With a PG rating, a pubescent lead (20-year-old television veteran Michael Angarano), and a decidedly child-friendly story, Forbidden Kingdom attempts to unite kung fu moves with kiddie fare and, in that regard, legitimately succeeds. Its bloodless action sequences are simultaneously physically impressive and tame (in terms of violence), but it's the film's innate silliness that is the real draw for a younger audience. This first ever pairing of superstars Jackie Chan and Jet Li is less the wu-shu smack down that many fans had been hoping for and more of a journey into the loopy absurdity of martial arts films, dumbed down for a slower, younger audience.

Li plays a mythical creature, The Monkey King (as well as Monkey's clone, The Silent Monk), while Chan fills The Drunken Immortal's shoes, while also doubling as a pawn shop clerk. The pair, along with pretty young Yifei Liu (as Golden Sparrow) and Angarano's Jason, set off to free the world from the grip of the evil Jade Warlord. That the proceeding two sentences read like utter nonsense is no obstacle for the film - indeed, its goofiness is one of Forbidden Kingdom's finest virtues. However, the screenplay from western writer John Fusco (Young Guns, Hildalgo) is a shambles of ancient fables and abrasive modernity, which leaves director Rob Minkoff (The Lion King, The Haunted Mansion) without much story traction.

As the film approaches the end of its way-too-long two-hour running time, it has unravelled to such a degree that characters seem to float in and out of its narrative indeterminately, which hardly serves it well. The pleasure of seeing Li and Chan sharing the same slice of celluloid is hard to knock, but that hardly makes up for its unapologetic plotlessness.