 Perhaps it was my trip to Hawaii over New Years Eve, 2012-2013 that really did it, but as far as more modern Disney animation goes, I have to say that 'Moana' is a film that absolutely stays on top for me. It's a great story that delves into a bit of Polynesian culture, full of cool, original ideas, catchy music, beautiful visuals, and some solid comedy. There are a few titles out there that I can watch that will make me want to revisit those breathtaking Hawaiian islands, and 'Moana' is one of them.
It's my understanding that the film doesn't exactly nail it when it comes to Polynesian culture and folklore, but as a "tourist," I can say that 'Moana' certainly conveys the overall spirit of what I experienced in Hawaii. Some of the folklore consists of demi-gods like Maui (Dwayne Johnson), some of it is derived from stories about islands being living beings, and some of the Polynesian langauge and style is evident in the songs that are sung, namely one called "We Know the Way," presenting us with voyagers, searching for new lands. With all of that said, one should probably know that all locations within the film are fictional, starting with the island of Motunui, where a young Moana sneaks off to have a look at the ocean. While there, she adorably helps a baby sea turtle make it to the water, while birds are trying to get at it. With this, the ocean presents itself to Moana as a sort of living being, and chooses her to one day return the Heart of Te Fiti to its rightful place, and restore nature to the way its meant to be. The backstory to Te Fiti; a living island, and goddess of nature, was that the shape-shifting demigod, the aforementioned Maui, stole the Heart (a pounamu stone) as a means to gift humanity with the power of creation. As a result of this, Te Fiti disintegrates, and a volcanic monster named Te Kā attacks Maui. As they clash, Maui loses his fish hook, which empowers him, and the Heart sinks to the depths of the ocean. Maui is also banished to a deserted island, where he spends the next thousand years or so. Back to Moana (Auli'i Cravalho), she eventually grows up, and is meant to become the next Chief of Motunui. This means a lot of the relatively typical coddling from her parents, Tui (Temuera Morrison) and Sina (Nicole Scherzinger), who try to keep Moana away from the ocean, and never to cross the reef, where the ocean is apparently incredibly unforgiving. But one day, when blight strikes the island, Moana's Gramma Tala (Rachel House) reminds her that the Ocean chose her to restore the Heart of Te Fiti. So, Moana sets out on her adventure, despite her overbearing parents (father, mainly). As Moana sets off on her journey, a local chicken named Hei-Hei (Alan Tudyk) stows away, and provides a lot of the film's visual comedy, as this bird isn't quite right in the head. Of course, she also eventually meets Maui, whom she needs all the help she can get from. However, as a demigod, he's a bit reluctant to help, and all he really wants is off his island so he can go find his fish hook. Little does he realize that through helping Moana, he has to earn it - and the ocean is sure to remind him at every turn. As the rest of the film unfolds, one of the best credits I can give it is the absolutely beautiful animation, which has a range of variety to it, as seen in the song 'You're Welcome,' on Maui's tattoos, and the film's opening. On top of that, I'd say most of the songs are catchy, the characters are likeable, and I truly appreciate the imagination that went into the storytelling here. It may not be what I see as perfection, but its imperfections are few and far between enough that this is something I can sit back and truly enjoy when the mood strikes me. 4/5
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 By now, I think it's probably safe to say that the Minions are typically seen as one of two things - adorable, innocent and fun or irritating, invasive and simply there for the cash-in. I tend to lean a little more towards the former, although with the full realization that indeed, these little yellow fellows are money makers and that's generally the reason these films get any sort of mileage anymore. At no point was it more obvious than the two years between the last 'Minions' movie of 2015, and 'Despicable Me 3' of 2017.
