Warriors of Virtue Reviews

An action fantasy featuring kung-fu kangaroos, ancient prophesies and a peaceable kingdom called Tao imperiled by the sort of curiously gendered sorcerer one generally finds only in Chinese supernatural tales. Poor little Ryan (Mario Yedidia), who wears a leg brace and is benignly neglected by his well-meaning but harried mom, wants to be one of the cool jock kids and accepts a foolhardy dare to win their approval. But a mishap sends him to the magical land of Tao, where more adventure than he could have imagined awaits. He encounters the usual mythic archetypes, including the beautiful Elysia (Marley Shelton), wise old Master Chung (Chao-Li Chi), wicked sorcerer Komodo (Angus MacFadyen) and his army, and the five virtuous warrior Rooz. The latter, who look uncannily like TANK GIRL's human-kangaroo hybrids (the Rippers), must settle their own differences in order to rescue Tao from Komodo's effetely nasty clutches. Hong Kong director Ronny Yu ( THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR) makes his U.S. debut with this martial-arts kid-pic, and though it contains some fabulously exotic images -- mostly thanks to the high-camp Komodo and his nefarious consorts -- the result is a derivative TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES- KARATE KID- MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS mishmash.