evil warrior Tai Lung (Deadwood's Ian McShane) is destined to return to the Valley of Peace, it's decided a new "dragon warrior" should be

chosen to inherit a scroll of limitless power in the hope of defeating the imminent threat.

Rather than one of the Five, however, Oogway names Po -- following a slapstick series of mishaps too complicated to explain here -- as the land's saviour.

Predictably the warriors, as well as Shifu, are outraged. How could this pudgy panda defeat their deadliest enemy? Can Po prove them wrong? Does he have a hope against the lethal, vengeful Tai Lung?

If you're familiar with one Mr. Miyagi or, for that matter, Yoda, then the outcome will come as no surprise -- nor will little else from a script that travels the wide and well-trodden path.

Still, there is plenty to admire -- chiefly Black and Hoffman, an endearing comic duo. "We don't wash our pits in the Pool of Eternal Tears," Shifu advises Po.

Maybe not. But it sure helps scrub away memories of Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny.

(This film is rated PG)

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