Nominations: One – Animated Feature
The Film: Every single movie that Pixar has made since it released Toy Story has been nominated for the relatively new category of Best Animated Feature. But with the embarrassing low-point of Cars 2, Pixar’s stumble becomes always-the-bridesmaid-rarely-the-bride Dreamworks Animation’s opportunity to gain some ground. After losing despite the deservingness of films like Ice Age and How To Train Your Dragon, Dreamworks has two movies up for the special prize, Puss In Boots and Kung Fu Panda 2.
The newly minted dragon warrior panda Po (voiced with lightning-in-a-bottle energy by Jack Black) is finally living out is dream in the Valley of Peace with his heroes and now friends the kung fu warriors the Furious Five. But when the evil white peacock Lord Shen over in Gongman City (voiced with a time-perfected villainous timbre by Best Actor nominee Gary Oldman) the group must but their happy lives on hold to go investigate this mysterious weapon that supposedly has the ability to “kill” kung fu. Po and company work hard to stop Lord Shen and his dark plan, but as Po begins to have memories from his childhood triggered, specifically the moments where and how he was separated from his birth parents, he falters but maintains the struggle to find and come in harmony with his inner peace. There were a lot of children’s movie sequels this year, but Kung Fu Panda 2 was by far the best as it was the only that improved upon the original material, which coincidentally is something that Dreamworks has in common with Pixar. Dreamworks has yet to deliver the intellect that underpins the Pixar movies and makes them truly enjoyable fare instead of being fun for kids and a mere silly distraction for parents (again, with Cars 2 being their first ever fumble). While Panda doesn’t exactly have that finesse, it still delivers with its comedy, talent, and heart, as did the first Kung Fu Panda and surely as Kung Fu Panda 3 will too.
The Odds: Kung Fu Panda 2 is definitely the favorite to win this year as no one has heard of or seems to care about A Cat in Paris or Chico & Rita, Puss In Boots was too stupid and a bit masturbatory, and Rango was a bit too everything thrown on top of a Western. The only real complaint to make about Kung Fu Panda 2 is that for all of the awesome voices they’ve hired, all are under used with the exception of Jack Black. As in the first film, the brilliance of Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, the incomparable David Cross, Jackie Chan, and Lucy Liu pop out occasionally but their characters mostly just hang out in the background. The most frustrating moment of this sequel was the wink of the original badass of so-bad-they’re-good action movies Jean-Claude Van Damme voicing Master Croc(odile) barely getting any lines at all (same goes for fellow real-life martial artists Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh). Note to Dreamworks Animation: Good Luck on you probable win and make sure that when you make Kung Fu Panda 3 that you let the amazing people you hire to do the voices actually speak in the movie.
Kung Fu Panda 2 is currently available in stores everywhere around Tallahassee.
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