Thankfully, this one managed to come along after a respectable five year hiatus, and actually make us care about Gru (Steve Carell) again for the first time since probably 'Despicable Me 2'. While the Minions do play their titular part as expected, the story is much more about, well, the rise of Gru. It's actually a pretty good example of a trailer that delivers all the Minion madness we've come to expect from these films, but the final product ends up much better than we thought it was going to be. And it fits quite nicely in between 'Minions' and the first 'Despicable Me' - arguably the lowest and highest points of the series, respectively. Here, we go back to 1976 when Gru, at just 11 years old, aspires to one day become a supervillain. His first step to success was to hire the Minions to assist him in his work. From there, Gru eventually receives an invitation to audition for the five remaining supervillain members of The Vicious 6; Belle Bottom (Taraji P. Henson), a disco-themed villain who has replaced their former leader; Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin), said former leader; Jean-Clawed (Jean-Claude Van Damme), who has a big lobster claw for a right arm; Svengeance (Dolph Lundgren), a roller skating champion; Stronghold (Danny Trejo), the obvious brute; and Nunchuck (Lucy Lawless), an old nun and master of the nunchaku. Due to Gru's young age, he's taken as a joke rather than any sort of contender for the 6th member. However, in the same room lies the famous Zodiac Stone. In an attempt to prove himself worthy to join the group, with the help of Minions Kevin, Stuart and Bob (again, all Pierre Coffin), Gru manages to steal the Zodiac Stone, giving it to a Minion named Otto for safe keeping. But when Otto trades the stone for a pet rock, a chain of events begins to unravel to truly test Gru's talents. When considering these movies, I have pretty much felt that over time, since the original, they have been taking a bit of a downhill turn. It really did turn into capitalizing on cuteness rather than bringing in any sort of real character development or, again, the contrast the first movie had. I keep bringing that up in this series' reviews, I know, but it (and even the second to some degree) did such a good job of making us smile while also wondering if the movie really "went there" with some of the dialogue and imagery. There as a soft edginess to them. Thankfully, this actually brings some of that back, and things feel as fun as they once were. I think the two thing that truly fuelled this movie for me were a combination of things within the film and unassociated with the film. This movie came along in July of 2022, so even though things were a bit safer for us at the time, Covid was still around, and a lot of us were always looking for ways to brighten our day. With that five-year gap, despite the Minions getting a bit out of hand before, speaking for myself, the were welcomed back into my life with open arms. I never did hate the little guys, even if they got to be a little much. Within the film, on the other hand, the biggest thing the film has going for it is probably its voice-casting. It felt like quite the large coming together of famous names to cover some interesting characters, and I haven't even mentioned that other voices include Michelle Yeoh, Will Arnett, and the return of Russell Brand as Nefario and Julie Andrews as Gru's Mom (who I've somehow never mentioned until now). On top of that though, the film also provides a good and fun origin story for Gru, and things feel a bit more like they used to. I might even go so far as to rank this my second-place choice of the series. 4/5  For my money, this chapter of the series pretty much parallels the first 'Minions' movie as far as overall quality is concerned. This may not rely on almost pure cuteness like 'Minions' did, but it does fall under the category of all-around "staleness" that just about any third part of a series suffers. 'Minions' already kind of overwhelmed us, and there wasn't exactly a big break between movies to give us any sort of breather. So in many ways, this just felt like more of the same, especially when the Minions get a full side-plot here.
