(I try to avoid spoilers, but I do discuss the plot pretty freely.)
Running Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Rating: PG
Director: Jennifer Yuh
Quick Impressions:
What a beautiful movie! The colors were so vibrant, and the opening sequence so stylistically done that I wished I were seeing it in 3D. (We would have, except that we didn’t think our two-year-old would wear the glasses.) Not only was the film gorgeous, pleasurable just to behold—the colors were so vibrant that the sight of them made me happy—but the story was truly gripping, equal parts heart-warming and pulse-pounding.
The plot involves a scheme by the villainous albino peacock, Lord Shen, to end Kung Fu, and that allows for lots of action, almost right from the get-go. Gary Oldman and the animators seem to be having a contest. Will Lord Shen’s looks make him more awesome and fear-inspiring, or will his wonderful, musical voice carry the day? Oldman voices him with spectacular skill, delivering each line with such nuance and menace that I would have gotten my money’s worth even with my eyes closed. But visually, Shen is also a marvel—absolutely spectacular, done in eye-popping red, white, and black (that vaguely made me want to shop at Target). The crisp, clean sound as Shen pulls out his deadly feather-blades is magnificent also. As good as Ian McShane was as Tai Lung in the first film, Kung Fu Panda 2 delivers a villain a million times more intense and more memorable. (Really, making the film’s main villain an albino peacock was a bold move, sure to end in either spectacular success or cringe-inducing failure. Happily, Lord Shen delivers thrills in every second he’s on screen.)
As amazing as Oldman’s Shen is, however, the villain does not own the movie because Po’s noodle-making goose father, voiced by James Hong, truly steals the show. Twice—not once but twice—Mr. Ping made me cry. Practically every time he appeared, I started to tear up. He was so adorably sweet, such a humble and loving parent, so concerned with his son’s happiness and well-being. I liked the movie because of Lord Shen’s delicious menace. I loved it because of Mr. Ping’s palpable sweetness. I could watch his scenes with Po a thousand times and never tire of that noodle-happy goose’s charming vulnerability.
The Good and the Very Good:
As I’ve said before, the movie was beautiful, such a delight visually. When Po fell into the water, and bobbed around for a few minutes with wet fur, I thought, Wow! Such amazing attention to detail!
Also, the movie had so much heart, portraying both good (Mr. Ping) and evil (Lord Shen) so powerfully that I did not care for a minute that the connection between the two emotional poles seemed so contrived, even flimsy. Any parents who have adopted should be delighted by this movie. What a wonderful, entertaining, satisfying vehicle for introducing the topic of adoption into a family conversation! In a story set in China, Ping and Shen seem satisfyingly antithetical, like yin and yang. Ping does good because he is good. Shen does evil because he is evil. Ping’s way is much better and as one would expect produces better results. But Shen is so wonderfully, unrepentantly evil. Good seems like a lot of nonsense to him, just as not feeding an infant would never occur to the kind-hearted Ping. Po triumphs in the end by discovering that embracing good makes evil irrelevant.
Best Scene:
The final scene of the film (not counting the surprise at the very end) won my heart. I love the way that Po returns kindness to his true father, the goose who raised him so lovingly. And the discussion about which of them will cook, punctuated by Ping’s final abrupt decision is so warm and real and genuinely touching. I loved it. I laughed, even while my eyes were still wet with tears.
Best Scene, Visually:
Singling out one scene is too hard. The entire movie popped and sparkled. My eyes felt happier from the moment it lit up the screen. I wouldn’t be surprised if my vision improved from watching it.
Best Joke:
I laughed the hardest at two moments with Po. When he was seeking inner peace on the boat, I saw so much of myself in his technique and results. His confusion on meeting Michelle Yeoh’s prophetic ewe ram amused me possibly more than anything else in the movie.
The Performances:
This film was packed with voice-talented, overloaded really, so that some of the finest actors out there barely got to say two words.
As I mentioned earlier in the review, both James Hong and Gary Oldman gave commanding performances. Every second that each was on screen was sheer bliss. I will go so far as to say that as I watched the movie, I thought I was seeing the best performance of Gary Oldman’s career (which is doubtless untrue, a delusion brought about by all the beautiful, bright colors on the screen).
Jack Black brought the same humor and warmth to Po that he captured so well in the first film. For a moment, I considered writing that Black is essentially playing himself—but is he really a giant Panda who grew up making noodles for his goose father and is now a Kung Fu master? What I mean is, Black has a kind of innocence that Po shares. He wants us to like him because he’s cool, but we like him more because he wishes he were cool.
Tigress seemed to be such a pivotal character with so many meaningful lines this time around that I thought, “If Angelina Jolie’s name doesn’t come second in the credits, I will die of shock.” Clearly Tigress has warmed to Po, and Jolie delivers her lines well, infusing them with warmth without losing her strength or deliberately aloof persona.
As Shifu, a character so dominant in the first film, Dustin Hoffman barely had anything to do this time around. He still managed to deliver his lines impeccably, even getting a laugh in his final appearance.
Michelle Yeoh voiced the Soothsayer well (though I couldn’t help giggling to myself that Yeoh was playing a Ewe—probably not intentional and funny to no one but me).
Aside from Tigress, the Furious Five (while often on screen) had markedly fewer lines this time than last, with the exception of Lucy Liu’s Viper. Seth Rogen’s infectious laugh is always a welcome sound, however.
The Negatives:
I’ll admit to being nitpicky about this, but why doesn’t Jackie Chan ever get any lines? In The Karate Kid he gave an amazing, soulful performance. His acting was almost on par with his martial arts skills, and that’s saying something. So why does Monkey only make random squeaks and clipped observations? As the only one of the Furious Five who is an actual master of Kung Fu, Chan should get to talk more. The man is a huge star.
Another thing that bothered me—some of the action scenes seemed a bit hard to follow. I mean that they looked a bit choppy, jumping quickly from one character to another, probably because the movie is best viewed in 3D.
Also, as much as I loved the evil Lord Shen—a superlative villain in every way—I found the actual thrust of his evil plot to eradicate Kung Fu more than a little disappointing. He’s an evil albino peacock who has found a way to make fireworks into horrific weapons of mass destruction. Fireworks are cool when used for good. Their perversion into tools of evil ought to be really something, truly dazzling to behold if nothing else. But I was not particularly impressed with the display.
I also thought the entire gimmick of “inner peace” felt like a contrivance to connect the two major components of the story, which were incredibly different in tone. The quest for “inner peace” seemed too hastily introduced in the beginning of the film, like a way to cram Dustin Hoffman’s character into an already overcrowded story. Don’t get me wrong, I love the message that “scars fade” and that kindnesses from others and good personal choices can lead a person to peace no matter what trauma he’s suffered. But why does inner peace give someone the power to manipulate fireworks with his paws? Of course, I suppose it is hard to find a meaningful way to show the power of inner peace on screen.
Overall:
Kung Fu Panda 2 was not as good as the original. As a whole, it was too busy, frantic, and jam-packed with action. But I liked it better than the original and would recommend it to anyone. Why? Lord Shen is one of the most outstanding cartoon villains I’ve ever seen, ranking right up there with some of Disney’s best and most sinister classic baddies. And the scenes between Po and his father the goose are so heart-warmingly wonderful that your life will be more rich for having seen them. Go! Take your kids and go!