Kung Fu Panda 2 Review
Grand Total: 8 ¼
Kung Fu Panda Review
Grand Total: 9
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (cannonball over the bay) +½
Really funny +½
Great music +½
Amazing animation +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 9 ½
Overall impression
Kung Fu Panda 2 tells the continued story of Po, who must now take his next step towards becoming a Kung Fu master, by finding inner peace. But the traditional methods of achieving inner peace (meditate for forty years) are really not Po’s style, and he doesn’t know how to get around that. There just seems like something is missing in him. While confronting a group of pillagers, Po notices an insignia on one of the thugs’ arm that shocks a glimpse at a memory from him; he sees images of his Panda family, something he has never known about. This group of bandits is following Shen, an evil peacock, who has a weapon that could make Kung Fu obsolete. So Po must confront Shen while also learning about his past. This was a good direction to take the story, because it focuses on unexplored character development from the first movie while also working out a story around it that involves something wholly new. Shen, as it turns out, is linked to his parents’ disappearance. Unfortunately, he isn’t a fleshed-out-enough character that I ever saw him as a real threat. His weapon is a threat, but this movie commits the sin of replicating it beyond reason, which makes it feel less interesting. Shen himself isn’t a real threat, as his entire “evilness” is derived from what he has done, not what he does; you never really know what his motivations are. That having been said, his overly-serious demeanor was a pretty entertaining foil to Po’s goofy panda, and the film remained as entertaining as the first. The music and animation, once again, are great, and the two movies feel pretty similar, even if this one is pretty short (less than an hour and a half long). A lot of the returning characters, like Master Shifu, are downplayed. Even though he was my favorite character from the last movie, it made sense to downplay him, as his story had been told. Overall, Kung Fu Panda 2 doesn’t create the same great characters as its predecessor and its villain is a little confusing, but still remains incredibly entertaining.
Total: 7
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
Moving +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (tai lung backstory) +½
Really funny +½
Great performance/character (Master Shifu) +½
Great music +½
Amazing animation +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 10 (11)
Overall impression
Kung Fu Panda tells the story of Po, a fat panda that cooks noodles but dreams of learning Kung Fu and fighting against evil. When he is inexplicably chosen as The Dragon Warrior, one prophesied to save the village from Tai Lung, who is returning with a vengeance against his former master, Shifu, Po must find it within himself to learn Kung Fu at the hands of the reluctant Shifu. Now, there is a lot to love in this movie. For one, it’s hilarious and self-aware. I mean, this is a movie about a fat panda (voiced by Jack Black) learning about Kung Fu. With such a silly premise, you’d be surprised at the care that the story and the characters are given in this movie. Shifu and Tai Lung have a great backstory that affects a lot of the current characters and completely makes sense. When some of the other Kung Fu masters are passed over to be The Dragon Warrior, you really feel for them because you know what they’ve been through. A lot of that is due to how good this movie is at creating emotions on characters’ faces. The animation everywhere is amazing (the backgrounds are marvelous), but they are at their best when you see certain emotions in characters’ faces. Shifu is in such a strange position in this movie, because he’s a reluctant master of Po, and has a really good backstory. He has such mixed feelings about teaching Po, and it really shows. There is a scene in Kung Fu Panda where Shifu is doing a special move that summons The Dragon Scroll, and you can see how nervous and unsure he is to do it, both because he’s not sure if Po is deserving of it and because he’s unsure of himself being able to summon it. Another standout feature of this film is its music. John Powell and Hans Zimmer came together to compose this score, though I feel a lot more of John Powell in it; the themes that are used and reverberate throughout the movie are great, and remind me of a lot of his other scores, like his score for How to Train Your Dragon and his score for Bolt. Now, Kung Fu Panda is a little silly in general, and features a lot of dumb humor, but it embraces that. It manages to tell a pretty good story while being incredibly entertaining and technically great. There are some scenes here and there that could have been toned down or themes that could have been emphasized more, but all in all, Kung Fu Panda is an excellent animated feature with something to offer to anyone.
Total: 8
Kung Fu Panda 3 Review
Grand Total: 7 ¾
Technical
Engaging 6
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (spirit realm) +½
Really funny +½
Great music +½
Amazing animation +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 8 ½
Overall impression
Kung Fu Panda 3 tells the continued story of Po, who must now master chi, the energy in all living things. While frustrated by his lack of progress and struggling to teach the other Kung Fu masters (since Master Shifu wants to spend some time developing his own chi skills), Po runs into an even bigger problem: his father. At least, it starts off as a problem. His real father returns and offers to take him to meet other pandas, much to the sad jealousy of his adoptive father. While all of this is going on, Kai, a warrior from the spirit realm, is after all of the Kung Fu Masters’ chi, as he is able to steal their chi and turn them into his minions. The result: an incredibly entertaining movie that was pretty much devoid of substance and without any stakes. Now, if the plot sounds a little complicated or confusing, it is. But the movie is so much fun that you really only have to focus on two things: Po meets real dad and Kai is after chi. The problem becomes trying to explain how any of this works. I mean, when the villain takes someone’s chi, he turns them into little jade pendants that he can then turn into minions. But it is completely unclear as to whether or not a master turned into chi dies or even what happens to them. I wish the film was darker and had the guts to go into more detail as to what exactly happens, so that there would be more stakes to the story and so that the villain would seem like more of a threat. I mean, Kung Fu Panda 2 featured a genocidal villain whose weapon kills people. Even though the movie had its moments of pulled punches, it had much more audacity than this film. As a result, Kung Fu Panda 3, even with the great humor, sense of fun, and incredible animation, comes off as harmless entertainment with the minimum amount of substance. I still really enjoyed the movie, but while the other two movies genuinely impacted me, this one did not.
