"Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom" Talkback (Spoilers)

R

Ritsuka Aoyagi

New member
The movie was definitely AWESOME! :D

The visuals did justice. As expected, we are given very wonderfully choreographed fights, especially the ones like the Po vs. Shen fight. The transition on 2D and CGI was also good, creating some sort of "difference" on each scene to give the idea on their setting (and how Po views them).

The characters have top-notch voice acting, as usual. Gary Oldman really does Shen justice (who himself is on a different level from Tai Lung). The Furious Five have more screentime to boot, and we get to see them interact a lot as well as with Po. Tigress is even awesome as we see her snarky but loving big sis that she is (and even Ebert chuckled at the Ship Tease).

The plot is expected to be basic - but the whole theme itself makes it quite fresh. The first one focuses on Po's Journey, here they give him his background.

I give it 9/10.
 
Here is where DreamWorks is starting to pick up the slag from the needless fourth Shrek sequel and continue it's line of potential greatness from where we left off with HTTYD. Give the studio some time, let Cars 2 reenter it's self-made merchandising foray and I bet more then anything Puss in Boots will be a spectacular addition to the animation world later this year.

Pixar has this sequel and the sketchy sequel for Monster's Inc. coming out next year, it makes me wonder how long they can keep their originality and freshness going. I'm not going to lie, I do appreciate and enjoy their movies. But it seems like they started with Toy Story and they may end their line of quality products with Toy Story, you never know.
 
While I hear the action in this one is pretty good, I still am not interested in it at all, seeing how I disliked the first movie so much, mainly due to the main character himself and the lack of characterization of the Furious Five, which I was also told continues in this movie with most members. And speaking of Tai Lung, I do believe he is not mentioned in this sequel in any way, shape or form, right? What an absolute copout. I do hope he gets brought back in the third movie, as I also heard that there is a huge sequel hook here.
 
My only problem with the first movie was the extremely lame ending, which still ranks number one on my list of "worst ways to end a film." If they fixed that problem for the sequel and kept everything that was good about the first, then as far as I'm concerned, it's already a better movie. However, I won't be going to see it in theaters, as there's a whole bunch of other flicks I'm more interested in.
 
I loved the film! I enjoyed the animation/visuals, fighting choreography and learning more about Po's past. While some people may not enjoy the ending, it sets up a potential third film. Dreamworks have found its third cash cow next to How to Train Your Dragon.

I really wish I could cosplay as Lord Shen. An evil peacock obsessed with metal that his feathers are daggers and claws are razor sharp blades? Awesome!

Also, I almost forgot about the 2D. I would love to see more of the style seen in this film used in other future Dreamworks films.

Tai Lung's mentioned
Po and the Furious Five are being arrested by Lord Shen'a wolf army before entering into the palace. Po talks about his handcuffs being the same that held his advisory three years ago. Plus, in his old village, many scenes from the first film are seen when Po was trying to find inner peace to prepare for his final battle.
 
I thought it was a good movie but once again the celebrity stunt casting fails. I don't understand why all these big name actors are hired to say virtually nothing.

JCVD voices a crocodile and he has about 4 lines. And nothing he says is funny or amusing at all. I'm not saying he should mock a JCVD catchphrase or anything but there should be something there. Even Lord Shen did a bit of Oldman's Stansfield from Leon.
 
I still don't see how Po is dislikeable. It is shown that despite being trained, he still has ways to go after all.

And the Furious Five got their character development in the short animation. But still, we see more moments like Tigress being kind. And really now, they're not the main focus of the films, so them developing are just a side dish. Or we might as well complain about the Circus Bugs not developing.

Erm... Tai Lung is confirmed to be dead. Why do they need to bring him up? And there are stuff mentioned about him, and even during the flashbacks we see him.
 
I agree with someone up there who says the stunt casting fails. Why hire these big names if they'll barely say anything. As for that Furious Five little featurette, it was something straight-to-video. I'd like to see it in the actual movies. I did hear Tigress gets a lot of development in this sequel, which is definitely welcome, but that the others stay as underdeveloped as ever.

Po, I just have never liked him. He's just highly obnoxious and annoying in my eyes, everything about him irritates me to no end. I know I'm probably alone in this opinion, but it's just the way I see him, and the main reason I hate the series as a whole and makes it hard for me to even sit through it.

And Tai Lung has yet to be actually confirmed to be dead. Yes, I know that in that dream sequence from the holiday special, Po says "Tai Lung? I thought you were d...". He stops at that, so until I hear them actually say he's dead, I'll hold out hope that the most interesting character in this series, one who has a lot of potential for good storylines, might be brought back sometime... which I doubt, considering the direction the movies seem to be taking. But yeah, it'd be interesting if he returns in a third film, it would add to the whole theme in which the sequel ended. As I said, lots of potential, just have to wait like 3 years to see if they go for it.
 
A powerful explosion of chi definitely did. XD

Granted of course, it's less concrete then Shen.



