Po (Jack Black) is back, with his same old gang, the Furious Five. This time, he has to face not just a much powerful enemy, Shen (Gary Oldman), but also his recurring nightmare and painful memory of his childhood. Nevertheless, he still got the awesomeness and big tummy to fight the any evil kind. It's amazing how such short and simple plot can be developed further into a 90-minutes action animated complete with all those kung fu fighting scenes. The first movie garnered $215 million in box-office, which propelled the studio to release the sequel. Basically it's the same old cast, with many more villains added.
Po is the heart of both movies, full with his antics, 'awesomeness', kinda brainless, but determined to achieve greatness. Frankly, the role is perfectly scripted for Jack Black, who sadly couldn't turn up in other decent roles recently. From the Furious Five, only Tigress (Angelina Jolie) which I felt has been given a much bigger role, as she's involved in many pivotal moments in the movie, while the rest of the entourage are probably good enough with their one liners (I'm looking at you Jackie Chan!). There's some hints here and there showing that the relationship between Po and Tigress may evolve later on. Additional cast such as Danny McBride, Michelle Yeoh, Dennis Haysbert, and even Van Damme provide fresh faces, although I felt the latter didn't add much value (too bad).
The opening sequence was pretty much spot on, revealing the new villain, and the script was quite smart by connecting Po's past and Shen's ambition without us being told blatantly. Well, for all those who are still curious how Po's dad is a damn goose....rest assured, this sequel is the answer for it. And surprisingly the flashback scene is quite touchy in spite the whole movie was made not even close into any kind of serious thing.
On technical side, the animation is superb, a much better improvement, more detail on the fur and lighting rendering. Almost in every scene we are being spoiled with the amazing Chinese landscape renderings and its lush green grass and trees. The whole fantasy ancient China is gorgeously designed. A lot of Chinese tradition and symbolic story telling have been infused altogether, and I like particularly how the 2D scenes are combined to enhance the flashback scenes.
Kung Fu Panda 2 is full action packed which won't leave you too much wandering around, the plot is as simple as an open book, fighting scenes are done well, many of the jokes are hilarious, although I must say, most of them are quite predictable. The final act where the major big brawl happens is a crazy scene, where Shen put all his armies to fight our heroes (I'm kinda wish Oldman would say, "SEND EVERYOOOONEEEE", remember 'Leon'?)
The downside is that the sequel is mere a 'safe project', and I still felt it lacks a bit of originality and fresh ideas compared to the first one. However, I was quite satisfied since the overall quality is close enough with the previous one (I must say the first one was damn awesome!). In a harsher tone, thanks to the 3D animation, this movie perhaps will go directly to DVD without it. It's pretty exciting to see there will be more Po movies in the future, but I really wish they can do a much better sequel with better story line, since I don't think 3rd time is the charm if they are keep using old stuff (remember 'Shrek'?). Nevertheless, it has excellent voice acting, still has the charm. Not top of the notch, but Kung Fu Panda 2 surely won't waste your time.
My Rating: 7.5/10
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