4. Kung Fu Panda 2
This is going to sound odd but once upon a time I think it would have physically hurt me to put anything above Shrek 2. Not because it’s a movie I liked less than the other or whatever. They’re both great films. It’s just that… Shrek 2 is like THE film that I was in possible romantic love with at one point in my life. It feels odd putting a film that I saw twice before that one and merely thought “hey that was good” above it.
Yet, upon this third re-watch of Kung Fu Panda 2 I couldn’t help but do that. I actually think it's the better film.
This movie is pure distilled awesomeness from top to bottom. The movement and flow of the action and the direction of the scenes is just thrills incarnate. It really does a great job of selling you on everything taking place. Choreography and fights are something that seldom ever truly get recognition anymore and I feel that does have to do with the fact that a lot of it kind of looks the same in movies nowadays. Animation can breathe so much life into it though and it makes me jealous knowing I’ll probably never create anything that can reach the heights of it that this film can. I can’t even really animate someone’s eyes rolling in their heads.
Seriously, everything they do to make each new fight more inventive than the last should be applauded here. The one in the beginning where the bandits are trying to steal all the metal and the fighting they’re doing by clanging against the pots and pans is helping to create the music of the scene is the kind of shit that will never not be impressive no matter how many times I see this film.
There's a "fight" scene just about two people trying to stay inside of a cell and Po trying to get them out. The way that door flips and spins along with the characters to create this awesome but ridiculous looking set-piece is amazing. Just give them a weird idea and they'll make it the most bombastic thing ever.
It’s hard to pit these two films against one another too because the journeys their main characters go on are very different. If Shrek 2 has anything above this film it’s that its subject matter does come off as a tad more unique, I suppose. Having a villain like the Fairy Godmother takes a concept that was done to death at a certain point and twists it in a way that few had ever really seen done before.
However, something is still to be said about a villain like Lord Shen (Gary Oldman) who just oozes personality and presence. Every time he enters the scene, something feels like it changes about the atmosphere and it’s massively effective. The only times where it feels like it doesn’t is when Po (Jack Black) is in the scene with him AND when Po isn’t emotionally distressed while he is.
Their first meeting sees Shen coming as a little cowardly because he’s afraid of who this panda warrior is. Why? Because the Soothsayer (Michelle Yeoh) prophesied that he would be defeated by a warrior of black and white.
So obviously that means commit mass genocide on all the pandas in the valley. As you do.
The harsh, incredibly bleak past that saw Po reach where he is today is showcased to us via these beautifully done, 2D flashbacks that culminate just once in the end with the original 3D showing Po being left in a basket by his mom. As great as it looks, I think the beginning part showing it off with Shen and the rest as these barely animated stills works the best. I think the reason that part is so effective largely has to do with how jerky and unsettling the animation there is. It reminded me of old Adult Swim animation and how that used to unsettle me when I was a kid.
The colors in this film are otherworldly too. When I think of this film, really harsh bright reds come to mind and I feel like that’s on purpose for the majority of it. The only time it doesn’t is towards the end when the sparkling fireworks are more so the focus of where my eye is being drawn.
I also feel like the ideas this film tries to convey work better than the first Kung Fu Panda because they’re a lot more interesting. The idea that cannons are considered a weapon that stops Kung Fu is interesting to me. With all the crazy shit you’ve seen these guys do it’s hard to imagine them dying to a normal canon but in this world all that flippy-dippy stuff being stopped by a big enough explosion fired from a barrel makes sense. Why fight them when you can just shoot them? It doesn’t matter how much you’ve trained, you can’t survive getting blown up.
But as Po proved you can train to work around that fate.
As Po grows so do the people around him. Having so much on his plate, you can feel how powerful the emotions are when he's finally belting out what his issues are and Tigress (Angelina Jolie) finally breaks down that barrier between them and gives him a hug. He got a hug! From Tigress!
It's not all just harsh emotion though. This movie is also really fucking funny. One of the absolute hardest laughs I got watching any of these goddamn movies happens when Po arrives on the roof to confront Shen for the final battle. It starts off as one joke and then escalates into like two other ones. It was unparalleled peak humor.
The main focus of the story and the thing I found most engaging, at least as I saw it, was Po’s relationship with his dad. Because of these flashbacks interrupting his fighting at crucial moments he’s got it in his head that he needs to discover who he is. Come to find out that he already knows who he is; he’s his goose dad’s son. Fucking got me tearing up over here.
Like the first one, it takes a fairly simple idea and executes it extremely well… but it does so even better than it did last time. I can’t help but gush about it.
I can not stress this enough; this is a work of art. Go see it.
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1 month, 1 week ago
26 Apr 2025 02:20 CEST
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