02.06
My word, Dreamworks has done it! They have made a sequel that not only is quite good to the point that it surpasses the original, but have made a film that can easily give this year’s Pixar entry a run for it’s money. Creatively speaking, that is.
But seriously, Kung-Fu Panda 2 surpassed all expectations it had, and comes out as a damn fine film.
The film follows after the first one, with Po (voiced by Jack Black), the titular panda, living up his role as the Dragon Warrior. Alongside the Furious Five, Po helps protect his village from attackers, and the six take on a raid early on.
After some exciting action, sidestepped by well-placed gags, Po has a flashback to when he was a young bear, which he’s never thought about before. Po visits his father, the geese Mr. Ping (voiced by James Hong), who explains, and here’s a shocker, that Po was adopted. This leads Po to question who his parents really are, and when Master Shifu (givien life by Dustin Hoffman), the sensei of Po and the Furious Five, discovers that a couple of high-powered kung-fu masters have been captured, and sends the warriors to China to rescue them, Po realizes that he has a chance to find out who his parents are.
The person in charge of this kidnapping is Lord Shen (here voiced by Gary Oldman), a vicious peacock exacting his revenge on Gongmen City, which he was planned to rule. All seems well for the warriors when they head into the City and face off against him, but the feathers of Shen remind Po about the flashback from earlier, which traces back to when his parents had to leave him. Even when Po has the chance to stop Shen, he gives up, and lets him loose.
Without spoiling the rest, other than saying that the ending is very sweet, I’ll go over to the qualities of the film.
The perks of the first Kung-Fu Panda comes from the lack of pop culture references, potty humor, or half-assed “adult” jokes that plague most Dreamworks productions, and a better focus on heart, genuine humor, and story. Great CG character animation alongside an impressive hand-drawn opening sequence also helped to make the film a winner.
A clever poop joke aside (even that barely counts, though), all of this continues to be true for the sequel. The writing is still solid, with a good balance of cute dialogue and funny slapstick for the comedic side, and strong character development and an engaging story to hold everything together. One of the biggest problems with the first film was the lack of use for the Furious Five, Angelina Jolie’s Tigress aside. Here, they get more screentime, more time to shine in combat, and a couple of strong lines each. Seth Rogen’s Mantis and David Cross’s Crane in particular have some good stuff, but I still feel like Jackie Chan’s Monkey is sadly underused.
The first film relied on the chemistry of Po and Shifu, but that was sidetracked here for the Furious Five getting more time to shine and Po’s character arc. Even then, there is some good stuff between the two characters at the beginning and near the end. Their meeting together at the beginning is especially poignant and important to the overall story.
Shen was a worthy foe for the warriors. He was ruthless, clever, and held his own against Po and the Furious Five. There wasn’t much to separate him from Tai Lung, the previous film’s antagonist, but he works here for himself.
I saw this in 2D, but was still impressed by the animation. Similarly to last year’s How to Train Your Dragon, I was blown away by the fire effects, and the character animation remains as crisp as ever, Po in particular moving delectably rough. The film also used methods of animation other than computerized, starting off with a Chinese puppetry introduction, and converting to a similar hand-drawn look from the first one’s opening for flashbacks. It works well, as each use of animation is impressive.
The action was very well done. Each warrior has their own distinctive form of combat that looks and feels vibrant and is sharply detailed. The more intense the fights become, the sharper the choreography proves to be. The fireworks-filled finale shows this off in particular.
The ending leads up to a potential third film, which isn’t too surprising, since the franchise is ordered for six parts. Between the next potential four films (that is, if Dreamworks doesn’t back out on that order, like they did when they canceled the fifth Shrek) and the upcoming Nickelodeon series, not to mention potential specials, like the holiday special which aired on NBC last November, it’s possible that fans can be Panda-ed out before long.
As someone who greatly enjoyed both films and the first special, I hope that’s not the case, and we get at least one more film. Kung-Fu Panda 2 was funnier, had better action and more character moments than the first, and didn’t feel too long or short. It’s more or less the perfect sequel, especially by Dreamworks’ standards. If they could pull something like this off again, I eagerly anticipate whatever comes next for Po and the Five.
Originally posted on Monday, May 30, 2011.