Kung Fu Panda 2

Plot

Long ago, in Ancient China, the peacock rulers of Gongmen City invented fireworks for peaceful purposes. However, their son, Lord Shen, discovered that the fireworks' black powder could also be weaponized. Troubled by Shen's obsession, his parents consulted a soothsayer, who foretold them that if he continued down this path, he would be defeated by "a warrior of black and white". Overhearing the prophecy, Shen deduced that the warrior would be a panda and, in an attempt to avoid his fate, led his wolf army to exterminate every panda in China. Horrified by the genocide, Shen's parents banished him from the city as punishment.

In the present day, one year after the defeat of Tai Lung, Po is enjoying his new life as a kung fu master and regularly fights crime across the Valley of Peace alongside the Furious Five, although Master Shifu warns him that he has not yet achieved inner peace. Meanwhile, Shen's army of gorillas and wolves raids villages for scrap metal to build cannons Shen will use to conquer China. When the army raids a nearby village, Po and the Five intercept them, but a symbol on the head wolf's armor resembling a red sun gives Po a memory of when he last saw his mother. Po consults his adoptive goose father, Mr. Ping, who reveals that he found Po as a cub in a shipment of radishes outside his restaurant and adopted him when no one came to claim him. Po and the Five are dispatched to Gongmen City after learning that Shen killed one of the regents, Master Thundering Rhino, with a cannon. Shen imprisons the other regents, Masters Ox and Croc, and takes over the city, but the soothsayer constantly reminds him of the prophecy.

Upon arriving in Gongmen City, Po and the Five free Masters Ox and Croc, but they refuse to help. Po and the Five then feign surrender to Shen, who brings them into Gongmen Palace to execute them with his prototype cannon. They free themselves and destroy it, but Po sees the same sun-like symbol on Shen's plumage, distracting him long enough for Shen to escape and destroy Gongmen Palace with his now-complete arsenal of cannons. After escaping, Tigress confronts Po, who reveals that he remembers seeing Shen when he last saw his biological parents. Tigress sympathizes, but she and the others abandon him for his own safety and head to Shen's cannon factory to destroy it.

Po follows the Five to the factory and confronts Shen, which ruins the Five's demolition plan and gets them captured. Shen claims that Po's parents never loved him before shooting him with a cannon from close range. Severely wounded but alive, Po floats downriver and is rescued by the Soothsayer at the village where Po once lived as a cub. She nurses Po back to health and encourages him to embrace his painful memories instead of fighting them. Po recalls his father fighting off Shen's army while his mother hid him in the radish crate, sacrificing herself by distracting Shen's army so he could survive. Having reconciled with his past, Po finally achieves inner peace.

Rejuvenated, Po returns to Gongmen City, where Shen is sailing downriver with his army and a fleet of warships. Po frees the Five, and with the help of Masters Ox, Croc, and Shifu, they destroy the foremost ships and use the wreckage to block the army from reaching the harbor. Shen then fires from his own flagship to clear the way, killing most of his own soldiers, scattering the Masters, and leaving Po to stand alone against Shen's fleet. Focusing on his newfound inner peace, Po redirects the cannonballs shot at him back at the remaining ships and destroys them, including Shen's flagship. Onboard its wreckage, Po offers for Shen to find inner peace of his own, but Shen refuses and attacks him. In the process, Shen accidentally severs the lines holding up the ship's destroyed cannon, which falls and crushes him.

Shifu and the Five congratulate Po and return to the Valley of Peace, where Po gratefully acknowledges Mr. Ping as his father. Meanwhile, in a secret panda village in a distant mountain range, Po's biological father senses that his son is alive.

