Kung Fu Panda 2
Jack Black makes a wonderful cartoon character. With his outlandish persona and ability to deliver lines of dialogue with a grandeur that matches his amplitude, it could be argued that Black is more suited for animation than boring, old live action. His work as Po in “Kung Fu Panda” is the only exhibit needed to establish this as fact. The bear matches Black’s attitude and humor with one important improvement over his real world counterpart: Po knows Kung Fu. Albeit cartoon Kung Fu in a make believe world but he “brings the thunder” nonetheless.
We meet up with Po who has fully embraced the whole “I’m the Dragon Warrior” thing that served as the main motive for the original film. He spends his days being revered like a celebrity in his small village, fighting villainous villains along side the Furious Five (not to be confused with “Fast Five” or Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five). In between the “skadooshing,” Po takes time to learn powerful Zen lessons from his tiny master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), who teaches him the importance of inner-peace and other heady notions.
This time around the main miscreant Po must make battle against is a peacock named Lord Shen (a unrecognizable Gary Oldman). That’s right, a peacock. You don’t see a peacock and think “Badass?” Well, Lord Shen will make you do an about-face on that conception. The foul fowl (sorry) possesses an uncontainable weapon that threatens the very foundation of Kung Fu itself. Po and The Five travel across China to do battle and the panda discovers that he and Shen share a secret from his past that he’s been running from all of his life.
The first “Kung Fu Panda” was a milestone production for Dreamworks Animation. Up until the film’s release, the production company’s claim to acclaim was the “Shrek” films that relied heavily on (mildly) crude humor and massive amounts of pop culture references that made the films timely yet fleeting. “Panda” changed that, telling a good story that was just plain funny without relying on short lived gimmicks. It was the film that allowed the company to grow up and, while they still churn out some sophomoric entertainment (“Shrek Forever After” and the upcoming “Puss in Boots”), Dreamworks can also deliver solid films like “How to Train Your Dragon”. Add “Kung Fu Panda 2” to their list of solid films.
This time around benefits from the audience already knowing the surroundings and characters so we can get down to the good stuff: Flying paws of Fury! The storytelling is brisk and the action exhilarating. “Kung Fu Panda 2” is the first film in a long while that actually benefits from the 3-D process and much of the film has great depth that helps bring the world to life. Everything is beautifully detailed and an entire viewing could be spent just looking at the buildings and peripheral characters that fill the background.
Black and Angelina Jolie (who stars as Tigress) do stellar work and there are some notable newcomers; namely, Danny McBride as a wolf baddie who seems a little too preoccupied with Po’s plushness and Jean Claude Van Damme who doesn’t do much with his Master Croc character but its pretty cool he’s in it all the same.
“Kung Fu Panda 2” is most notable for its use of physical humor. Po trips and blunders his way through the film to the extent that rivals some classic silent movie comedies. In the Summer of Sequels, mark this one up as a welcomed return.