But see, the Furious Five are just side characters in the long run. Their development is pretty much dependent on how they interact with the main characters (which we see a lot in this version). While developing them is good, they may end up dragging the film, and making them as a supplementary is a good move. As far as voice acting goes, it's not pretty new to be honest - even Japan does it after all. At least the second movie gave the much more screentime and dialog.

But Po himself has this likeable attitude of being friendly, optimistic, and loyal. Most of the rage comes from the fact that he is voiced by Jack Black and I don't even like him, but Po feels like a different character altogether. The trailers amp up his annoyance, but in the films he was rarely like that.

Tai Lung, to be honest, doesn't really have to develop much any more. A lot of people seem to forget that he crossed the line, and that we pretty much get most of his story in the first film. He is been repeatedly reported as dead, especially when we consider Po's words. I must say though, I didn't find it surprising Tai Lung fans hating on Po. XD
 
I'd give it 3.5/5 myself.

It's not quite on the first's level, but it still entertaining nevertheless. The action is fantastic, so are the visuals (mainly during the film's emotional scenes). I guess the cons would be is that it doesn't feel fresh (but in no way rushed) and even though Shen is deadlier and with a more striking design, I still prefer McShane's Tai Lung as he was a more complex villain.

Gladly, the F5 get more lines, but still never treated as the full-fleshed characters they should be. Granted, I know it's Po's storyarc, but they just kinda feel, well, disposable. Disappointingly, JCVD's five lines are rushed and murmured, but I dug his character design. I wanted to see more of Thundering Rhino too.

Hilarious moments were:
the Pac-Man homage and the drifting hat.

The ending:
I'm keen with the pandas still surviving, it gives us a good plot for the third film.... but Po's real dad alive as well feels like a bit of a cop-out, and kinda undoes the resolved storyarc of Po accepting Mr. Ping as his true father. Ah well, maybe Panda Dad will turn out to be a jerk or something.

So yeah, great to see Dreamworks is still keeping their minds on story over money, even if they do plan to give KFP like 8 sequels 'til its bled dry. I'm eager for #3 (even it's not 'til 2014 or so), but please, give one of the F5 more to do. *nudge nudge* Viper, if you please *nudge nudge*
 
I thought this was a very worthy sequel. They certainly had enough content to build a sequel on and make it flow. I thought one of the chase scenes dragged out a little too long, but otherwise they kept the feel of the first one.

I actually hadn't seen the first one in full, so I rented it. But apparently the last person to rent that particular DVD used it to slice a pizza, and then wiped it with the wrong side of the scrubby sponge, because it completely refused to play 20 minutes in. So I bought a copy of the first film at Walmart and watched it on my laptop on the way down.
 
I thought the ending was a little awkwardly placed and abrupt and sort of mucked with Po's moment with Mr. Ping.

I don't think the movie was quite "spectacular." It was a good sequel don't get me wrong. It looked really nice, but the Furious Five still remain poorly developed and written characters.
 
Pretty good sequel overall. Loved the scenes with Baby Po. It was absolutely adorable!!! I hope Dreamworks would include all 3 Chinese dubs when this hits bluray. (Yes, there are in fact 3 Chinese language dubs for all the major American animated films. One in Mandarin for Mainland China, another in Mandarin for Taiwan, and one in Cantonese for Hong Kong) Jackie Chan reprised his role as Monkey for the Cantonese dub and even his own son Jaycee Chan plays one of the furious five in that dub (pretty sure he's the crane fella). I hope Michelle Yeoh would do the same for the Cantonese dub of Kung Fu Panda 2 cuz she is pretty fluent in the Cantonese dialect.

And apparently, Patty Hou, the ex-girlfriend of Taiwanese singer-actor Jay Chou (most recently seen in "The Green Hornet") is the voice of Tigress in the Taiwanese dub. Pretty sure she will be Tigress again for this dub of the sequel.
 
One of the best things about this movie: the number of characters who fight with really big honkin' hammers. Not enough of them around in martial-arts movies, I don't think. There's one more in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and that's all I can really think of off the top of my head.

More thoughts on the movie coming soon in the TZ review. But I wanted to make that point about the hammers.

Oh, and also:


The reality is that the big names will attract more mainstream press attention than hiring Kevin Michael Richardson, Jim Cummings, James Sie, Grey Delisle, and Jennifer Hale to play the same parts, no matter how much or how little they end up doing in the film. At least in this film, the celebrity stunt casting isn't actively distracting as I find it can be in a lot of other DW films.

I'll also bet (a small amount of) money that if Jean-Claude Van Damme, Seth Rogen, Jackie Chan, and the rest of the celebrity cast were paid more up front than scale + 10, it wasn't a whole lot more. I can see Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, or Angelina getting paid more, but not the other cast members.

While I'm talking about voice actors, I loved Dennis Haysbert as Master Ox even if he doesn't get a lot to do, and I just adored James Hong again as Mr. Ping. And Michelle Yeoh as the goat seer is one more performance to prove to me that she is criminally underused in Hollywood, especially since she's one of the few Asian movie stars who can speak English without an accent (or, more accurately, without an Asian accent; her accent in this movie is close to what she sounds like in real life, with a slight British tinge).
 
Back
Top