Plot summary (from the studio): 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. Po must look to his past and uncover the secrets of his mysterious origins; only then will he be able to unlock the strength he needs to succeed.
Warning: Spoilers below!
Liked:
- I liked that my son liked it. Let’s face it: when I rent a DVD for family movie night, nothing’s worse than having my son want to quit after half an hour because the film is too boring. He enjoyed Kung Fu Panda 2 enough to watch it twice before we sent it back to Netflix.
- The film was short. I’ve made no secret of my hatred for unnecessarily long films. This one clocked in at right around 91 mins, which was definitely sufficient.
Disliked:
- There wasn’t much meat to this plot. I’m not asking for anything overly intricate or in-depth (this is a children’s film, after all), but a bad guy with a super-duper weapon that can wreak massive destruction? Come on!
- I didn’t find this film to be nearly as funny or enjoyable as the first. Maybe I’m looking on the past with rose-colored glasses, but I just wasn’t as into this one as the first installment. Chalk it up to sequelitis, I guess.
Rating:
Overall, there wasn’t much to Kung Fu Panda 2 that adults would find interesting, unless the voice talents of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, et al. are enough to float your boat. Kids might like it, though, which is definitely a redeeming quality. I give it 3 stars out of 5 for kids; 2 stars out of 5 for adults.