Po: But I just caught Kung Fu
Shifu: And now... you must save it."
I enjoyed watching Kung Fu Panda 2. Still hilarious as the first one, this second installment is a fun to watch Jack Black (Po's voice) starrer this year.
The movie opens today.
read the movie's Full Review
There is a moment in Kung Fu Panda 2, Dreamworks’ stellar follow-up to its 2008 talking-animal blockbuster, that is as clever and subversive as any I’ve seen in recent animated films. Just before the climactic final battle, our hero, Po (Jack Black), thought to have been vanquished, re-appears above a rooftop to declare his challenge to the villainous Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), who sits upon a battleship in the canal below, preparing mount his siege. As Po launches into his speech, the camera pulls back to reveal that Shen is in fact well out of earshot; he can’t make out a single word the panda is saying. Shen pleas in vain for him to speak up, only to give up in frustration and commence his assault forthwith.
There are lovely bits like this scattered throughout Kung Fu Panda 2, little moments that undermine traditional action-movie tropes to hilarious effect. Much praise is owed to director Jennifer Yuh Nelson and returning writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, who have adroitly addressed the chief – and arguably only – complaint about the first film: that its story was too lightweight, too formulaic, too cautiously adherent to the conventional hero’s journey blueprint. Their follow-up may not be as charming or whimsical as its predecessor, but it makes up for it with added depth and emotional resonance.
