A fantastic sequel to an original movie!

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2011)

When my friends and I discussed plans for after our last day of school, we eventually settled on seeing Kung Fu Panda 2. Having never seen the original Kung Fu Panda, I decided to watch it a few nights before and loved its great performances, excellent animation, and powerful moral. As i went into Kung Fu Panda 2, however, I remembered: this is a Dreamworks movie. Can this really measure up to the first movie? Answer: I need not have worried.
Kung Fu Panda 2 excels in every aspect of a movie. Once again the animation and visuals are top notch, as is the musical score. The plot this time focuses around the rise the powerful new threat of the peacock Lord Shen (played by a fantastically sinister Gary Oldman)just as the panda Po (a very funny Jack Black) is beginning to settle comfortably into his life as the Dragon Warrior. While the original KFP was a fairly light-hearted origin story, Kung Fu Panda 2 introduces darker experiences to Po and to the movie as a whole, and the movie is much deeper for it. That's not to say that KFP 2 is full of despair, far from it. The movie builds off the humor of KFP to make one of the funniest movies I have seen in a while. The plot is helped along by the supporting roles, such as the aforementioned Lord Shen, and Master Shifu and the Furious Five. I was especially pleased with the development of Tigress. (Angelina Jolie) One of my complaints about the first movie was that you could tell that Tigress had the potential for being a great character, but ended up spending the entire movie as a bitter, no-nonsense character, which seemed a waste. In Kung Fu Panda 2, Tigress has a more compassionate personality, while retaining her strong fighter traits, and has warmed to Po, sharing a strong friendship with him and helping him to cope with the more mature events of the movie. The rest of the Furious Five were also given far more screen time in KFP 2, but Tigress by far was the best of them.
In the end, I would find it more likely that Kung Fu Panda 2 came from Pixar rather than Dreamworks. The movie is a testament to what a studio can do to retain the charm and draw of an original idea and fix its flaws and improve on what worked. The only problem I had with the movie was the 90 minute run time. The movie is so well done that I can't resist wishing it were longer. On the other hand, maybe this avoids us from overdosing on too much of a good thing. In any case, I well be waiting excitedly for Kung Fu Panda 3, which KFP 2 shows is inevitable.