For as fun as the Minions are to me, even I have to admit that things started to feel like a bit of an overdose at this point. At least the Minion plot line in 'Despicable Me 2' was still a part of the main story. This was more of a matter of letting them do their own thing, which is what the 'Minion' movie was for. Having said that, I'm not entirely sure that I'd have loved a heavier focus on the main plot either. All in all, I probably consider this one the worst of the bunch. I don't think it's horrible or anything, but I mean, unless you're a kid, it's still kinda bad. Felonious Gru (Steve Carell) and Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig) are now a married couple, and adopted parents to Margot (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Nev Scharrel). The pair now work for the AVL (Anti-Villain League), and live a life of adventure. Their current mission is to recover the Dumont Diamond (biggest diamond in the world), which has been stolen by former child actor villain, Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker), who is trapped in the 80s, and spends most of the movie just dancing around and listening to retro tunes. When they fail to actually capture and bring in Bratt for the umpteenth time, however, they are both fired by newcomer Valerie Da Vinci (Jenny Slate) - there to replace Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan) as head of the AVL. Gru and Lucy come home with the bad news, and while the girls are concerned, the Minions are ready to celebrate Gru's potential triumphant return to evil. When he refuses, however, most of the Minions, led by Mel (Pierre Coffin, once again voicing them all) walk out on him. This is where the story splits in two. The main story involves Gru eventually meeting his long-lost twin brother, Drew (also Carell). Drew is a goodie-goodie who has ultimately disappointed their villainous father, and wants Gru to teach him the ways of villainy. Gru half-way agrees, but uses the stealing of the Dumont Diamond back from Bratt as a cover so that he and Lucy could potentially get their jobs at the AVL back. During all of this, Lucy tries to fit in as a good mother, as she's still very new to the whole thing. Meanwhile, the Minions land themselves in jail and have their whole "prison escape" side story going on, AND we get a third story about Edith and Agnes literally looking for a unicorn that some random guy tells them about. It's really just a way to bring back the cutest and funniest scene in 'Despicable Me' ("he's so fluffy, I'm gonna die!") and capitalize on it. And between all three of the stories, the Minions in prison is about as dark as it gets for any kind of contrast to all the cutesiness. Once again, the original wins for that concept. Above anything else, there's a lot of this where it feels like it doesn't know what it wants to be. Trey Parker wanted to do this so his daughter could see his work without it warping her fragile little mind, and that's fair. But I have to admit that the whole time, all I could hear was Randy from 'South Park', and it still feels incredibly out of place. all in all, I think its passable for all the kids watching, but as an adult, despite a few honest giggles throughout, I have to consider it the weakest of the batch. Thankfully, we'd get a decent breather between this and 'Minions 2'... 2/5  If one were to take the time to try to pinpoint when exactly the Minions got to be a bit too much for some people, I would probably point to this film in particular. It follows the formula of so many cinematic failures by putting the "funny character(s)" front and center. It always seems to take away from the charm of these character(s) we got from the beginning by offering up too much of them. Sometimes they hit, but most of the time they miss, and this is one such example. This was when "Minions" started to get plastered on everything!
I had the same thing happen in my childhood with 'Ninja Turtles', so in some ways, no big deal. The only thing about the Minions is that they are solely reliable on their cuteness. They speak Gibberish (or "Minionese," as it has now been established), and their original purpose was to be a good dose of background/side comedy relief. So to do a whole plot about their origin might feel like a bit of a stretch for some. Having said all of that, while I am totally guilty of falling for their cuteness, I still think they work better as they were originally intended. There's just too much sugar in this, and you might end up leaving with a cavity. The film kicks off with narration by Geoffrey Rush, explaining that Minions evolved from single-celled organisms and became little yellow tic tac-looking beings with eye-magnifying goggles. These little guys who have since become known as "Minions" serve only one purpose - to work for the biggest baddie in town. Admittedly, this makes the opening to the movie kind of hilarious, as if there's one thing the Minions do really well, it's to accidentally kill their master in the silliest and most mundane ways. For example, Dracula gets nailed with sunlight just because the Minions try to wake him up with a surprise birthday party. After going through boss after boss after boss, the Minions find themselves without purpose, and the begin life anew inside a cave. They reside there for years, until 1968, when eventually, a Minion named Kevin (Pierre Coffin, who also lends his voice to the rest of the Minions) decides to set out with a couple of other volunteers, Stuart and Bob (Stuart being a little more "voluntold"), to find a new master and regain purpose in their lives. This takes them to New York City, where they learn of "Villain-Con", which will be taking place in Orlando. With any luck, they'll find their new boss there. For a little bit, it turns into a road trip movie, but eventually they reach the Con, where they come across the likes of supervillain