Review - Kung Fu Panda 2

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), PG, 90 minutes - Three years ago, Kung Fu Panda was a pleasant surprise. It was an extremely well animated, well told, ridiculous story of a fat slob of a panda becoming part of a team of Kung Fu masters. Luckily, this follow up provides more of the same fun.

Jack Black returns as Kung Fu Panda Po, and the Furious 5 are also back with their original voice actors (Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, and David Cross). The best addition to this sequel is the character of Lord Shen, voiced by Gary Oldman. Shen is a peacock who is the overzealous heir to the ruling family of Gongmen City. After having been banished for years, he returns not only to take his rightful place on the throne, but to expand his rule across all of China. Po and the Furious 5 battle Lord Shen and his army of wolves (led by Wolf Boss voiced by Danny McBride) in an attempt to keep China free of Shen's rule.

Kung Fu Panda 2 is a good follow up and builds on the character development of the first film (we find out just how a panda becomes the son of a duck). The animation is beautiful, the action scenes are entertaining, and the voice acting is top notch. If you saw the first one you'll definitely want to check this one out. And if you didn't, well, go out and see both.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review - Iron Man 3

Image
Iron Man 3 (2013), PG-13, 130 minutes - Iron Man 3.  Wow.  There's quite a bit to say and I'm not really sure where to start (and that's after thinking about it all last night and this morning).  There were things that I liked and things that I didn't.  I'm not sure that I've worked it all out yet, but I do know this for sure: there will be a longer than usual spoiler section at the end of this post. Iron Man 3 starts off with a narration from Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) himself, thinking aloud, trying to figure out how to best tell the story of how he has gotten to this point in his life.  He starts once, stops, then starts again, flashing back to a technology conference held over New Year's of 2000, settling on that as the point at which everything currently happening can be traced back to.  That flashback sequence sets up some of the major players of Iron Man 3, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), and Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) as well as giving us a y
Read more

Collected Comic Review - Green Arrow by Mike Grell

Image
Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters  - Collecting Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters (1987) #1-3. Green Arrow: Vol. 1 - Hunter's Moon - Collecting Green Arrow (1988) #1-6. Green Arrow: Vol. 2 - Here There Be Dragons - Collecting Green Arrow (1988) #7-12. Green Arrow: Vol. 3 - The Trial of Oliver Queen - Collecting Green Arrow (1988) #13-20. Green Arrow: Vol. 4 - Blood of the Dragon - Collecting Green Arrow (1988) #21-28. Green Arrow: Vol. 5 - The Black Arrow - Collecting Green Arrow (1988) #29-38. Green Arrow: Vol. 6 - Last Action Hero - Collecting Green Arrow (1988) #39-50. Green Arrow: Vol. 7 - Homecoming - Collecting Green Arrow (1988) #51-62. Green Arrow: Vol. 8 - The Hunt for the Red Dragon - Collecting Green Arrow (1988) #63-72. Green Arrow: Vol. 9 - Old Tricks - Collecting Green Arrow (1988) #73-80, and Green Arrow: The Wonder Year (1993) #1-4. Shado: Song of the Dragon (1992) #1-4   - loose issues (not collected). Over the last couple of years, I have been
Read more

Review - Mama

Image
Mama (2013), PG-13, 100 minutes - Jessica Chastain is ruling the box office right now, starring in the two top grossing movies in theaters this past week.  One is Zero Dark Thirty (for which she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress), and the other is this little horror film based right here in Virginia (it had a $15 million budget and made over $32 million over its first week). Mama begins in tragedy just after the beginning of the financial collapse in 2008, a man named Jeffrey (Nikolaj Costar-Waldau) murders a co-worker and his estranged wife before taking his two daughters (three year old Victoria and one year old Lilly) and fleeing town.  Driving too fast on snow covered roads, he loses control and they slide off the side of a mountain road and crash in the woods.  The three of them survive the wreck and come across an abandoned cabin after fleeing the scene.  Once he's started a fire, Jeffrey breaks down in another room.  After regaining some composure, he comes
Read more