Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

The Panda is back to kick some ass! The first "Kung Fu Panda" was surprisingly good, with great visual and screenplay humor, and a story which, despite following the usual animation-movie-cliches, was compelling enough. Jack Black, off course, is the man, and taking aside Dustin Hoffman, the other side characters where there just for their visual contribution rather than their screenplay one (Jackie Chan, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen had each about 5 lines in the first movie). But that's what was great about the Panda. Great humorous visual animation, and a lot of improv by Black. The second film follows the same type of overall structure, with the addition of more lines to Angelina Jolie. Black never fails to impress, and the visual gags, albeit less, are hilarious. One can mention the "sneaking-in" scene, Panda-style, or the one where he tries to make an uplifting speech far away from everyone else, as moments that bring the movie theater down with laughter. Yet the story... well, the story is always the weaker point in these movies. And from the first scene, the prologue, the audience is given the answer to what Po tries the whole movie to discover. So I, as a member of the audience, was not surprised, nor impressed, nor did I discover the truth at the same time as Po. I knew it from the start, so I just waited, without thrills, for Po to get there. Basically, long ago, an evil peacock, Shen (fantastically voiced by Gary Oldman), heir to the throne but going down a dark path (discoverer of gunpowder and cannons), had a soothsayer which foretold that he was going to be defeated by a Panda. Therefore he ordered the slaughter of all Pandas, and only baby Po escaped. For all those who thought strange that Po was the son of a geese in the first movie, here's the answer. After all these years, Shen is back, and the kung fu warriors are no match for his gunpower. This is scene 1. So the rest of the movie, Po and the furious 5, mentored by Hoffman, have to save the world, at the same time as Po unravels the riddles of his past. Same old. Same old. Here again, we have a lot of characters who are kung fu masters, which have trained for years, and fight a hell of a lot better than Po. But here again, all the mysteries (as the dragon scroll in the first movie) are given to Po, because he is the chosen one! What is the moral here? A fat lazy Panda will get all the glory and you can forget about all those true kung fu warriors? Why can't Angelina Jolie's character find inner piece and master the water drops? She has trained for 20 years! Why has it to be the Panda, who has eaten for 20 years instead? Just because the movie is called "Kung Fu Panda". Taking this little detail aside, "Kung Fu Panda 2" is still one of the best animation films this year. Way better than "Rio" anyway. Inferior than the first, because the story is inferior, but there is still material enough to produce a great visual experience (although the 3D was only average), and an amusing one. Like the first scene, the last scene also spoils the movie experience. It clearly tells the audience that there is going to be a Panda 3. If they weren't so preoccupied with building up the story for the next one, they could have focused and done a better job with this one. But no matter how many more Pandas come, just remember how good the first one is.