extraordinaire, Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock), whose primary focus is the Queen Elizabeth II's crown. Could she end up being the Minion's primary boss? Anyway, now that I've told you half of the entire movie, it kind of goes to show how little there is to it all. Plus, we all know who they end up working for in the end, anyway. Really, this is nothing more than a "bridge" movie that probably should have just come straight to video. For me, this is about as cutesy as I can take from these little yellow dudes. It's fun in its own way, but I can't help but see how blatantly they ripped off their own characters, as Kevin, Stuart and Bob who are essentially Minion versions of Margo, Edith and Agnes, respectively, with their personalities. It's practically cut-and-paste. Further criticisms of mine include the overuse of Beatles gags when there's plenty more British pop culture to pick from, and Scarlet's God-awfully annoying husband, Herb (Jon Hamm) who was just far too over-the-top for my taste. When considering this series as a whole, one can quite honestly watch the first bit of "educational" material to this movie, then just make a jump to 'Rise of Gru'. Although the movie is funny, cute, and has quite a bit of genuine laughs for the right audience, it's ultimately a bit of a throw-away for the series, and altogether relatively pointless. It's a bit of harmless fun, and there's nothing particularly wrong with it. But It's something to watch, if at all, on a Sunday afternoon on your small screen at home. 3/5  While 'Despicable Me 2' manages to bring back the charm of the first movie, at the end of the day, it still manages to be an overall predictable love story that uses the Minions to its advantage quite a bit more, now that they've been found to be a success. Having said that, these are family movies about a growing family, and if the first movie involves Gru adopting the girls, the next logical step might be to have Gru fall in love, and provide the girls with a mother figure. So while it's predictable, it's still perfectly fine, and I don't hold that against it.
All things considered, at the time, I still came out of this movie with a smile on my face, as the film provides a good balance of humour and heart. Ultimately, the word I'd use to describe all of these movies is "cute," and while this chapter is no exception, it's still not as good as the first, in my opinion. Aside from perhaps a bit of predictability, as I've already mentioned, I feel like this fails to have the darker tone to it that the first one does, where the cuteness balances things out. This is kinda just straight-up "cute." As we pick things up, it's Agnes' (Elsie Fisher) 6th birthday, and Gru (Steve Carell) hosts a princess-themed party for her, hosting several of her friends, along with sisters Margo (Miranda Cosgrove) and Edith (Dana Gaier). All in all, life has gotten good for Gru, as he now fathers and loves his three girls, and he's gotten into making jelly with Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), who is okay with what they're doing, but really ends up missing being a villain with dastardly plans, complete with the darker lifestyle that comes with the territory. One day, Gru is captured by AVL (Anti-Villain League) agent, Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), and brought to the head of the AVL, Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan). Ramsbottom (heheheh, "bottom") informs him that a potent mutagen, PX-41, has been stolen from a lab in the Arctic Circle, and his help is needed to try to retrieve it. Hesitant at first, with more responsibilities as a father, Gru eventually agrees to the task when he learns about Nefario's plans to leave and work for a villain again. Gru teams up with Lucy in an effort to close this case, and as any 'Despicable Me' fan knows by this point in the game, this is the movie in which the pair eventually fall in love, and the girls get a mother figure in their lives. In the meantime, the culprit here (and villain of this chapter), El Macho (Benjamin Bratt) who stole the PX-41 ends up using it to build himself an army to take over the world, using Gru's minions for the process to some pretty damn funny results, and this time, Gru and the family have to try to rescue them. Looking at the film critically, this is another one where I feel like anything I'd be complaining about it far too nitpicky for it to matter. After all, this was a movie made with kids in mind, which is another reason I can't get mad at the Minions (they annoy so many people). I'd have been into them as a kid, if only for their gibberish speaking and slapstick humour. Again, I get where critics come from, but hell, Minions are innocent fun, and when I was a kid, 'Ninja Turtles' were on EVERYTHING! It just goes to show that things don't change much over time. I think 'Despicable Me 2' is good for what it is, and a worthy sequel to the original, even though it can't quite live up to its charm. Really, at this point, this just ends up being the backstory to how Gru met Lucy. It's padded with some decent humour from both the Minions and the girls (namely Agnes), which makes it fun, but one can almost see those Minions teetering here, and soon splitting audiences. Altogether, though, the movie is fine, and I have no real complaints. Another cute, but predictable, chapter in a cute series. 3/5  There's a decent-sized list of animated movies out there now that lend themselves to the "cheering up" process. They're films we can watch that move us in that certain way that forces a smile onto our faces, no matter how we're feeling. 'Despicable Me' was really the first time I came to actually think about it as a sort of "category," although many of my favourite films could always do it ('Ghostbusters' never fails me). But when I saw this in theatres, despite the fact that I was in my late twenties, it had that effect on me.