Voice cast

Main article: List of Kung Fu Panda characters{{!}}List of ''Kung Fu Panda'' characters

• Jack Black as Master Po, a giant panda and the Dragon Warrior
  • Liam Knight as Baby Po
• Angelina Jolie as Master Tigress, a South China tiger and leader of the Furious Five
• Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu, a red panda kung-fu master and Po and the Five's mentor
• Gary Oldman as Lord Shen, an albino peacock warlord
• Michelle Yeoh as Soothsayer, a wise goat
• Seth Rogen as Master Mantis, a Chinese mantis
• Lucy Liu as Master Viper, a green tree-viper
• David Cross as Master Crane, a red-crowned crane
• Jackie Chan as Master Monkey, a golden snub-nosed monkey
• James Hong as Mr. Ping, a Chinese goose and Po's adoptive father
• Danny McBride as Wolf Boss, a one-eyed wolf and Shen's second-in-command
• Dennis Haysbert as Master Storming Ox, an ox
• Jean-Claude Van Damme as Master Croc, a saltwater crocodile
• Victor Garber as Master Thundering Rhino, an Indian rhinoceros
• Fred Tatasciore as Li Shan (credited as "Panda Dad"), a giant panda and Po's biological father
• Lauren Tom as Market Sheep
• Conrad Vernon as Boar

Production

When Kung Fu Panda was released in 2008, DreamWorks Animation planned a second film with the subtitle Pandamonium, which was changed by 2010 to Kaboom of Doom before being wholly retitled to Kung Fu Panda 2. Jennifer Yuh Nelson, who was head of story for the first film, was hired to replace John Stevenson and Mark Osborne as director for the sequel when it became evident that they would not be returning for the sequel. The first film's cast members reprised their voice roles. As with every DreamWorks Animation film from Monsters vs. Aliens onward, Kung Fu Panda 2 was produced in DreamWorks's stereoscopic 3D technology.

Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, screenwriters and co-producers for the first film, returned to write and co-produce the sequel, with Charlie Kaufman consulting on the screenplay early in the development process.

In Kung Fu Panda 2, the production crew showed increased familiarity with Chinese culture. In 2008, after the release of Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, director Nelson, and other DreamWorks members, including production designer Raymond Zibach, visited Chengdu, which is considered the "panda hometown". In addition to seeing real pandas at the Giant Panda Research Centre, the production-design crew learned about the local culture. Katzenberg has stated that the sequel incorporates many elements of Chengdu in the film.

The film's landscape and architecture also found inspiration from those found at Mount Qingcheng, a renowned Taoist mountain. In an interview with the China Daily, Zibach recounted that the Panda research center influenced the movie in a big way, as did their experience of holding a month-old panda cub named A Bao, which gave them the idea for baby Po in a flashback. It also gave them the idea of featuring Sichuan food, such as Mapo tofu and Dandan noodles. In an interview with Movieline, Berger stated, "We never really thought of this as a movie set in China for Americans; it's a movie set in a mythical, universalized China for everyone in the world."

Release

Kung Fu Panda 2 was screened at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival in early May, before its commercial release. In the United States, it premiered on May 22, 2011, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. The film was widely released in the United States and South Korea on May 26, 2011, in the United Kingdom on June 10, 2011, and in Australia on June 23, 2011. It was also released in IMAX theaters in the EMEA region.

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 13, 2011, accompanied by the short film, Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters, and an episode of the Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness television series. As of February 2013, 6.5 million home entertainment units were sold worldwide. It was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 9, 2025.

Reception

Critical reception

On the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's consensus reads: "The storyline arc may seem a tad familiar to fans of the original, but Kung Fu Panda 2 offers enough action, comedy, and visual sparkle to compensate." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an "A" grade on a scale of A+ to F.

Variety called the film "a worthy sequel that gets an extra kick from the addition of dynamic 3D fight sequences", while The Hollywood Reporter similarly praised the film. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, praising the sequel as superior to the original, and as an ambitious extension of the previous story.

Some critics noted the influences of executive producer Guillermo del Toro's works in the film's darker themes. Jim Tudor of TwitchFilm.net said that, with del Toro on board, the film "effectively probes deeper into Po's emerging hero's journey and personal issues, evoking a truly fulfilling Campbellian archetype, but also remains fully viable as mainstream entertainment suitable for all ages".

