If Forbidden Kingdom was the one punch, then Kung Fu Panda is the follow-up two. I'm not sure what the recent fascination is with old cheesy kung fu movies -- and it may have begun late last year with the silly Balls of Fury -- but now we have two rather lovey-dovey valentines to these films released in a row. And they practically have the same plot, too, although given how generic that plot is, the coincidence wasn't hard to come by. Once again, a schlub who loves kung fu for its outward hy-yah! appeal gets selected as a "chosen one" to battle some great evil, so he's gotta get in shape and learn about karate's disciplines the hard way by training with tough masters. Of course.

To be honest, I dreaded going into Kung Fu Panda -- it looked ripe with opportunities to make bad jokes at the expense of what is essentially a way outdated view of Chinese culture. Not only that, it's also a DreamWorks Animation production, and I've grown to shudder at one of those when approaching it. They're reliable for delivering cheap humor, often crass, smart-alecky, and laden with current pop culture references and celebrity send-ups. If this approach is combined with what's essentially a cultural target -- well, the horrific possibilities seem endless.

As it turns out, Kung Fu Panda emerges as a pleasant surprise. It avoids easy targets and actually bases its humor in its performances -- voices and accompanying character animations. Nary a modern reference to anything can be found,  and we can be thankful  Larry King doesn't show up as a baboon or something this time. It's a completely self-contained little story, and it sincerely delivers its comedy and, yes, drama. Jack Black's voice performance, sense of humor, and, no doubt, point of reference for the main character's physical performance are what give the movie its modern accessibility, but I admit I was surprised when  the rest of the story and characters actually provided a straight and calm, complementary background to Black's spotlighted antics.

The movie is not without weaknesses, however. It still has the American animated feature syndrome of making sure it appeals to kids, and the story gets  hamstrung by corny lessons learned in countless other animated flicks, but it's also fair to say the movie doesn't strive for anything beyond that. The film is about an adolescent panda, after all. But bonus points should also be given to the filmmakers for being creative wherever they could. The introductory dream sequence is animated so stylistically that I wish it didn't change into the usual 3-D animated look when it ended. But within that usual look, the animators give their world a vibrant and colorful atmosphere, and the anthropomorphic animals move fluidly and boast very expressive faces. Dustin Hoffman's character, whom I want to call a marmoset but I'm probably wrong, is especially expressive, an impressive feat all on its own.

Kung Fu Panda also thrives on action, where it may be at odds with its for-kids agenda, as this is the kind of cartoon violence that creates parental headaches caused by having to stop their kids from trying to chase and karate chop each other. But regardless of how this affects children, the craft in the action sequences is exciting to watch. It's quite similar to the over-the-top action in a Stephen Chow movie, and it's shot even better than those action movies which edit their fight sequences with a blender.

Any success derived from this enterprise probably comes almost solely from its technical delivery -- its humor, its animation, its voice-acting, its action. As an entertainment of the moment, it works well, but it doesn't have much ambition for more. The whole of Kung Fu Panda serves to solidify further the romanticizing of the old kung fu flicks. The homage has less to do with Chinese culture than with Chinese movies, and it amounts to the same love Forbidden Kingdom was expressing -- an earnest fondness for Bruce Lee, Shaw Brothers, crouching tigers, drunken masters, and five deadly venoms. All this, and DreamWorks is finally able to deliver an animated feature with a warm heart, sans condescending irony. Be sure to stay through the credits -- not to listen to yet another inane cover of "Kung Fu Fighting" (Can we make that song go away now? Please? It's more tired than the "Hokey Pokey" at weddings) but to catch one more example of this newfound sense of warmth. I hope it's the beginning of a good trend.

(Released by DreamWorks and rated "PG" for sequences of martial arts action.)

Review also posted at www.windowtothemovies.com