Sometimes it is important to take a political stand. And sometimes it is just fun to watch a cartoon panda trying to do kung fu.

Despite calls in China to boycott “Kung Fu Panda,” the animated movie about a panda with a passion for martial arts has become a huge box office hit.

The film, from DreamWorks Animation and Paramount Pictures, has already grossed over $12 million after less than two weeks in release, making the film’s opening one of the strongest in China in recent years.

Globally, the movie has brought in $275 million, Paramount said Sunday.

Some Chinese critics had asked consumers to protest the film because Steven Spielberg, a top executive at DreamWorks, resigned last February as artistic adviser to the 2008 Beijing Olympics after failing to persuade Chinese officials to do more in the Darfur region of Sudan.