As time has gone by, and the franchise has gone a bit sequel-crazy, squeezing every last dime out of those Minions, I've come to realize that people are very split about this universe by now. Most of that is blamed on the Minions, but I have to admit that for myself, although I have no Minion merch, I do still love the little guys. I get that people find them annoying, but for me, it all reflects the fond memories I have of this first chapter, which none of the series' sequels have quite lived up to yet. We meet Felonious Gru (Steve Carell), a proud super villain, who devises a plan to steal the Moon with the help of his assistant, Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) and his army of Minions. Their motivation comes from a rival villain named Vector (Jason Segel) manages to steal the Great Pyramid of Giza, and hoping to outdo him as the better villain. In order to obtain the Moon, Gru will need a shrink ray, which actually exists in a nearby research facility. Of course, however, Vector beats him to it, and the plan turns to stealing it from his impossible-to-infiltrate base. Enter three orphan girls; big sister, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove); tomboy middle sister, Edith (Dana Gaier); and adorable little sister, Agnes (Elsie Fisher). Gru notices them going door-to-door, selling cookies to raise some money for their orphanage, and eventually ends up adopting them and using them in order to carry out his evil plans. However, as the film continues, Gru ends up bonding with these girls, and learning that there are more important things in the world than villainy. While the all-around plot might not sound incredibly exciting, the film still has a whole lot going for it. At the time, the Minions were these weird little "I-dunno-whats," and I still remember trying to wrap my head around what they were supposed to be. Eventually I just accepted them as a bit of very random comedy relief, adding to the overall cuteness of the film with their gibberish and antics. Personally speaking, these little guys still work for me, but again, I do understand where people come from who have had more than their fill. While the Minions are fun (especially when they were something never-before-seen), what really makes the movie for me is the contrasting relationship Gru ends up having with the girls, especially Agnes, who is actually the most adorable thing in this movie, even as an almost stereotypical little girl. She's the essence of pure innocence, and definitely has the best line in the movie, in my humble opinion ("He's so fluffy I'm gonna die!") Between her and the Minions, I feel like it's pretty easy to find your smile, watching this. On top of how innocent, fun and cute the movie is, I further have to give big credit to the voice acting, namely from Carell, Segel and Brand, whose voices you can hardly recognize. The contrast of Gru's character helps make the film a bit less sugary than I'm making it out to be as well, having some of the funniest almost dark moments in the movie. I think I'll always keep this first chapter close to me heart for my own reasons, but it probably won't ever be matched in quality as far as any sequels are concerned. This was truly unique for its time, and in my humble opinion, still very much worth the watch, if only to brighten one's day. 5/5  I think in some ways it could be argued that 'Inside Out' represents a period of resurrection for Pixar. Before this, you had 'Cars 2', 'Brave' and 'Monsters University'. And while I do have a certain appreciation for 'Brave' and 'MU' ('Cars 2' was just kinda bad, I'm sorry), these movies still lacked the sense of heart, soul and humanity that movies like 'Up', 'Toy Story 3' and 'WALL-E' delivered, and what Pixar became truly known for. 'Inside Out' brings back the idea of Pixar films delivering a sort of maturity while still being kid-friendly.
