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Kung Fu Panda 2

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Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

May. 25,2011
|
7.3
|
PG
| Animation Comedy Family
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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 - Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey. 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. It is up to Po and The Furious Five to journey across China to face this threat and vanquish it. But how can Po stop a weapon that can stop kung fu? He 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.

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Reviews

ThiefHott
2011/05/25

Too much of everything

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BeSummers
2011/05/26

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

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AshUnow
2011/05/27

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

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Frances Chung
2011/05/28

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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ElMaruecan82
2011/05/29

In every good sequel, there's a little bit of prequel and "Kung Fu Panda 2" is another proof that DreamWorks knows how to handle sequels, especially the second ones. If you look at "Shrek 2" or "Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa" you'll notice the same pattern, they exploit the back-stories of the main characters for their individual development and for the plot. The premises of Shrek meeting Fiona's parents or Alex the Lion discovering his roots in the savanna inspired entertaining and emotional stories. And if I was more entertained by "Madagascar 2", I was certainly more emotionally involved by "Kung Fu Panda 2".The film opens with an expected narration, the tale of the peacock lord of the city of Gongmen who had troubles with his son, Shen, a soothsayer predicted that if he went to rule the city, he'd bring chaos and desolation by turning fireworks into a weapon, but he'd ultimately be defeated by a creature in black and white. Shen hears the prediction and pulls an Oedipus by destroying the peaceful panda. Actually, it was Jocasta, Oedipus' father who sealed his fate by abandoning his son but never mind, we know the film will finally give an answer to the biological difference between Po, the panda and his father, the goose. What was a funny sight gag inspires a very poignant story.Indeed, the sequel gives an unexpected dimension to a character who was supposed to be droll and funny, and with the voice of Jack Black, it's hard to take him seriously, but as the plot advances, and we have more glimpses on Po's past, we start to take the film more seriously than the first, 'Disney' serious. The comparison is not fortuitous, when I saw the flashback sequences drawn in quite a beautiful 2D animation; I thought it would have fitted the film as well as 3D. I understand the animators took for granted that 3D would be the best vehicle for action sequences and spectacularly acrobatic move but the highest spots of "Kung Fu Panda 2" owed nothing to 3D.There's no denial that action is integral to the franchise's appeal, but the origins of Po were enough to turn him into a fully three-dimensional character (in the nobler meaning of the word), the scene where he finally confronts his adoptive father carries some powerful emotionality. And besides the hero, the film had the worthy villain: Lord Shen, voiced by Gary Oldman, a self-centered peacock whose childhood trauma nourished hatred, anger and a constant obsession for power and mass destruction. With the help of an army of wolves, he decimated Po's village, had his mother killed and created such a powerful weapon it could make Kung Fu as useless as a peashooter.Lord Shen is a very hard to beat villain, literally, and the film surprisingly features many confrontations between him and the Five-now-Six Warriors, it's almost one hour and half long, but there's not a moment wasted, except some action sequences that are a little overblown. The length also allows to explore the personalities of the other warriors but again it's Tigress (voiced by Angelina Jolie) who takes the 'lion' share of interactions, and there's a word that is used so many times it becomes some sort of running-gag. She's called 'hardcore' because she's so cold and bad-ass in the same time, her capability to hide her feelings almost equals her fighting skills, but whenever Po's life is at stakes, she reveals a sweet and maybe fragile side of her, is there more than friendship and respect? There's no time to figure because Po's vulnerability was the main point and he had more urgent things to do, and when he gets to the final confrontation with Shen, the dark flashback that reveals Po's past seals the coming-to-maturity of Disney's rival, as even the buffoonish panda can make your heart melt. But DreamWorks animators have a talent of their own; they know how to 'copy Disney without copying it'. Let me explain: in "Shrek", the Beauty becomes the Beast after the kiss of true love, in "Madagascar 2", Alex doesn't follow Simba's example and "remembers who he is", but sticks to what he is inside without any blood predestination. In "Kung Fu Panda 2", when Po learns the truth, he doesn't jump to kill Shen, but finds the inner peace so he can dodge his secret weapon and uses the fireballs like drops of water (good call on the continuity).Still, there was more than a MacGuffin in that 'inner peace' thing, it showed that Po stayed true to himself; he defeated Shen but didn't want to kill him for what he did to his parents. But we all know that a villain of such cruelty can't be forgiven by the laws of animation, so Shen pulls a desperate fight and is defeated for once and all. The team triumphed and Kung Fu will prosper, but more than that, Po declares his love to his friend and to his Dad, and the ending almost had me in tears… and I wish it could have closed that way. The last ten seconds were in my opinion the only useless thing about the film, granted they wanted a cliffhanger or gives us a foretaste of the third opus but why showing Po's dad alive? All the animosity we built toward Shen is because he was an evil dude who killed a whole village and decided to take over China, that evilness was quite understated by the last shot. I wouldn't have cared about this detail if the film was average, but it was so awesome, I wish it didn't end like that.

