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Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

Director: Jennifer Yuh

Time Out rating

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4 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Back in 2008, when the first ‘Kung Fu Panda’ hit cinemas, Jack Black was the loveable hero of ‘School of Rock’ and ‘Nacho Libre’, the cuddly comic superstar whose cosy, off-the-cuff charm seemed a perfect fit for an animated, family-friendly blockbuster about a portly panda with martial-arts ambitions. Three years later, Black is the tiresome, unfunny bore of ‘Year One’ and ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, his schlubby, semi-improvised shtick grown stale. Could overfamiliarity take the sweet edge off our once-loveable hero, Po?

Luckily for Black, most of his target audience is too young to care: unlike many modern animations, ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ is aimed squarely at pre-teens, with few of the ironic asides which have become fashionable in the post-‘Shrek’ marketplace. There are some dark touches – the biblically inspired backstory of peacock villain Shen (Gary Oldman) is really rather nasty – but overall, this is a kid-friendly romp with mercifully few pretensions.

The setting, once again, is a lost kingdom of medieval China mysteriously colonised by a global menagerie of random animals (gorillas, antelope, wolves, even a rhino) with Californian accents. We find Po still honing his martial arts skills under the direction of diminutive Yoda wannabe Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), but his quest to find inner peace is interrupted by the evil ambitions of once-proud peacock princeling Shen, on a mission to reclaim the throne by any means necessary. But our hero won’t be able to defeat Shen, or achieve true kung-fu focus, until he learns the truth of what happened to his parents.
It’s this emotionally resonant subplot which is the film’s most memorable aspect: Po’s troubled but loving relationship with his adoptive dad, Ping, voiced wonderfully by James Hong, is warm and wholly believable.

And while Po’s quest for his roots occasionally slows the action, it pays off in a rewardingly melodramatic finale. Elsewhere, the story is a mite haphazard: Shen’s motives and methods are never entirely clear, while our heroes’ plans to thwart him remain equally obscure. The smaller characters are often underdeveloped, particularly Po’s karate compadres, the Furious Five. And while Po is a sympathetic hero, Black’s freewheeling vocal mannerisms do begin to grate.

But any such concerns go out the window once the action kicks off: while the 3D rendering may make things a little fuzzy around the edges, first-time director Jennifer Yuh handles the big set-pieces – notably a breathlessly paced cart chase through the streets of the capital city – with confidence. The result is a solid slice of summer entertainment: forgettable, perhaps, but plenty of fun while it lasts.

Author: Tom Huddleston

Time Out London Issue 2129: June 9 - 15, 2011

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User reviews of this film

Joe said...

Posted on Jul 07 2011 12:34 Good and funny cartooon

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stuart said...

Posted on Jun 30 2011 11:56 i'm taking my 4 yr old nephew on saturday, can't wait hope its as funny as the first movie, for my sake lol

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ARCHGATE said...

Posted on Jun 14 2011 10:56 Badass Panda comedy. Some deep emotional stuff going on in this one, too. 10/10

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scrumpyjack said...

Posted on Jun 13 2011 18:06 Too dark and not funny. About 30 sec of good 3D means 2D will do fine. Frantic wall to wall action (must have been 50 kids in cinema - not a peep) and beautiful animation (when light!) earns it a skin of teeth 6/10, it ain't one that will be remembered.

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