This is one of those films where, over time, certain flaws about have been pointed out to me. For example, the idea for it is not 100% original, considering a show that existed years ago that everyone has since forgotten called 'Inside Herman's Head'. How things work in the world of Riley's (Kaitlyn Dias) head are also not necessarily perfect, but for me, the ideas this movie has trumps any sort of nitpicking I can give to it. It's definitely a favourite Pixar title of mine, and that's mostly due to how clever I think it is with its ideas and concepts. We are introduced to Riley, age 11, and the various emotions who, shall we say, "pilot" her brain; Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling). They control Riley's emotions and create Riley's "memories"; coloured orbs that stack up to fuel various personality islands like "Hockey Island", "Friendship Island", etc. All is well for a while, but things change pretty quick for Riley when she moves with her Mom (Diane Lane) and Dad (Kyle MacLachlan) to San Francisco. Inside Riley's head, Sadness keeps touching happy memories and making them sad, which to me is an interesting way of showing us how missing and longing works here. An accident occurs when a joyous "core memory" ends up in the middle of a squabble between Joy and Sadness, and the pair are accidentally sent to the vast memory bank of the brain. Riley is then stuck with Anger, Fear and Disgust driving her personality, while the lack of Sadness and Joy create what seems to be some kind of numbness in her. Now it's up to Joy and Sadness to return to Headquarters with the "core memory", which came with them during the squabble. The simplicity of it is that if they can get her happy core memory back into headquarters, Riley can be happy again. Or at least, that's how Joy thinks of it. However, she soon learns that Riley's brain is a heck of a lot more complicated than she believed. Meanwhile, in headquarters, Anger, Fear and Disgust do their best, but without Joy or Sadness in the picture, Riley seems doomed to unhappiness and bitterness. I have to appreciate a lot of the ideas they have throughout the movie, like the idea of Riley's imaginary friend, Bing Bong (Richard Kind), or the mysterious realm of abstract thought, which brings with it some pretty interesting animation. They also get into things like how Riley dreams, what happens to memories we forget, how the imagination works and more. Pixar really took care here, translating the inner workings of one's brain into an animated adventure. It feels like further proof that Pete Docter is possibly the best director Pixar has. For me, it really felt like Pixar made a triumphant return with this. It's a movie that can make one think, and realize the necessity of one's own emotions - even the negative ones. It's quite honestly a rather beautiful movie, and it does what Pixar does best by pulling on those heartstrings. It doesn't end with anything too tear-jerky, but it does end with a healthy dose of relatability, once again humanizing these characters for us, making us care, and ultimately bringing Pixar back to its roots. 5/5  Once again, as this series continues, it keeps up with developing Po's (Jack Black) character by delving even deeper into his origins while still pushing the story forward. In other words, the more time we spend learning of Po's past, the more we can appreciate how the film is trying to develop him as a means to defeat villains who, in each film, progressively get more powerful. This time around, things stem from the tail ending of the previous film in which we briefly meet Po's father (Fred Tatasciore at the time) who learns that Po's still alive.
