Kung Fu Panda 1 --while a completely fun watch-- left us with some hanging questions:
Why was Po REALLY chosen to be the Dragon Warrior?
Why was he the only panda in the village?
Why doesn't he have a love interest?
More importantly, why the hell does he have a goose for a father?
Well, Kung Fu Panda 2 answers these questions in the most awesome way possible.
See this poster? It happens to be my favorite part in the movie. But I digress.
Po is the Dragon Warrior because despite his stubborness and tubbiness, he does learn fast. His instincts scream Dragon Warrior. It was demonstrated in Kung Fu Panda 1 and again in Kung Fu Panda 2. But the 2nd installment made it grand! We're not talking about fighting for a mere title anymore. We're saving China! With this huge weight on the panda's shoulders, the climax has breathlessly cinematic. And we got that. Oooh, we got that.
He's the only panda in the village because he's not from there. Duh. The village was populated by farm animals and then here's a panda? In a cartoon flashback, Kung Fu Panda 2 takes us to Po's past. The beautiful back story lets us take a peak into the bigness behind Po's ascent to Kung Fu warrior status. Secrets were revealed, secrets were still kept --which pretty much sets you up for a part 3.
He doesn't have a love interest... yet. Dun-dun-duuuuun....
He has a goose for a dad to provide comic relief? Oh it's more than that now. It's heartwarming how the relationship between an adoptive parent and an adopted child took on a very emotional and realistic turn here. Ok, that wasn't a spoiler. Unless you actually thought the goose was the panda's biological pops.
My boys like Kung Fu Panda 2 better than the first because there were more fight scenes this time around. Death-defying ones. Why, Kenji couldn't keep his butt on the movie seat due to the excitement. The story has more depth
(Uh-huh, like an old man, Miro actually said that) and yet maintained its comedy. The boys thought it was funnier even.
And there were cooler bad guys.
Speaking of cool and positively bad, I am impressed that this movie managed to make an evil villain out of a dainty beast such as the peacock. I am even more impressed that this peacock came with the voice of Gary Oldman. Right there and I'm sold!
A family must-see --that's Kung Fu Panda 2. Great second run! If you thought Kung Fu Panda 1 was cute, this one... oh, this one... THIS is AWESOME!
I'm glad you liked it (didn't want to have to get all kung fu on you!). My son thought it was better too, I guess for the same reasons your boys did (: I love a good family night out at the movies, and this sure was an awesome one!
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm glad you spared me from your fists of fury. Lol! It's this year's best family movie for us so far. Severely cool! :P
ReplyDeleteI like its image
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