Flying fists Panda Too

I just watched Kung Fu Panda II. I recommend it. Of course the comic surprise of a martial arts panda has worn off a little since the first one, but I think the new elements, the story, and the technical fireworks they've brought into it more than makes up for it. Just for one example, they have a whole big city created as a whole in CGI with all kinds of things happening in it, including a car chase with little carts.

Like another crew did with Madagascar 2 and a third with Ratatouille (both of which are also mega-rich visually), this crew physically went to the home of the story to research the look and feel for the place, and they got amazing amounts of details and looks and atmosphere out of it. It's actually so deep and rich (for example in how dark it gets in the dark parts of a set) that it can be difficult to follow. Of course this goes doubly for the fighting scenes where they apparently use genuine kung fu fighting techniques, and where everything goes so fast and often has so many characters fighting at once, that you don't have a dumpling's chance in a panda kindergarten of taking it all in the first time.

All the characters are fun. And I'm amazed that they have managed to make a snake look pretty and sort of sexy. In contrast, I wonder why they made Tigress so masculine-looking. I feel she could easily be as tough as she is, and yet have a hint of a feminine figure, particularly hips. She has no hips at all, and there's just no way that's a woman.

But of course that's just detail. It's well worth seeing for the aforementioned, plus the humor and the grand new villain, a weapons-of-mass-destruction assembling peacock of all things, and the grand scenes of action.