A Sequel With Heart

Rating: 9/10 (4 June 2011)

To be honest, I've always like the sequel to every single Dreamworks movie that had a sequel more than the original. For example, as much as I loved Shrek, I loved Shrek 2 more. I hated Madagascar but found Madagascar 2 pretty enjoyable to watch. And it's no exception that I actually liked Kung Fu Panda 2 more than Kung Fu Panda (which I thought that although it was good, it was a tad bit overrated).
Kung Fu Panda 2 talks about Po (Jack Black) teaming up with the Furious Five to defeat their new enemy, a peacock by the name of Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), who created a weapon that could destroy kung fu and the whole of China. The problem now is "how can kung fu stop something that stops kung fu?" That and Po has some daddy issues.
But after watching Kung Fu Panda 2, I realised what makes a sequel so great. Just like Toy Story 2, they never made their characters go to level zero again and learn everything from the start. Po can kick butt right from the beginning of the movie. Like he is a total pro which is very cool since a lot of movies tend to make their main character who the main character was in the first film. Instead, they move on to the next level and answer some unanswered questions in the first film or bring up some new questions for the viewers to ponder over. And, this is by far my favourite sequel out of all the Dreamworks movie in terms of a sequel (I still liked Shrek 2 more). It was a vast improvement of the original in terms of heart, story and visuals.
Po is still as likable as ever. Jack Black did a surprisingly fantastic job at the dramatic scenes. I actually forgave him for that horrid movie that my friend dragged me to watch "Gulliver's Travel". I mean, that movie was just terrible! But I learnt that Black is a pretty good actor if given the right script. I enjoyed his presence. He made Po so funny and energetic but so vulnerable at the same time.
Gary Oldman as Lord Shen was as good as I predicted it to be. That man is fantastic in everything he does, that's all I need to say. I found Shen to be a very interesting villain. He has his sad backstory and you feel for him. You don't root for him but he's basically a Tai Lung from the first movie. He's a three-dimensional character and I was appreciate a villain that's 3 dimensional Beside Tigress, the Furious Five didn't have much lines but really loved their team dynamic in this film. Team Furious Five and Po! And Shifu and Mr Ping are as awesome as they are in the previous movie I loved the Tai Lung/Shifu backstory. That was the reason why Shifu was my favourite character in the whole Kung Fu Panda series (even though he made a very brief appearance in this movie). However, though it made me feel for both characters, I never felt the urge to cry. Heart-wrenching as it was, it never pushed your emotions any further. KFP 2 is different. When you find out what happened to Po (though the story was, admittedly, not original), you can't help but feel your heart being punched a thousand times and your tears are just threatening to fall down (and that's not good since I was watching it in 3D, which was superb and I would get on that later on). On the last note on the story's heart, loved Po and Mr Ping's relationship.
Visually, it was.... stunning. I mean, it's Dreamworks. Although they've got a bad record of making terrible movies (which I didn't think were THAT bad), their animation has always been very impressive. And they just keep improving with every single new film. Kung Fu Panda 2 is no exception. 3D: It wasn't dark and it was effective. I recommend 3D but it'll be fine if you don't watch it in 3D too.
Take note, though, that the humour in this movie was not as good as the humour in the first. Mostly because they replaced the humour with heart. Fortunately, this movie is well-balanced out between the humour and the emotional point of the story. And not one part funny and then sad and then funny again.
Now here's a very interesting part to this film: The climax was just... wow. You would expect some big bad explosions with Po fighting off thousands of evil bad guys. But, no. The climax was nothing like that (though he does fight off hundreds of evil bad guys in the film for those who really want to see that happening). The climax was surprisingly.... a character moment. They never tried to do anything big (okay, to a certain extent, i guess it was pretty "big"). The climax was really all about Po and what he had learnt. And it was really really satisfying. I was just sitting there going, "Wow.... I LOVE this movie" And it really proves to me that this movie never tried the "bigger is better" ploy. The climax was basically what the whole movie was about: The main character and the emotions that he was struggling with and I really respect the filmmakers for such a wise decision.
And I am really looking forward to the 3rd movie! (but, DW, PLEASE don't make 6 movies unless you have it all planned out like Harry Potter)