Kung Fu Panda 2 - Movie Review

From the beginning, you can get to see a new level of 3-D, the beginning was very well animated, and you get to see Po spitting buns in your face... in a good way. The 3-D was very impressive and awesome.

List of cast:
Po - Jack Black
Tigress - Angelina Jolie
Shifu - Dustin Hoffman
Shen - Gary Oldman
Monkey - Jackie Chan
Mantis - Seth Rogen
Viper - Lucy Liu
Crane - David Cross
Mr. Ping - James Hong
Soothsayer - Michelle Yeoh
Wolf Boss - Danny McBride
Master Ox - Dennis Haysbert
Master Croc - Jean-Claude Van Damme
Master Rhino - Victor Garber

The plot: Shen -- an evil peacock killed all the pandas as a soothsayer foretold that the peacocks will be defeated by "black and white". Shen with the power of gunpowder must be defeated by Po or it will be the end of Kung Fu.

The movie: Po integrated well with the furious 5 and fought to bring justice and help the other animals against the various raiders. Shifu has acquired inner-peace and wants Po to learn it to get to the next level.

Shen, used the power of fireworks to make cannons and wants to take over China. With the power of the cannons, few oppose him as he acquire metal to make more cannons.

As Po defended against wolf raiders raiding his town for metal, he saw the insignia on the shoulder of a wolf and caught a glimpse of his past...

...

Po went to the city and try to find out more about his past, and learns more about himself on his journey towards inner peace.

...

Not to reveal the whole plot, here are my thoughts.

The beginning of the movie started strong. The story was pretty lighthearted and fun and it does include some emotional scenes to try to give an emotional kick. There is more development of feelings between Po and Tigresss and they hugged twice in the movie. However the movie does feel a little empty in the middle as the story develops, but it sort of lacks comedy or action... Something was not right, and the flow was somewhat interrupted. However, it did try to finish strong and did a descent job with a few moral takeaways.

Overall, Kung Fu Panda 2 is a pretty good movie, a tad shy of "How to train your dragon." but still pretty good one. A few must watch scenes though -- about how Mr. Ping found Po (the cutest baby Panda ever!) and some great laughs here and there. Great fun for the family matinee on the weekends.

Rating: 7/10