Kung Fu Panda 2 had a hell of a lot to live up to, in my opinion. To me, the first Kung Fu Panda was one of the greatest animated films of all time. It had great art, great voice acting, it was naturally funny, filled with great action sequences and delivered the requisite kids movie message without being ham-fisted about it. Boom. So could the sequel live up to that? The bar was pretty high.

The answer is… yes and no. But it earned my respect in a big way.

You see, Kung Fu Panda was essentially a fish out of water comedy. “Look! It’s a Kung Fu temple, but the Panda’s fat and clumsy! Thats so funny!” KFP2 can’t play that card. They can’t tell a bunch of fat Kung Fu jokes. Po is the Dragon Warrior now, he should be getting more respect. They can’t chock the movie full of Kung Fu newbie getting his ass kicked by Masters jokes. Po defeated Tai Lung singlehandedly. Obviously he knows something about Kung Fu. And they can’t dwell on Po driving Master Shifu crazy… Ok, well, he still drives Master Shifu crazy a little.

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