Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Lucy Liu

It's been a while since the last big movie animation event. That was probably Bee Movie, which turned out to be, er, a B movie.

The Disney/ Pixar axis is about to come up with this summer's other animation treat, Wall E, about an existentialist robot in the year 2070. And so, just for now, it has been left to Dreamworks to get ahead of the field, at least temporarily, with a feature that puts the term cartoon all to shame.

Legend tells of a legendary warrior whose kung fu skills were the stuff of legend — this is how the opening line goes ... and you know right away this is going to be a bit different.

The wise and wizened old Master Turtle is about to pronounce Tigress (Jolie, at her most stoical) as the Dragon Warrior when a big fat panda drops out of the sky in front of her. Turns out he's THE big fat panda, though, played with aplomb by Mr Black.

Jack Black's cinema character is, of course, closer to karaoke than karate but he has been attempting of late to widen his base, with semi-serious performances in King Kong and The Holiday.

Here he's back on solid, silly, semi-improvisation Black territory, the sort of thing his core audience enjoys most.

Panda is an ordinary purveyor of noodle soup who dreams of ninja fame and fighting glory and talks about things being all mystical and kungfueee. Bloody knuckles and broken bones are the only tokens he can expect.

Co-directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson have a strong pedigree including the genius that is Spongebob Square Pants, Shrek and Madagascar and manage to freshen up the old cliches of done-to death animated features based on animals.

Thus they subvert and send up the entire genre — what, no grasshopper? — while maintaining a basic respect which allows the story to build genuine tension and excitement, and still stay funny.

Thus the basic David vs Goliath story-line comes over as well scrubbed up, if not entirely new. The result is first rate family entertainment.

Co-writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger come from a television background, and the superb King of the Hill, and so can come up with lines like the following, supremely mixing fun and fantasy.

"It is said that the Dragon Warrior can go for months without eating," says Tigress, "surviving on the dew of a single ginko leaf and the energy of the universe."

"Then I guess my body doesn't know I'm the Dragon Warrior yet. It's gonna take a lot more than dew, and, uh, universe juice," Panda Jack replies.

Animation has now even developed beyond the excellence which was Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and Flushed Away, so that, apart from the general 3-D effect, almost every pinpoint appears to be bursting with colour.

There are the stunning backdrops we have come to expect but with many special features like the lantern lit eyes of the bad guys.

To make something special you just have to believe it is special.

This is.