You don’t hear “bodacious” used a lot in most movies. You’ll hear it a lot in Kung Fu Panda. Po (the panda) likes his bodacity (as well as his awesomeness). The last time I think I heard “bodacious” prior to this was in An Officer and a Gentleman — and definitely not the same context, but I digress ...

I was caught surprised when my daughter fell in love with Kung Fu Panda. I suppose I should have seen it coming, what with her current “woodland animals” obsession and all, but I was still surprised. These days we hear her thumping around upstairs, trying to master the spinning jump kick. She also tells me she wants to take kung fu, and I am so not ready to teach her any combat skills when she already has more than enough combativeness as an amateur. (Yes, I know that martial arts don’t make children more aggressive — I’m just making a point.) All in all, I was quite pleased that she’s using Kung Fu Panda on the Wii to exercise her combat needs.

Kung Fu Panda starts with some storytelling and then jumps right into the tutorial and some action. Each time there’s a new move, you see a little example with the Wii-mote on the screen. Apparently there are a number of combinations you can do to really optimize your potential for destruction. That being said, my daughter did quite well in most case using just the standard attacks — shaking the Wii-mote around and using the A or B buttons mainly. Combat sequences that needed a specific other action would show you exactly what was needed (again a little Wii-mote cue on the screen).

Kung Fu Panda is bouncy and fun and captures the spirit of the movie. Had I not been told otherwise, I would swear they’d gotten Jack Black to voice the panda in the game — the voice is that well-done. The other sounds of the game work just as nicely, though I will say that most of the other characters were not nearly as closely voiced as Po. Visually, the characters certainly looked like themselves, and I enjoyed the landscape around them.

I did have some trouble with the platforming parts. My jump timing was not the greatest, and I couldn’t always tell where I was relative to the edge of something. I noticed more than once that when I successfully made a jump with Po, my little virtual self would be hanging in mid air — obviously not hanging onto anything and yet appearing to grip an invisible wall. This graphical quirk was a small inconsistency for me. I don’t think my daughter even noticed.

I was caught be surprised as I moved Po through the grounds trying to get in to see the Furious Five, and then suddenly I was Tigress and in battle. I could have used a little warning and some sort of warning about the transition. If there was a warning, I definitely missed it.

I picked up Kung Fu Panda for my daughter. I’m not really into this kind of action/platforming game. It’s not something I would regularly choose to play, but I have no qualms about letting my daughter enjoy it. Yes, there’s obviously kung fu and the violence part, but there’s nothing gory or scary about it. Po losing a battle just meant starting the battle over. It was no big deal.

I asked my daughter if she had anything she’d like to say about Kung Fu Panda. She says Kung Fu Panda is “a little good” (which is a high compliment for her), and she wants you and the Furious Five to watch out for Tai Lung.