Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

Rating: 70%
Okay I've heard good things, and I've heard bad things about this film. So now I've finally seen it and here's what I have to say about it.

Plot: Years before the events of the first film, a peacock named Lord Shen was the son of a clan that ruled Gongmen City who figured out to to use fireworks as a weapon and so was prophesied that a 'warrior of black-and-white' will defeat him. So he attacked a panda population and was then banished by his parents. Now he has come back after now inventing a cannon were he intends to destroy kung-fu with it. So it's up to Po and the Furious Five to stop him, but along the way, Po is having flashbacks that lead him to want to know who his parents are.

This movie is roughly everything that the first film was...only it was more predictable. I mean while I didn't expect every single thing to happen, most of what was going to happen to Po personally was more obvious which despite how much I liked that they now have something about Po's parents since we've been in the dark with the first one. Other then that, I thought some of the jokes that they pulled were quite as cute as they were in the first. But other then that, this film is just as enjoyable and even a little more so with the fact that they expanded this world a went even bigger and better with the animation. The action especially is much bigger and what's even better is that we have much more of it.  I also really enjoy that Po has finally learned kung-fu and now is officially friends and a valuable teammate of The Furious Five so that we have almost all of Po being just some kung-fu geek out of the way and just focus on him now living his dream to the fullest. He wasn't always doing something embarrassing as often as I was concerned that he would in this film, just kicking rear with his heroes which suits me just fine. As for Lord Shen, I kind of liked him. I mean firstly, I didn't expect him as a peacock 'cause when you think evil villain after Tai Lung and especially when the villain's voiced by an actor like Gary Oldman, you'd think that he's some really evil and cool looking wolf or something like that. But instead he's a peacock, which i'm alright with that because I thought that was a nice way of going a little different. As for the character itself, I thought he wasn't all that developed. I thought he was just being something of a pain old evil villain that wants to rule something. But at least compared to some over villains Goldman's played in the past like in Lost In Space and Quest for Camelot he was more exciting and was slightly more bad-a and cold-hearted.

And that's my review for Kung Fu Panda 2. It's a little more predictable and not quite as cute, but it takes advantage of Po fully knowing kung fu making the action bigger and better with a decent villain and a nice side story. So this just leaves me with one question as far as best animated feature went for 2011: WHY DIDN'T AT LEAST THIS FILM WIN COMPARED TO RANGO!?!?!?!?!?! THAT FILM IS TOTALLY OVERRATED!!!!!