Kung Fu Panda 2

Kung Fu Panda was huge in every sense, $631 million at the worldwide box office and an indelible character amply voiced by Jack Black. This is a voice role that may come to define his career, even though he does not actually appear in a single frame.

Understandably Dreamworks Studios would be failing shareholders not to expand the franchise further and we now have the second film, in what almost certainly will become a trilogy.

Does the film suffer from mid trilogy bloat and irrelevance, well actually no. Everything is subjective but this is the equal or may even surpass in some ways, the original film.

Po Ping or Dragon warrior (Black) managed through his daring deeds and hopeless optimism to save "Kung Fu" in the first film, here he has a much harder task. Finding himself, reconciling his own adoption and achieving "inner peace" all the while fighting off the genocidal Lord Shen (Oldman) of Gongman City. Shen is intent on destroying everything and everyone to fill the emptiness, due to a lack of paternal love.

As Po would say, "It's like, quite deep".

As before, Po manages to complete daring feats and heroic acts, not so much out of bravery but by falling skillfully, more often than not led by his ample stomach in search of a quick feed. He does not do this alone of course, we have on hand his usual fighting crew. Tigress (Jolie), Monkey (Chan), Mantis (Rogen), Crane (Cross) & Viper (Liu), heavy hitting star power for a children's animated movie.

We also have Shifu (Hoffman) returning as a "Yoda" like mentor and Mr Ping (Hong) as Po's adopted father, who provides comic relief and some touching scenes in equal measure. The film tidying up the slight oddity of a Panda being the son of a Goose. Michelle Yeo voices the soothsayer that predicts Shen's future, who may or may not be useful to his quest in equal measure. Even Jean Claude Van Damme gets a look in as Master Croc, which always looks good on your filmography.

It goes without saying that the animation and sound are top rate and the story unfolds in a natural way and does not feel conceived merely to extend the franchise. We wanted to know more about the character and here we explore Po's past and why this new threat is so personal and debilitating to him, his own Kryptonite if you will.

What made the previous film really stand out was the hand drawn oriental style animation that interspersed the action, fleshing out stories told by the characters. Here we are again treated to similar sequences which lift the film to another level. For every child friendly chase sequence there is a tender scene which manages to appeal to adults without detracting from the on screen colourful antics.

Will Po manage to vanquish evil again, find balance and reconcile his past, well the deviations from the norm can only be stretched so far but the journey is the thing and there is much to enjoy along the way.

Could well be the the best animated film of the year, Pixar have definite competition in this genre and perhaps mirroring the arc from Toy Story 1 to 2. If so, then the third outing could be special indeed.

Summary

Equalling or even eclipsing the first film this achieves all the studio could have hoped for. Family friendly with a good heart, exquisite animation and a starry but well used voice cast.

Highly Recommended and as the tagline says, "full of awesomeness".

If kung fu panda was star wars then this one is esb . This was back when jack black was at its peak with Angelina back when she was married to brad Pitt. This is also the first DreamWorks cartoon to be directed by a woman and has found great success in China. The success of this and the end of the trilogy has spawned a t.v. series and countless merchandise.

I'd not seen the first Kung-Fu Panda film since it had come out in the late noughties, and I hadn't seen any of the other ones at all until it my toddler started watching them and I picked up 2 and 3 for her. After watching the first one loads, I managed to move her to the second, for my own variety as much as anything else. The plot sees Po trying to settle into his new role as Dragon Warrior, at the same time as a banished son returns to the city to use a new powerful weapon to seize control of the city and country. It has a slightly darker tone than the first film, because it touches on Po's backstory, and it carries itself with more dramatic sequences than the first film did (where we only got to see the power and anger of Tai Lung in a handful of scenes - mostly the film was about Po's training).

This slightly extra weight adds to the characters and the narrative, and at the same time the scale of the film feels bigger as we move into a city, with the stakes high. This means the action sequences feel like they mean more, and in return the actions is bigger, more polished, and fits well with the gravity-defying excess of the genre that the film is referencing and drawing from. It did this well in the first film too, but here it feels much more satisfying in the scale of it all. At its heart though the film remains funny, entertaining, easy for families, and with good moral messages throughout. As with the first film, the use of Chinese culture swings from mostly feeling well used and cleverly adopted, to being a bit cheap - but mostly it works well.

Animation and production is of a very high standard, and the voice cast is even deeper than in the first film, with people like Oldman, Yeoh, Haysbert, Garber, Van Damme, and McBride joining an already very starry cast. Black doesn't always work for me, but he keeps Po funny but likeable, while Oldman manages to bring gravity to his performance and have good comic timing too.

In my mind, the Kung-Fu Panda films were sort of 'lesser' films because I always saw Pixar's deeper content as being superior to Dreamworks stuff, however this second film lifts from the already good first, and is a very enjoyable and satisfying family film.

Having seen and enjoyed (if not been bowled over by) the original, I was surprised and delighted by this movie that seems to prove that Dreamworks, while still not quite on a Pixar level (Yet!) could soon catch them up. It handles much more sensitive material than the first movie and tackles some truly dark and heavy subject material, but manages to keep it from becoming a drama by dropping in comedic material in a manner that is never jarring, out of place, or desperate. Lord Shen made for one of the most delightful villains of recent movie history. His push against the future contrasting with Po's struggle with the past was wonderful to watch. Po's talks with his father brought a tear to my eye in more than one moment in the film. This company and production team have firmly established themselves as formidable storytellers and I'm eager to see what's next.

My biggest fear about sequels is it's gonna end up pretty bad and ruin the first one. But I remember, Dreamworks already understand how to make a true good animated movie so I don't have to worry. Now the sequel just got more awesome. Non-stop action and non-stop laughs. The heart is also there. "Kung Fu Panda 2" is just as good as the first one.

The trailer makes us dubious but this is Dreamworks. Anyways, "Kung Fu Panda 2" is a great continuation of the series. The story still has a heart and some scenes can almost move you to tears. The movie has bigger and more Kung Fu action & yes, the action never stops. It's all kick butt action.

I like it how they improved the editing. Remember Megamind, It feels like you were flying in every flying sequences. They did the same thing in "Kung Fu Panda 2". Fast Moving Action that it's fun to see it even if it's in 2D. I don't really bash 3D though. The jokes are obviously everywhere. Even in serious scenes it suddenly has humor.

The new comers from the cast did a great job. Gary Oldman is definitely good at being a villain in movies even if it's animated. Michelle Yeoh made her character likable. Jean-Claude Van Damme is awesome even though his scenes were few. This movie still has the same style from the first movie. Magnificent flash animation in the intro, flashbacks, and the dream sequence. Nice music score. And a lot more.

I just said this movie is as good as the first movie but if I had to pick which Kung Fu Panda movie is better then it would be the first one. It's more heartwarming but Kung Fu Panda 2 is already good enough as a sequel because it's bigger and too awesome. Unfortunately, It's too awesome it moderates the depth a little bit but it's entertaining at its best. To be honest, this could be the best movie of the summer so far.