Kung Fu Panda 2 Reviews

Identically similar to before the release of the first Kung Fu Panda film, the sequel was released when DreamWorks Animation provided us with animated features that may have had a colourful and delightful approach and been successful at the box office, but with the exception of How To Train Your Dragon, had resulted in mixed critical response. The trailer of Kung Fu Panda 2 looked promising and we got yet another entertaining ride for families and individuals of all ages to enjoy. However, this time, the sequel went somewhere a little different than its predecessor as it added more emotional drama to the story. Therefore, as well as fun action and hilarious jokes, Kung Fu Panda 2 was a very touching sequel.


Although she has worked with DreamWorks Animation on a number of projects over the years, South Korean film director Jennifer Yuh makes her directorial debut with Kung Fu Panda 2. Yuh gives us all of the excitement, the magic and the comedy that Mark Osborne and John Stevenson provided and, therefore, we experienced in the predecessor back in 2008. However, there was something a little more to the sequel. It surprisingly became a very moving and thought-provoking story with a meaningful and tender message, which will affect adult and child audiences alike. Furthermore, this sequel is a tad darker, story-wise too, and it revealed a few hidden secrets that has opened up Kung Fu Panda as a franchise.


Jack Black reprised his role as the big, fat panda Po. He has proved himself worthy as the Dragon Warrior and has ultimately fulfilled his dream. However, he has another enemy to face off against, but the story of Po’s past comes to haunt him. Po had already become an inspiration in the first film but in the sequel, we saw a slightly different Po this time around. It wasn’t so much Jack Black playing a panda, but Po was ultimately a character on his own. Therefore, we are with him along his emotional and courageous quest to find out the truth of his past.


Dustin Hoffman returned to providing the voice of Yoda-like kung fu master, Shifu, although he wasn’t quite so involved in the sequel as the predecessor. Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, Jackie Chan, David Cross and Lucy Liu in their roles too as members of the Furious Five, Po’s colleagues and Shifu’s protégés. Furthermore, in many sequels, we are welcomed with another group of actors who make regular appearances. With Ian McShane having previously provided the voice of antagonist Tai Lung, a snow leopard, in the predecessor, we now have Gary Oldman in the role of the second primary villain. He portrayed the sinister Lord Shen, a leucistic peacock, who provided a very evil and sinister performance. Finally, action heroes Jean-Claude Van Damme and Michelle Yeoh made their presence known in Kung Fu Panda 2 by featuring briefly in supporting roles – Master Croc and Soothsayer.


Overall, Kung Fu Panda 2 is a sequel that does not come round the corner very often as it fantastically jumbles the dark and emotional concepts of drama with the fun action, hilarious laughs and deeply lovable characters. Being able to choose which of the first two Kung Fu Panda films was better is an awkward question with no answer. This is because both are better than the other in opposing ways. Nevertheless, now that we have had two successful but almost opposing chapters in the series and after that cliff-hanger ending in the sequel, it has opened up the possibility of a franchise consisting of many new instalments and characters that could be in store for us in the near future.

Alcuni film sono la chiara dimostrazione che, a volte, non è tanto la storia che si racconta ma come la si racconta. Il successo del primo Kung fu panda non fu certo dovuto alla trama, che seguiva un canovaccio assai risaputo. Nell’antica Cina, il panda Po, grasso, goloso e maldestro, veniva prescelto suo malgrado per diventare il Guerriero Dragone che avrebbe dovuto sconfiggere l’invincibile leopardo Tai Lung e salvaguardare la misteriosa Pergamena del Drago. Dopo un addestramento irto di disavventure spassose, il protagonista riusciva a trovare fiducia in se stesso e a portare a compimento il suo dovere. Non una trama originale ma il film funzionava per la simpatia del protagonista che riusciva ad accattivare grandi e piccoli e per le trovate comiche perfettamente riuscite.
Questo sequel alza il tiro e fa di nuovo centro. La regia passa da John Wayne Stevenson e Mark Osborn a Jennifer Yuh Nelson, che aveva lavorato come storyboarder e diretto la sequenza d’apertura dell’originale, tra i produttori entra invece Guillermo Del Toro. Il pavone imperiale Lord Shen ha deciso di usare la polvere da sparo dei fuochi d’artificio per creare delle armi da fuoco riuscendo a conquistare la città di Gongmen. Coadiuvato come sempre dai Cinque Cicloni, Tigre, Scimmia, Vipera, Gru e Mantide, Po deve liberare la città ma per farlo deve raggiungere la pace interiore affrontando il mistero delle proprie origini che, purtroppo, risiede proprio in Lord Shen.
Dunque anche stavolta ci troviamo di fronte ad una storia abbastanza risaputa ma viene sviluppata in novanta minuti perfetti, rutilanti e divertenti, attraverso una regia ben ritmata. Il livello d’animazione della Dreamworks si è senz’altro evoluto guadagnando in fluidità e definizione. Le scene d’azione sono spettacolari e mozzafiato, ulteriormente esaltate da un 3-D ben integrato. I dialoghi e le gag visive sono ancor più geniali ed esilaranti del primo capitolo. Una scena su tutte, l’azione “stealth” di Po e compagni nascosti in un dragone di carta. Le citazioni di cui abbondava il prototipo qui sono assenti e non se ne sente il bisogno, a ulteriore testimonianza della validità dell’impianto narrativo e dell’abbondanza di idee della regista.

Kung Fu Panda 2 may not be better than the first one but it's certainly just as good. Even though the storyline seemed a tad familiar that's not what bothered me the most it was Jack Black's one liners. Half of them fell flat to me and weren't funny. Other than that I loved everything else about the movie. The action was amazing, the animation was wonderful, the voice acting was terrific, the two stories were nice and wonderfully told, and even though half of Jack Black's one liners weren't funny the movie was at least. So overall this is a worthy sequel to its predecessor and unlike most sequels that came out so far this year, this one didn't disappoint me.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out again. First of all, to be honest, even though I thought that 'Kung Fu Panda' was a decent animated feature, it didn't really blow me away. I mean, it looked great, there were some nice characters but I thought that the story was rather weak. Eventually, the thing that bothered me the most was that there was no real reason why we should believe that Po was actually good at martial-arts, except that it was supposedly hilarious to have a panda doing some kung fu. With this in mind, I went to see this sequel with some rather low expectations but, to my surprise, it was actually better than I thought it would be and it was even better than the first installment. Indeed, once again, the animation looked gorgeous but, above all, the whole thing was more spectacular, more entertaining and, most important, the story was much more compelling, especially the last 30 minutes. Of course, we were still far from the level of the best Pixar features but this movie was still a pleasant surprise. However, that was what I felt the first time I saw the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released... So, 10 years later, I’m watching it again and, to be honest, I’m wondering what I actually liked back then. Sure, the whole thing was visually appealing, there were a lot of action scenes but, still, I was actually rather bored through the whole rewatch. The main issue or wasted opportunity, as far as I was concerned, was that there were so many characters involved, probably too many, as a result, none of them was actually developed whatsoever. Anyway, to conclude, even if I’m obviously not a great fan of this franchise, this sequel is still worth a look, especially if you like the genre.