Movie Thoughts: Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

• Released: May 26, 2011
  
• Directed by: Jennifer Yuh Nelson
• Running time: 1 h 30 min
• Rating 5/5

Synopsis

Now an accomplished Dragon Warrior, Po must face both a new foe and his past trauma in order to achieve inner peace and save the day.

My Thoughts

The first Kung Fu Panda movie, despite how silly the title and concept sounds, was already phenomenal. Great visuals, great story, great characters, great action scenes. So color me surprised when I watched this for the first time and realized it's not just one of the best Dreamworks movies ever made, but also just one of the best animated movies I've ever seen. Heck, scrap the animated part, one of the best movies I've ever seen. And that's rare, especially for a sequel.

Everything has been upped. The animation, the action scenes, the emotion, the humor, the artsy sequences, the 2D sequences, the story, the villain. Everything is improved on in this sequel to a movie that itself was already fantastic. And that's quite a feat.

I don't even have that much to say here. It's such a wonderful way with how they had Po's past and him facing his trauma connected to the current villain. Also, Shen is easily one of the best-written villains ever. He's charming, subtle, well voice-acted, lightning-fast, a great fighter and they're also not afraid to have some humorous scenes with him as well once every while.

Overall this movie just manages to balance everything perfectly. Humor, action, emotion, drama. It's pretty much perfect and together with The Prince of Egypt for my favorite Dreamworks movie, as well as one of my all-time favorite movies.