Here’s my review for a local paper (I’m Brent).
santamariasun.com/film/
DreamWorks Animation’s sequel to its 2008 hit. Giant panda Po (Jack Black) now fights evil alongside his kung-fu idols, the Furious Five: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Crane (David Cross), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Mantis (Seth Rogen). But a banished peacock, Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), has created a weapon to destroy kung-fu. Shen also has a connection to Po’s past, causing the panda to ask his father (a goose) where he really came from. Can Po find the “inner peace” he needs in order to save all of China? Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, reportedly the first woman to solely direct an animated feature for a major Hollywood studio.
Roberta: I told my niece Kaitlin that we were going to see Panda Express. I was confusing this movie with the restaurant!
Brent: Mom is always thinking of food, just like Po!
Roberta: Jack Black’s voice works very well here. I’m sure the animators were mirroring his movements with the character. In some movies, he just does shtick, but here he’s endearing, more like he was in School of Rock, which I really liked.
Brent: Po, once again, is the “unlikely” hero. In the first movie, he was inexperienced. Now that he’s a trained and proven kung-fu master, the new excuse for his bungling is that he’s distracted by visions of being abandoned by his mother as a child.
Roberta: When Po’s father (James Hong) tells him about how he was adopted, I was moved. The flashbacks of Po as a baby were so cute. I love that little mushy stuff. OHHHHHHHHHHH … I want a little panda bear!
Brent: Surprisingly for a DreamWorks film, the serious parts here are more effective than the funny ones. There are laughs throughout, but little that’s memorably hilarious. Of course, this movie retreads the same old running gags (Po’s always hungry, his father is obsessed with noodles, etc.).
Roberta: A scene in which characters spin in and out of a jail cell on the cell door—I thought that was a little farfetched.
Brent: It was filler shtick. Instead, they could have spent more time doing some character-based humor with the under-utilized supporting cast. I can’t blame the filmmakers for focusing on hardcore warrior Tigress—as Po repeatedly observes, she’s awesome—but the rest of the Furious Five are just sort of along for the ride. Dustin Hoffman’s Master Shifu makes little more than a cameo appearance. And a croc in that jail cell scene was voiced by action star Jean-Claude Van Damme. Why? I hardly remember him speaking. What, did they pay the famous actors by the line? Was it all just to have certain names connected with the movie? The one time these characters really get to shine is during the action sequences. I enjoyed how they’d all work together, each moving in their species’ unique way. The visuals are the movie’s greatest strength. The background scenery was beautiful enough to rival Rio. And I’d like to see a whole movie done in the shadow-puppet style of the prologue that set up Shen’s backstory. Having overcome a wicked kung-fu master in the first film, Po now has to face a villain who wants to destroy kung-fu altogether.
Roberta: That they managed to make a peacock so threatening is pretty amazing to me. He had some funny lines, too, even though he was so evil. He was as threatening as Blackbeard in the new Pirates of the Caribbean. I was hoping he’d get it in the end, and the panda would win.
Brent: The soothsayer goat (Michelle Yeoh) kept repeating a prophecy that Po would win. Were you really ever worried?
Roberta: I really enjoyed that goat character. She was interesting to watch. She had wisdom—you could sense she knew what was going to happen. The movie worked, it had a good story, and a good lesson: You might not have been dealt a good hand, but you can still make a good life for yourself. But while the movie had its moments, I’m not all charged and jazzy about it.
Brent: I think the original was more exciting, if only because it was the one that introduced us to this world. But the filmmakers’ affection for old fables and old kung fu movies still comes through here. It was nice to see Po’s relationship with Tigress developing, after she gave him such a hard time in the original.
Roberta: See it in 3D only if you feel like splurging. It went up in price—it’s $15 now, at least at Arroyo Grande Stadium 10.
Brent: I was really getting into to the new 3D technology, but pumping out so many movies that use it (not to mention charging so much for them) threatens the novelty.
Roberta: This movie seemed really short. For $15, I wanted a two-hour movie! Now if I can only get the plush toy of the baby Po, that would give me inner peace.
Brent M. Parker is a writer, artist, and aspiring animated filmmaker. Roberta Slutske is his proud mother who taught him everything he knows. Contact them at mail@santamariasun.com.
