A nicely made kids film

Rating: Null/10 (24 August 2011)

A summer of sequels. A weekend of sequels. After enduring The Hangover Part II, I really looked forward to this 3D Sunday matinée. If you've paid attention at all, you know that I love animation. Even something as kid-friendly as Kung-Fu Panda gives me the slightest butterflies of anticipation for what animation marvels I will see.
Animation-wise, KFP 2 served up a pretty impressive palate of animated delights. The intro was a 2D, paper-cutout styled sequence with colorful versions of the film's 3D characters. All the flashbacks were a traditional 2D animated style that accentuated the dreamy/horror feel of Po's mystery-shrouded past. I appreciate 3D animation as much as the next person. Wall-E ranks in my top 10 favorite movies of all time. 3D has its own artistry, but it's so mass-produced, that I don't enjoy the creative aspect as much as the realistic (I could see each individual hair!). I love to see creative 2D sequences integrated into a 3D film.
Enough gushing over technology! As a children's film, the story really revolves around easy-to-grasp themes like loyalty, trying really hard even if you don't want to, doing your homework, and uh genocide? This will be a bit of a spoiler if you have not seen the film, but it's only spoiling the first 5 minutes of the film before the credits. The Nazi White Supremest Peacock, who SHOULD have been voiced by Christopher Waltz but was instead voiced by Gary Oldman, plays a cross between Herod and Hitler when he takes out his wolves and murders all of the pandas in China when it is foretold that he will be defeated by something white and black (and read all over). Kids-in-mind.com, a site that has probably promoted searching for nudity in movies more than it has helped avoid it, lists "discussion topics" as adoption, families, friendship, loyalty, misuse of power, working together, Eastern religions, magic, destiny, revenge, healing. Hmm. Missing mass-murder there, fellas. This movie is perfect for queuing up the conversation with little Timmy on why the Jewish kid gets so agitated when he shows up on Halloween wearing his vintage Hitler Youth outfit.
The plot drops in without a lot of character development, since we got all that gobbelty-goop out of the way in the first film, but it does fill in all the missing blanks about Po's past and continues with his personal growth. Overall, it's a nice feel-good movie. Except for the murder, I guess. Pay attention at the end of the film for a nice Zionist tip of the hat.
If you've got kids, or just need to see something easy after watching some terrible R-rated comedy, then head to see this nicely made feature.