Director: Jenifer Yuh
Production Co: DreamWorks Animation
Voices: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Gary Oldman, Seth Rogan, Lucy Liu, Danny McBride
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family
Trailer: Watch the official trailer at the end of this post
Plot
Still celebrating his achievement of learning kung fu and becoming the Dragon Warrior, Po is enjoying his fame while protecting his home with his closest warrior friends. It doesn’t take long for Po and his warrior comrades to hear of Lord Shen’s new powerful weapon that is conquering the land and could be the end of kung fu. Frozen with fear from haunting flashbacks as a child, Po must realize how his true purpose collides with Lord Shen and seek justice. It’s up to Po and his fellow warriors to stop Lord Shen and master inner peace or kung fu may be lost forever.
Review
Kung Fu awesomeness is back and bigger than ever! Kung Fu Panda 2 held nothing back and somehow raised the bar from the original Kung Fu Panda.
Maybe that had something to do with visiting China this go around.
While preparing for the original Kung Fu Panda the crew poured over tons of books and pictures to get a feel for what the film would encompass. They researched everything from textures, landscapes, animals, clothing, traditions, and more.
But now, with a bigger budget came more opportunities.
For Kung Fu Panda 2, the entire cast and crew had the chance to visit Chine in person. They were able to take thousands of pictures and visit a safe haven for pandas.
Artists sketched furiously as baby pandas rolled around and interacted with some of the cast members like Jack Black (You can watch a short clip here. Click the Production tab and then Animating Pandas).
Visiting China and interacting with full-grown pandas has to be an amazing experience and much more inspirational than flipping through some books. I believe all the information the crew was able to gather and not to mention the moral boost propelled them forward to “out do” themselves for a second time.
The story line was pretty good as well.
The original film was lacking one large detail in our main characters life. Po was without a solid father figure.
Kung Fu Panda 2 set out to fill this void, which only drew the audience interest in closer as we are given a more intimate look at Po’s life. Maybe a panda can’t come from a goose after all, or can it?
Kung Fu Panda 2 expanded on its computer-animated size of scale as well.
The first Kung Fu Panda mostly focused on Po’s home, The Valley of Peace. The second film stretched much farther geographically as well as the scale of computer-animated scenes.
Fighting is no longer just hand-to-hand right next to one another. The scale of the fights has grown immensely. The new, more expansive canvas is especially brought to light in a particular funny scene where Po is off in the distance threatening to attack Lord Shen and no one can hear him because he is so far away.
Kung Fu Panda 2 is simply amazing!
You’ll love Kung Fu Panda 2. I really appreciate the crisp clean animation more than ever after hearing director Jennifer Yuh talk about how complicated Shen proved to animate (see the trivia below).
With improved computer-animation and 3D technology you can’t miss this film. The story will draw you in and the comedy will have you laughing along the way. Also, with an all-star cast of voices you’re likely to hear someone familiar.
What a terrific family movie!
When all is said and done I give this movie 8 out of 10 stars. It’s a must see! IMDB rated this movie 7.4.
What did you think of the movie? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Trivia
According to the director Jennifer Yuh, Shen proved to be a great challenge to animate, so much that the complexity of the character was like that of doing six characters all at once.
Bloopers
During the flashback of Po as a baby, he goes into a pot headfirst to retrieve a vegetable. In the next scene, it shows he landed on his bottom, not on his head like he went in. If you look closely, however, you can see him move around after getting the vegetable, and that is how he ends up on his bottom.
For more trivia and bloopers visit IMDB here.
loading...
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s cool that they went to China before making the second movie.
For real, that’s some pretty awesome inspiration! Thanks for commenting.
I loved Kung Fu Panda 2 and so did my kids
This movie does seem to get the audience laughing a lot. Thanks for sharing.
{ 1 trackback }