To expand on that, when we last left Po, he defeated a ruthless peacock named Shen (Gary Oldman) who, when Po was a baby, destroyed Po's village, hunting for the panda who would one day put a stop to his attempt to take over China, as prophesied. While Po's mother rescues him, she is killed in the process, and he and his father have been separated since. Po was soon adopted by a goose named Mr. Ping (James Hong), and the rest is pretty much history. Po becomes the fabled "Dragon Warrior," and lives a life of heroism alongside "The Furious Five"; Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Viper (Lucy Liu), and his sensei, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). While Po continues this life, something sinister is brewing in the Spirit Realm, as we reunite with Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim); the Kung Fu tortoise who trained Master Shifu, and who found inner peace and passed away in the first film. He is attacked by a spirit warrior yak named Kai (J.K. Simmons) who has stolen collected all of the other Kung Fu masters' "Chi" (essentially a Kung Fu warrior's essense) and, with Oogway's, will be able to return to the mortal realm. Of course, Kai succeeds in this, using vast amounts of Chi from other warriors to defeat Oogway. But Oogway is sure to warn him that he's destined to be defeated. Upon his return, Kai realizes (in pretty humorous fashion) that he's been forgotten after such a long time, gets enraged by this, and aims to tear down Oogway's legacy. In the meantime, Shifu announces his retirement to Po and the Five, and chooses Po to be his successor based on his "Dragon Warrior" title, to which Po is understandably apprehensive, but this is kinda where the plot point of finding one's self comes into play, as Po's trying to teach like Shifu instead of using his own methods. To add to it all, he is randomly visited by his father, Li Shan (now played by Bryan Cranston). They bond immediately, but this ultimately makes Mr. Ping jealous. The village comes under attack by mysterious jade warriors who each resemble fallen Kung Fu masters, and are controlled with Kai's massive amounts of Chi that he stole from each of them. The Five manage to stave them off for the time being, but learnt he only way they'll get one over on Kai is by training in the ways of Chi, which, according to legend, the pandas have mastered. So, Li takes Po on a journey back to his home village to learn the ways of the panda, which should ultimately lead to learning about Chi, and how to use it to put a stop to this new villain. Each of these have some kind of life lesson within, and a lot of it has to do with varying forms of self-discovery. While the first one has a little more to do with finding who one is meant to be, the second covers where one comes from and who one truly is. With this, I find it sort of combines the first two as it seems to be very much about enlightenment, and learning what makes you you. These are just my takeaways, however, and I feel like there's a lot to be taken from these films when it comes to personal growth. As far as this series is concerned, this is another solid title for it. I still like the second film's villain a bit more overall, and would consider him a bit more of an arch nemesis for Po. Further to that, I think at times this does get a little cutesy, but that's just a nitpick, and not even a heavy one. All in all, this has been a great series for family viewing, helping the young viewers to grow in a positive way while even us adults can learn a thing or two about things like "inner peace". It doesn't have quite the same impact the second one does for me, but it's still super solid. 4/5  For as much as I love the first 'Kung Fu Panda', I would probably say that in comparison, this one is actually much better. The first film remains the classic of the series, but this film follows through with character development, depth, better fight choreography and animation and continues the story nice and smoothly while simultaneously giving us an origin story on Po (Jack Black), our favourite martial artist panda. It also adds more great voice talent to the cast, and higher levels of drama and action. It's what a sequel should be.