Total: 7
How to Train Your Dragon Review
Grand Total: 10
Technical
Engaging 6
Moving +1
Suspenseful +1
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (forbidden friendship) +½
Really funny +½
Amazing story/plot +½
Great performance/character (Toothless) +½
Great music +½
Amazing animation +½
Great writing +½
Total: 10 (12 ½)
Overall impression
I have a guilty story to tell about how I first reacted to this movie. In 2010, my parents dragged me to go see this movie. I reluctantly went, complaining the whole time about why a fourteen year old should be bothered to go see a child’s film. So I sat in the movie theatre as the movie began to play. It surprised me with humor and clever writing. I actually enjoyed watching the first thirty minutes or so, slowly getting more and more invested in it until I reached the “forbidden friendship” scene. Suddenly this movie became one of the best things that had happened to me that year; I completely forgot about all of the complaining I had done and just enjoyed the rest of this treat.
How to Train Your Dragon is a movie about Hiccup, a viking who lives in Berk. His father and all of the other vikings in the village live to defend against dragons that constantly raid Berk and steal food. The dragons live on some island that the vikings constantly try to find but never can. Of all of the dragons around, the only one that nobody ever sees or kills is the Nightfury. Hiccup is determined to capture it to prove his worth since he is a bit of a wuss; he is skinny, weak, and has never even come close to defeating a dragon. But he’s an inventor and has created a clever device that will launch ropes to down a dragon. So, during one of those raids, Hiccup downs a Nightfury. Nobody sees it, of course, as they’re all busy with their own dragon problems, and nobody believes him. He goes and searches for the dragon and realizes that, by downing it, he badly injured it. Even after it gets free from Hiccup’s device, it is still trapped in this gorge as its injuries prevent it from flying out. Back at home, Hiccup is put into dragon training with a bunch of other kids while the parents are away looking for the island. Using what he learns by interacting with Toothless (what he named the Nightfury), Hiccup progresses through dragon training all while coming to the realization that he might not want to live to kill dragons. Maybe they’re misunderstood the same way he is.
This movie is perfectly paced. Each scene perfectly transitions into the next with everything tying together in a way that makes the movie feel like it’s one cohesive story from beginning to end without any acts or phases. The movie takes its time to explain what’s going on and takes its time to give the characters scenes dedicated to development so that we care about what is happening in the movie. The writing gives the characters so much chemistry, especially from the supporting characters. Hiccup is in dragon training with a bunch of other kids who live in Berk, all of them with distinct personalities. That having been said, the focus isn’t on them, allowing the story to use them to bring about consistent comedy that isn’t distracting from our primary characters: Hiccup and Toothless. The other supporting characters, including Hiccup’s dragon training instructor Gobber and Hiccup’s father Stoick are both given more depth than I could’ve asked for, given how much they’re on screen. Though Gobber is mostly around for comic relief, he also describes dragons and what they’re like in memorable ways that stay relevant in the movie. Stoick disappears halfway through the movie only to come back towards the end. Despite that leave of absence, Stoick is way more complex than your typical parent in a kids movie. Several moments in the movie do an excellent job of showing how emotional he gets while interacting with his son, making you sympathize with him even as he does some things that don’t exactly support Hiccup.
To top it all off, the music in this movie is just perfect. It often has a mind of its own, flowing from scene to scene and keeping the movie at a brisk pace. During the film’s few montages, the music perfectly fills in the gaps and sets the mood. So many themes dance around, associated with various characters and taking on different emotions. This soundtrack adds so much to the movie in so many of its important scenes. My favorite scenes in this movie contain either little dialogue or no dialogue at all. The scene that turned around my entire theatre experience with this movie was a scene I call “forbidden friendship,” after the soundtrack title. This scene contains no dialogue at all, but just sound effects and music. It is the music that brings it to life, even after the story, characters, and writing are all light years ahead of what you get in a typical film. How to Train Your Dragon is one for the ages.
Total: 10
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie Review
Grand Total: 7 ½
Technical
Engaging 6
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (juggling water balloons) +½
Really funny +½
Great music +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 8
Overall impression
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is about Harold and George, a pair of comic-book-writing practical jokesters who just want to have a good time at school. One day, they accidentally hypnotize their evil principal so that he believes he’s Captain Underpants, one of the characters from their comics. That’s all you need to know. And I loved it. Every second of it.
The relationship between Harold and George is set up incredibly well just from the first scene in the movie. They’re just a couple of elementary-school kids telling the story and giving it an energetic and creative flair that really helped keep it funny and fast-paced the whole time. There are little moments within their friendship that really helped make it endearing and believable, even if still ridiculously fun. There is a point in this movie when someone threatens to put them in separate classrooms and they treat it like it’s the end of both their lives. Just little things like that are funny but feel realistic.
Everything just fits together nicely in this film. The animation definitely looks under-budget, but it suits the movie. The music was also very fitting, often very over-dramatic and fun. The characters were memorable, had a good relationship, and really made this into an incredibly entertaining, energetic movie that adults and kids can both enjoy. If you just need a break from life, definitely check this one out; it will lighten your mood tremendously.
Total: 7