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DCHybrid02
2011/05/30

I heard about this movie when I saw the Deathly Hallows Part 1. It literally took me 5 seconds of watching the actual trailer before I thought to myself in disbelief, "They're not actually making another one are they?" Seriously! I heard Jack Black's voice and immediately knew what this was. Then, I forgot about it until the Super Bowl came around. And after that, I forgot about it again until a few weeks before the release date. But as the release date drew closer, I began thinking that this movie looked like it might be good. Eventually, I decided I would actually like to see this in theaters, so I went on Memorial Day.All I could say after seeing this movie was "Wow". It was truly something else, something that I never would have dreamed of seeing in an animated film. Where to start? Well, I was shocked at the beginning of the movie when we're learning some of Shen's background. The panda genocide wasn't surprising when I learned about the Soothsayer's prophecy, but it was surprising that we were discussing such a dark topic. I would've thought that the powers that be would consider it to be too "sensitive" for children, but I was impressed that it was being addressed. This brings me to the villain who carried out this heinous act. Shen was a despicable being. He was cowardly, sadistic, and just delusional when it came to being "wronged" by his parents. I hated the guy and found Tai Lung to be a more likable character. But I believe that Shen presented more of a challenge to Po due to the negative psychological effect he had, whether it was from his feathers causing visions or his toying with Po before lying about the circumstances of his separation from his biological parents. Shen clearly got into Po's head. And he did something so terrible and traumatic that Po didn't even remember it for years. He did scar Po for life, but Po might not have found the means for progression as a kung fu master if it hadn't been for Shen's actions.This is a big one for me. Tigress. Now, I'm not one of those people who fawned over this movie because they're in love with some pairing. No. But I did enjoy seeing Tigress open up more, and I was glad to see that her continual scowl from the first movie was replaced by a smile here and there. I noticed that she and Po seemed to be best friends, which had me wondering what happened between the first movie and this one to make her go from intense dislike to best friends. The hug she gave to Po and the reactions of the rest of the Five made me believe that her character development is somewhat attributable to him. This development came as a relief. I found myself wondering whether or not she'd treat him with a more mild form of her attitude from the first.My only qualm was that Tigress' time in the spotlight meant that the rest of the Five took a place on the back burner. I noticed that in the first movie, too. However, considering the fact that they're with Po for the majority of this movie, they should either have spoken more or had lines that added to their characters or the plot in some way. Tigress is my favorite character among the Five, but there's a lot of talent among their actors, and I thought it was wasted by giving the characters 5 lines apiece. I have to say that I enjoyed this movie way more than the first. I like a little darkness in my movies. I've heard some say that they didn't enjoy the movie as much for this reason, but being a movie geared toward kids doesn't mean that it can't address serious or even grim themes. I applaud the director and the writers for delving into this. Some of my praise must also go the composers, John Powell and Hans Zimmer, who managed to create a great score that perfectly matched the scenes in the film. I'd definitely say that this is one of Dreamworks' better movies. Regardless of whether or not you can empathize with what's happening in this movie, many can probably sympathize or even compare Po's search for the truth to their own experiences in some way. Kung Fu Panda 2 is definitely something that any person can potentially enjoy.

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choryugin gr44
2011/05/31

What a great disappointment this was; the first Kung Fu Panda dared to be different from the rest of the corny and bland, goody two shoes crap Pixar and the other studios was churning out like Ratatouille, Madagascar, Ice Age. It was a breather from those films that took themselves too seriously; it was funny and along with the Shrek movies, tried to summon the cartoony feel of classic Looney Tunes (at least in the feel and tone).The sequel sucks for several reasons. The humor is virtually gone and replaced by some dour "drama". We discover Po's real parents which, is kinda boring; nobody gives a damn about Po's biological parents and this actually downplayed and undermined the screen chemistry and dynamic between Po and his goose dad so carefully built up in the first movie; the promise of the first film, on Po using his new found skills as a martial arts master against more formidable enemies is discarded, replaced by a "Once a Upon a Time in China" like storyline.Honestly, I can't stand all the China ass-kissing on display here. It's like the Dreamworks investors and shareholders were on a meeting and agreed that "hey, China is one of the most populous locations on the planet, let's make a movie that panders to their cultural and national motifs and we're sure to make bucketfuls worth of dollars in Chinese currency".The verdict: Kung Panda 2 is boring, needlessly gloomy, tedious and a waste of potential.

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MarvelRebootedSpidey
2011/06/01

This movie's concept is pretty similar to How to Train your Dragon. Darker and maturer story and plot. But it is different in one way, the comedy is still there and it is a stronger comedy. This is a perfect sequel Dreamworks has done. Stronger comedy with a darker and maturer story, but Dreamworks remembers that this is a movie for kids and they never went "over-maturer". But they still made a movie that can entertain adults also. And also this is really touching which can tear up some others. I call this the best sequel and best movie of 2011.P.S. Don't let adopted kids watch this as this story has Po finding out that he is adopted and may upset adopted kids.

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