As with the first film, the animation has been praised. Frank Lovece of Film Journal International described the film as "truly beautiful to behold", and stated that it "works on both aesthetic and emotional levels". Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "Panda 2 is not just wall-to-wall animation, it is artistry of the highest order".

Many critics praised Gary Oldman's voice acting and developed characterization of Lord Shen, with some comparing him favorably to Ian McShane's voice performance as Tai Lung in the first film. Angie Errigo of Empire called him "fabulous as the feathered fiend and his character animators do his performance proud with a stunning, balletic fighting style, the fan tail flicking with lethal fascination".

Box office

The film grossed $165 million in the United States and Canada, along with $500 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $666 million. In total, 3D contributed approximately 53% of the film's worldwide gross. Worldwide, it was the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2011, and the 28th highest-grossing animated film. During its first weekend, it earned $108.9 million worldwide, ranking third behind Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and The Hangover Part II. It was the highest-grossing film directed by a woman until Frozen two years later, as the well as the highest-grossing film directed solely by a woman until Wonder Woman.

In North America, the film earned $5.8 million on its opening day (Thursday, May 26, 2011), ranking second behind The Hangover Part II. On Friday, the film earned $13.1 million, which was behind the first film's $20.3 million opening Friday. Over the three-day weekend (Friday-to-Sunday), the film earned $47.7 million, which was behind the first film's $60.2 million debut; it also finished second at the box office, behind The Hangover Part II. The film made $13.2 million on Memorial Day, bringing its four-day weekend total to $60.9 million.

Outside North America, the film debuted with $55.5 million on the same weekend as its North American debut, topping the box office in nine of eleven countries in which it was released. It ranked third overall, behind Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and The Hangover Part II. The film topped the box office outside North America on two consecutive weekends (its third and fourth weekend).

In China, its highest-grossing market after North America, two different grosses were reported: a $19.3 million two-day weekend and a $16.7 million two-day weekend. Either way, the film set an opening-day record in the country. It earned $93.19 million in total, making it the highest-grossing animated film released in China, surpassing the previous record-holder, Kung Fu Panda ($26 million). It held the record until 2015, when it was surpassed by the Chinese film, Monkey King: Hero Is Back. The Asian-themed film scored the largest opening weekend for an animated film in Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. It became the highest-grossing film released in Vietnam, surpassing Avatar.

Accolades

Marketing

DreamWorks Animation has invested $100 million in creating promotional partners and building up marketing for its films. For Kung Fu Panda 2, DWA had partnerships with McDonald's, AT&T, Best Buy, General Mills, Sun-Maid, Airheads, Hint Water and HP. The film's characters were used in products and advertising campaigns across various media. The studio also pursued social media efforts to promote the film.

DWA partnered with House Foods America to brand its products, notably tofu, with advertising of the film. Variety reported that the partnership was the first ever between a film studio and a tofu company. The studio also enlisted the parade balloon of Po from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to tour in six cities, concluding with Los Angeles during Memorial Day weekend in late May 2011.

Merchandise was also produced for the film: Fisher-Price, THQ, Hallmark and Jem Sportswear. Publishers VTech, Penguin Books, Dalmatian Press and Ape Entertainment released books tied to the film.

Soundtrack

Main article: Kung Fu Panda 2 (soundtrack){{!}}''Kung Fu Panda 2'' (soundtrack)

Kung Fu Panda 2 is the soundtrack of the film, collaboratively scored by Hans Zimmer and John Powell, and originally released May 24, 2011.

Video game

Main article: Kung Fu Panda 2 (video game){{!}}''Kung Fu Panda 2'' (video game)

A video-game adaptation of the film was developed by Griptonite Games and published by THQ May 23, 2011. The game was released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Nintendo DS platforms. The plot takes place after the events of the film, and features Po and the rest of the Furious Five troubled by an evil group of Komodo dragon mercenaries. With the help of the other kung fu masters, Po has to uncover the plot behind this siege and put a stop to it.

Sequels

Kung Fu Panda 2 was followed by Kung Fu Panda 3. It became one of the highest-grossing animated films of 2016. Kung Fu Panda 4 released on March 8, 2024.

Notes

References

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