In KUNG FU PANDA 2, Po is now living his dream as The Dragon Warrior, protecting the Valley of Peace alongside his friends and fellow kung fu masters, The Furious Five. But Po’s new life of awesomeness is threatened by the emergence of a formidable villain, who plans to use a secret, unstoppable weapon to conquer China and destroy kung fu. He must look to his past and uncover the secrets of his mysterious origins; only then will Po be able to unlock the strength he needs to succeed.
I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for the lovable panda Po ever since I saw the first Kung Fu Panda film back in 2008 so I was pretty excited when it was announced a second film would be coming even though its taken three years! It has gone pretty damn fast. The first Kung Fu Panda filmed grossed over $630million dollars worldwide now that’s no mean feat for an animated movie and it even managed to rank in the top 100 biggest opening weekends of all time sitting at around $60million.
This time around the furious five are on an epic adventure to save ‘Kung Fu’ and to destroy an unstoppable weapon built by an evil peacock… and before you say it yes Peacock! I never really knew how creepy they could be until I saw this film. There are numerous reasons why I love this film, the Animation is flawless, the fight sequences are really well choreographed and sometimes really funny at the same time, the voice acting is superb and lastly the score to the film is sensational. I also saw the film in 3D which just brought it to a complete new level, with the crisp animation and the vast scenery some of the scenes really popped out at you, the final scenes are absolutely impressive.
Looking at the voice cast and a pretty impressive one at that starting with Jack Black he always seems really nail it, I have been a fan of his since he was in the 1998 hit ‘Enemy of the State’ and other then one of his most recent films *cough* Gulliver’s Travels *cough* which I would rather forget I’ve always loved kicking back and putting one of his films on and he just makes Po so cutesy its crazy. Angelina Jolie voices Tigress who this time around felt to me she lacked a bit of dialog, but Tigress actually has some feelings in this one so that was a nice side to see. Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu who’s voice is that calming I could just go to sleep to it, brilliant as always but my favourite one this time around was Mantis voiced by Seth Rogan.. He has by far some of the best one liners in this film “I didn’t have any problems with my dad. Maybe it’s ’cause Mom ate his head before I was born” Gold!
This entire movie did a lot of me, this film focused a fair bit on family and mainly the relationship between Po and his ‘Father’ Mr Ping. With the recent passing of my dad there was definitely a few moments there that got me a bit teary, now this didn’t ruin the movie for me at all, to be honest with you it made it better, its great to see a movie even though its animated with a lot of Heart and with all the emotion I have been dealing with lately it was actually a great release.
KUNG FU PANDA 2 is in cinemas on the 23rd June and its “Beware of the Signs?” fun and a fantastic story. Roll on the third I say, I give this film 4 out of 5 stars.
To see the Kung Fu Panda 2 Trailer head over to our Trailers page. Also if you want to understand the “Beware of the Signs” reference you best check it out.