Writer/director Stephen Chow delivers another highly entertaining live-action cartoon that shows what happens when some washed-up Shaolin masters rediscover their powers and come together to play in the Chinese SuperCup competition.

Chow is Mighty Steel Leg Sing. Despite his abilities, he can’t make a living and is trying to find a way to turn Shaolin Kung Fu into not only a profitable revenue stream but also one that will make him happy.

When a disgraced, broken-legged coach, Golden Leg Fung (Man-Tat Ng) sees the potential in him, the pair seek to throw together a team that will be able to take on the always victorious Team Evil, coached by Hung (Yin Tse) who was the man who betrayed Fung and arranged for his broken leg.

But getting a team together, and reuniting his Shaolin brothers, not to mention training them up to play football, isn’t going to be that easy. And Sing often finds himself a little distracted by a sweet bun maker, who may also be a master, Mui (Wei Zhao).

The visual effects that would be on display in his follow-up Kung Fu Hustle work really here, it just feels like a live-action cartoon, there are wonderful, improbable moments brought to life that are laugh-out-loud funny but don’t detract from the emotional arc of the film.

All the characters, especially the Shaolin brothers, get their moments, and going in you know how the film is going to end, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t going to enjoy the journey. And I love the idea of combining football with kung fu. It’s just such a fun idea, and I can’t imagine any kid, or anyone with an imagination not wondering how such a thing would play out.

The film is just shy of an hour and a half in its running time. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, it comes in, smacks you in the face with a football, invites you to come and play for a little while, just forgetting everything and just enjoying the moment, and then it lets you back out into the world with a bit of a goofy smile on your face.

Chow obviously loves cartoons, and kung fu movies, and the fact that he’s been able to combine them a few times to such great effect means he’s not the only one who loves those things, and in that combination.

It’s delightfully, goofy fun that reminds us that not all movies need to be cinema, they can just be damned fine popcorn entertainment and should be loved all the more for it.

Isn’t it time to check this one out again?