Kung Fu Panda 2 Review

Kung Fu Panda 2 Review
By Jose

Plot

Po is now living his dream as The Dragon Warrior, protecting the Valley of Peace alongside his friends and fellow kung fu masters, The Furious Five. But Po's new life of awesomeness is threatened by the emergence of a formidable villain, who plans to use a secret, unstoppable weapon to conquer China and destroy kung fu. Po must look to his past and uncover the secrets of his mysterious origins; only then will he be able to unlock the strength he needs to succeed.

Main Cast/Voice

Jack Black (Po), Angelina Jolie (Tigress), Dustin Hoffman (Shifu), Gary Oldman (Shen), Jackie Chan (Monkey),Seth Rogan (Mantis), Lucy Liu (Viper), David Cross (Crane), James Hong (Mr. Ping), Michele Yeoh (Soothsayer), Danny McBride (Wold Boss), Jean -Claude Van Damme (Master Croc)

Review
Po, along with the Furious Five, are back and must take on a deadly new threat to Kung Fu and China itself. The movie starts off showing us a bit of background story about the new deadly threat. Shen the son of royalty and a mastermind in the use of gunpowder and metal work to create cannons. Years past and he is almost ready to begin his take over, but he needs a bit more metal. That is where Po and the Furious Five get thrust into their new adventure. And I do mean thrust into.

Kung Fu Panda 2 starts off fast and does not slow down except for few point in the movie. And I feel that somewhat hurt the movie. The first movie had that build from beginning, middle, and end. Here it’s just go and go fast. The story doesn’t hurt from it that much but when it tries to build up Po’s past and some interactions of characters it seems out of place. Like how Tigress seems to be getting closer to Po and understands his situation. Now I know why because I saw the first movie. Tigress is also an orphan who has no family But for people who may not seen the first or forgot about it have these scenes that look out of place.

The CG animation is pretty. And I really mean pretty. The backgrounds and characters look beautiful and vivid. And the actions and fights scene flow and can be followed. I loved the beauty that Shen had, being a white and red peacock, and the way he moved and flowed and fought. Also I saw this in 3D yet I didn’t see anything really pop out and use that 3D. Which I found to be nice. The 3D was used to enhance the look and depth of the backgrounds and scenery of the movie.

Voice work was great not much I can complain about there. I do wish that some characters had some more to say. I mean seriously Monkey/Jackie Chan had all of two things to say. I hope he wasn’t paid a lot of money for what seemed like a half of hour of work. It was nice to know Jean-Claude Van Damme was used as one of the Masters, Master Croc. And I really did not realize that Danny McBride was the Wolf Boss until I saw the credits.

Final Thoughts

Overall I liked Kung fu Panda 2 a bit better than part one. A small bit better. The animation was great the voice work was great. I loved Shen/Oldman and his wolf army as the bad guys. A solid summer kids movie. I would even go as far as saying that I would like to see a third film especially considering the ending .

Ratings: 3.5 out of 5