Black and white and sequelly all over
Sparky and I went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 on Saturday, which we'd both been looking forward to for some time. I was curious to see if they'd pull it off, because the first movie didn't seem to leave a lot of room for a sequel. If you send your hero on a Voyage of Self-Discovery in the first movie, and he, well, Discovers Himself, then where do you go from there? And if the comedy in the first movie is predicated on your hero being a lovable buffoon and an unlikely hero, how do you do the sequel to that? After all, you're not much of an unlikely hero if you've already saved everybody once.
However, Dreamworks pulled it off quite nicely, I thought. It turns out that you can have a character be kung-fu-capable, and still not think things through very well, which, once the bad guys realize it, puts him right back in "unlikely hero" category. A good trick if you can manage it.
I was also really impressed with the bad guy this time out. Tai Lung, the baddie from the first film, was the epitome of the "my kung fu is stronger than yours!" school of bad guy -- the big, capable, bruiser. Lord Shen, the baddie this time around, comes from the "scrawny, yet unexpectedly dangerous" school of kung-fu bad guys -- the guy who looks like he's no threat, because he's always using his minions, but when you get face-to-face with him, it turns out he was using the minions because his kung-fu is so powerful that can't be bothered with you. I admit, I had doubts about a peacock as the bad guy, but once you see him in action, it totally works. The tail does double-duty, swapping between fan-style martial arts, and serving as the robe that this particular flavor of kung-fu bad guy usually wears. Plus, he's voiced by Gary Oldman, so that's awesome.
Basically, if you enjoyed the first Panda (and I really did), you'll like this one, because it's pretty much more of the same. If you thought the first one was stupid, or kung-fu animals aren't your thing, then there's no reason to see this one either.
However, Dreamworks pulled it off quite nicely, I thought. It turns out that you can have a character be kung-fu-capable, and still not think things through very well, which, once the bad guys realize it, puts him right back in "unlikely hero" category. A good trick if you can manage it.
I was also really impressed with the bad guy this time out. Tai Lung, the baddie from the first film, was the epitome of the "my kung fu is stronger than yours!" school of bad guy -- the big, capable, bruiser. Lord Shen, the baddie this time around, comes from the "scrawny, yet unexpectedly dangerous" school of kung-fu bad guys -- the guy who looks like he's no threat, because he's always using his minions, but when you get face-to-face with him, it turns out he was using the minions because his kung-fu is so powerful that can't be bothered with you. I admit, I had doubts about a peacock as the bad guy, but once you see him in action, it totally works. The tail does double-duty, swapping between fan-style martial arts, and serving as the robe that this particular flavor of kung-fu bad guy usually wears. Plus, he's voiced by Gary Oldman, so that's awesome.
Basically, if you enjoyed the first Panda (and I really did), you'll like this one, because it's pretty much more of the same. If you thought the first one was stupid, or kung-fu animals aren't your thing, then there's no reason to see this one either.