Po (voiced by Jack Black) is back, and this time he and the members of the Furious Five are facing off against the wily peacock Lord Shen (voiced by Gary Oldman) as he tries to put the entire population of China underneath the shroud of his evil wing.

CRITIQUE

Here’s what I wrote back in May:

“It goes without saying that Kung Fu Panda 2 does not cast the same spell as its 2008 predecessor. The surprise is gone, only anticipation remaining, an eager wish that this summertime animated sequel could somehow be as mesmerizing and as enjoyable the original magically proved to be.

While not as fresh or as inspired as the first film, this second chapter in roly-poly panda Po’s journey is not without its charms. By focusing on the rotund kung fu master’s parental saga, by telling the story of how he came to become the son of noodle-making goose Mr. Ping (voiced by James Hong), the movie is a sweetly sentimental peon to family and how DNA alone does not always make a loving father. Their bond, their love, their story is the one that drives this sequel forward, and for all the action-packed pyrotechnics it is this emotional familial anecdote that ultimately allows this one to resonate.

At the same time, the central adventure at the center of all this is beyond thin. Even at a brisk 90-minutes there is a heck of a lot of filler, the majority of the characters given very little to do other than to kick a little butt and assist Po as he slowly trudges towards his ultimate showdown with Lord Shen. The plot is completely laid on the table in the first ten or fifteen minutes, and by and large it doesn’t get anymore developed as the film goes along. The middle portions trudge along from set piece to set piece, and as eye-popping and as spectacular as many of them are there isn’t a ton nuance or dimensionality (or for that matter surprise) to the central narrative itself.

Not that this sequel isn’t without plenty of merit. The action sequences are stunning, the animation as good as anything DreamWorks has ever delivered. There is some great vocal work by newcomers Oldman and Michelle Yeoh (playing a prescient goat named The Soothsayer), and I really dug the stuff regarding Po, Mr. Ping and the panda’s awakening to his family’s – and his original village’s – most unspeakable tragedy. The final confrontation is suitably thrilling, and the reunion between father and son at the end actually brought a small tear to my eye.

But there is a lot that doesn’t quite cut it. Some potentially interesting new characters like kung fu legends Master Oxen (voiced by Dennis Haysbert) and Master Croc (voiced Jean-Claude Van Damme) are given little of interest to do, while returning members of the Furious Five Monkey, Mantis, Viper and Crane might as well not be in the movie at all. As I’ve already said there is a heck of a lot of padding helping this reach feature length, while the closing setup for a future sequel is more annoying then it is anything else.

Not that any of this matters. For the most part Kung Fu Panda 2 manages to get the job done, and while the magic of the original has been diminished there is still just enough of it to allow this sequel to entertain. More importantly, the kids in the preview audience I saw it with couldn’t get enough of the darn thing, Po kicking just enough butt to make the idea of a third adventure one I am perfectly comfortable with.”

Kung Fu Panda 2 is almost a perfect sit-on-the-couch-on-a-cold-Sunday-afternoon-morning type of movie, meaning that it engages while you’re in the room watching it but don’t feel at all bad about heading into the kitchen to wash dishes listening as it plays in the background. Quite frankly, there is nothing wrong with that, and for my part those types of films tend to be the ones I plop in the player more often than some others I might feel are far superior as far as overall quality is concerned.

But I do think I didn’t quite give this one quite as much in the way in respect when it played theatrically as it arguably deserved. So this sequel isn’t as good as the first movie, and yes much of it plays awfully thin (setting up an even more unnecessary third chapter making this effort close be nothing more than a 90-minute commercial for the next installment), but the animation is stunning and the vocal work, especially by Oldman and Hong, is arguably some of the best of the entire year. This is a solid, highly enjoyable sequel faults and all, and I imagine families who pick it up for their collections aren’t going to feel remotely bad about having done so.

THE VIDEO

Kung Fu Panda 2 is presented on a dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray MPEG-4 AVC Video with 2.35:1/1080p transfer. This is a Disney-level transfer of an animated film, plain and simple. Colors are sharp and vibrant, black levels are remarkably consistent and fine detailing is so unbelievably impressive you almost won’t want to believe your eyes. A magnificent Blu-ray, and there’s no more to say than that.

THE AUDIO

This film comes to Blu-ray with an English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 audio track along with French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks and includes optional English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

Extras here are impressive and include:

·         Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters (23:00) – Amusing short with the Kung Fu Panda characters engaging in a side adventure not exactly related to anything that happens in this sequel.

·         Animation Inspiration – Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson introduces a series of short vignettes chronicling the filmmakers’ 2008 trip to China and how these live-action adventures influenced every facet of Kung Fu Panda 2.

·         The Animators' Corner – Wonderful picture-in-picture audio commentary from the animators showcasing what it took to bring this sequel to life. Truly outstanding.

·         Filmmakers' Commentary - Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, producer Melissa Cobb.  production designer Raymond Zibach and supervising animator, Kung Fu choreographer and story artist Rodolphe Guenoden talk about the film in an engaging commentary track that doesn’t equal the animators’ picture-in-picture track awesomeness but is nonetheless still pretty great overall. A solid listen.

·         Trivia Track – Exactly what it sounds like, but still kind of amusing.

·         Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness (23:50) – An episode of Nickelodeon television program.

·         Kickin' It with the Cast (12:42) – Pleasing enough featurette with the vocal cast discussing how they get/got into character.

·         Deleted Scenes (4:21) – Three of them, all with director introduction.

·         Panda Stories (7:44) – Short featurette on the global effort to save Pandas.

·         Kung Fu Shuffle – A pair of games, neither of which I played. Sorry.

·         Ni Hao – Fun extra on the basics of speaking and writing Mandarin.

·         World of DreamWorks Animation – Generic previews for a number of DreamWorks animated films including How to Train Your Dragon and Megamind.

The disc is also full of previews, comes with DVD and digital copies of the film and offers up a free Kung Fu Panda World online game membership.

FINAL THOUGHTS

An outstanding Blu-ray release that DreamWorks can be exceedingly proud of.