Kung Fu Panda 2

Rating: 5/10 (23 June 2011)

The first film was a good fun cartoon film, I was told by one or two people that the sequel is just as good (and it wouldn't really matter if you hadn't seen the first), so I decided to see it. Basically the film starts with the past, seeing the villain Shen the albino peacock (Gary Oldman) wanting to take over with the power of fireworks, and being told by The Soothsayer the elderly goat (Michelle Yeoh) that a warrior of black and white will one day defeat him, he obviously knows she means a panda, so has them all killed. Then skip forward to the present day, Po the tongue-in-cheek giant panda (Jack Black) has now established himself as the Dragon Warrior, protecting the Valley of Peace alongside the Furious Five: Tigress the South China tiger (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu) and Crane (David Cross). Master Shifu the red panda (Dustin Hoffman) tells the hero however he needs to achieve inner peace, and while there is an attack by Shen's army of wolves, Po has an unexpected flashback of his mother, and his Chinese goose father Mr. Ping (James Hong) admits he found him in a basket of radishes and adopted him. Shifu receives word that Master Thundering Rhino (Titanic's Victor Garber) has been killed, and that Shen has created a powerful cannon to destroy the kung fu tradition and conquer China, so the panda and the Furious Five head for Gongmen City to stop her. They find imprisoned Master Storming Ox (Dennis Haysbert) and Master Croc (Jean-Claude Van Damme), but they refuse to escape believing the weapon is too powerful and they will all be defeated, but they do leave, but are captured by the Wolf Boss (Danny McBride). They are taken to Shen, and breaking free they destroy the weapon, but Po allows the villain to get away after being distracted by another unexpected flashback, so he wants to question the peacock about his involvement. Despite being told by Tigress to stay behind, Po goes to Shen who tells him that his parents abandoned him before blasting him with the factory cannon, but he is found alive by the exiled Soothsayer. She tells the panda hero the story of what happened in the past, his parents sacrificed him during the attacks on all pandas, and his mother placed him in the crate of radishes. Realising he had a happy life with his adoptive father, Po finds inner peace at the critical moment when the cannon is going to attack, and the kung fu power destroys it, and Shen ends up killing himself refusing to give himself up. In the end Po returns to the Valley of Peace once again praised by everyone as a hero, and he declares his love for his adoptive father like his real one, but the final moment of the film sees Po's true biological father (Fred Tatasciore) sensing that his son is alive. Black once again give a good vocal performance, Oldman is just as good the villain (even though I didn't know it was him until the end), and the supporting cast all do good too, it is pretty much the same quality as the first film, and of course the open ended final scene gives way for another follow up, a fun family animated comedy adventure. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year. Worth watching!