Kung Fu Panda 2

"Monday Movie Night: is a new tradition at my home, started by yours truly: The Review Guru! Since I am watching movies on Monday night, I will be reviewing them Tuesday night, so expect a new movie review every Tuesday in addition to the other regular posts. Mark your calendars, people!

Tonight's post is on Kung Fu Panda 2, the sequel to the hugely successful Kung Fu Panda released in 2008. The original movie was pretty straight-forward: Po the Panda is a lowly restaurant attendant for his "father's" noodle shop, though his true passions lie in kung fu. He idolizes the kung fu masters of the village temple, often daydreaming about the seemingly impossible scenario of joining them.



As the day nears for the illustrious Dragon Warrior to be chosen, the village is alight with celebration -- until they learn it is actually Po who is chosen to be the Dragon Warrior. A disappointment at first, Po eventually proves himself through protection of the Dragon Scroll and the defeat of the notorious kung fu villain Tai Lung, who believes he is actually the Dragon Warrior.

The previous movie featured an all-star cast, most of whom return for the second movie. In both movies, there is Jack Black as the panda Po, Seth Rogen as Mantis, Angelina Jolie as Tigress, Lucy Liu as Viper, Jackie Chan as Monkey, and David Cross as Crane. Dustin Hoffman plays their master, a red panda by the name of Shifu. In the second movie, we see the villian peacock Shen voiced by Gary Oldman, among other popular names such as Jean-Claude Van Damme, Danny McBride, and more.

By the time of Kung Fu Panda 2, the Dragon Warrior is immensely popular among the people of his village. He is their [less-than-] stalwart defender, somehow having mastered Kung Fu alongside his legendary team, the Furious Five (Mantis, Crane, Monkey, Viper, and Tigress). During one battle with wolf raiders, which should have been easy, he is distracted by a symbol that brings to the surface memories long forgotten.

Chasing after the wolves, they travel to the home of legendary Kung Fu Masters Croc and Storming Ox, Gongmen City. The city has been taken over by the vengeful peacock Shen, who has devised a "mysterious weapon" of gunpowder to end the reign of Kung Fu as the art of battle. Po learns that it is Shen and the wolves who had a hand in orphaning him, resolving to find out what happened to his parents, even at the expense of his life.

While a dramatic plot provides the backbone of the movie, the visual effects of a computer-generated movie are incredibly important. When a movie is entirely CG animated, it must be held to a higher standard for visuals than that of a live-action movie, since the visuals are entirely human-made. Kung Fu Panda 2 does not disappoint; in fact, the animation was visibly improved. Kudos the the CG team on that one!

Kung Fu Panda 2 has a lot going for it: the incredible CG animation work, the interesting plot, and even a sense of comedy that seems to have matured a bit since the last movie (though still appeals to a more base sense of humor). Unless I was being nit-picky, Kung Fu Panda 2 seems to have no traits I would consider exceedingly 'bad' and those small annoyances have been washed away from my memory by the overall well-done job. Of Kung Fu Panda 2, the Review Guru says: BUY!