When we last left Po and the Furious Five, Po was revealed to be the fabled, albeit unlikely Dragon Warrior by defeating the greedy snow leopard, Tai Lung (Ian McShane), who believed himself to be destined for the same title, but with wickedness in his heart. Since then, Po has lived a life of peace alongside the "Five", Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Monkey (Jackie Chan) and Viper (Lucy Liu), and his sensei, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), who one day advises Po that he will not be a true Kung Fu master until he achieves inner peace, and a lot of it has to do with a traumatic past that Po can't quite remember. This ties in with our big baddie of the film, a peacock named Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), son of the rulers of Gongmen City who invent fireworks for purposes of awe and beauty. However, Shen discovers that the gunpowder used in fireworks can also be used as effective weapons. Worried, his parents call in a ram soothsayer (Michelle Yeoh), who foretells of Shen one day being stopped by a warrior of black and white (guess who). This leads to Shen using the newfound weapons against a community of pandas, and banished as a result of his violent tendencies. In his anger, he then assembles a wolf army to help him raid villages for scrap metal in order to build cannons that will hopefully help him take over China. During one of their raids on a village, the Furious Five are called to action, and during the fight, Po recognizes a symbol on one of the wolf's armour that gives him flashbacks. Traumatic hidden memories start getting revealed, leading him to try to find out what happened to his real parents after his Dad, Mr. Ping (James Hong), the goose, tells him much to his surprise that he's adopted. In the meantime, Shen is starting to succeed in his mission by taking Gongmen city, and one by one taking down powerful Kung Fu regents Masters Thundering Rhino (Victor Garber), Ox (Dennis Haysbert) and Croc (Jean-Claude Van Damme). The Furious Five are then sent to Gongmen City to put a stop to Shen's reign of terror, but Po is constantly distracted by his hidden past and how it ties in with Shen, and the symbol he keeps seeing within Shen's army. So the big themes of this film from the get-go involve Po finding out where it is he really comes from and how Shen was involved in his past, which is probably very obvious during Shen's backstory at the very beginning, but my apologies if I've breached spoiler territory. Even knowing, however, one can still feel for Po throughout the film and really route for him to succeed, and find the answers he's looking for. I would probably say that this is, personally speaking, my favourite of the bunch. It does a very good job with delivering all of the good humour, inspiration and fun of the first one all while cranking the volume up on those things and adding more backstory, drama and action. I also frankly like the villain here a bit better. Oldman's wonderful voice acting aside, Shen reminds me a lot more of a Sauruman type from 'Lord of the Rings' and feels like more of a threat. Plus I just like the badass design of his character, and the idea that he uses his feathers as daggers. As I mentioned before, I do love 'Kung Fu Panda', but 'Kung Fu Panda 2' takes everything that was great about the first one and cranks it up to vey satisfying results. Although the outcome is generally predictable (again, my apologies for spoilers, but remember, we have more to come after this) the ride is still a pretty great ride, and the addition of a more dramatic edge to things to make it a touch darker is a welcome one. And while the series doen's necessarily go downhill from here, I'd still consider this the best of what is, altogether, a pretty great batch of animated adventure flicks. 5/5  I've always had a soft spot for this movie. It's the first in its series, so it has that now classic feel, it's both good for a laugh and good to inspire, the voice cast is solid, and it's a lot of fun as it balances the silliness of it all with some real-world wisdom, albeit pretty basic wisdom. But that's just it - the basic wisdom is great for the kids watching, and acts as a friendly reminder to those who are older who may be stuck with things like stress. Perhaps it sounds odd and a bit overthought, but I think there's something to it.
The film has a big, obvious, even derivative takeaway at the end, but there are also little nods in here to things like having patience, believing in yourself when no one else does and even the thought of needing to work hard to receive what your want out of life - in this case being a Kung Fu master. I've read some criticisms on the reality of what that would consist of vs. the movie, but to them, I say, that's not the point. The big takeaway is that its within your power to be what you want to be, regardless of the process, how long it takes or how strenuous it would be in reality. Personally, I think it does a great job of being inspirational. Taking place in an alternate world of anthropomorphic animals, in China, a daydreamer of a panda named Po (Jack Black) works with his Dad (who is, in fact, a goose), Mr. Ping (James Hong) at a noodle restaurant, and fantasizes about being a Kung Fu master, fighting alongside the "Furious Five"; Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Monkey (Jackie Chan) and Viper (Lucy Liu). The Five are trained by their sensei, a red panda named Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) who has trained each of them up to potentially become the fabled "Dragon Warrior." And though famous in the community, Po looks up to them more than just about anyone. One day, Shifu's old sensei, a tortoise named Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) predicts the escape of Tai Lung (Ian McShane), a snow leopard who was once a pupil of Shifu, since imprisoned and guarded by a rhino named Commander Vachir (Michael Clarke Duncan). He plots to attack the village in order to steal the Dragon Scroll, which is given to the Dragon Warrior, and is said to have great power. However, he was denied it when Oogway saw something evil in him. Anyway,. long story short, of course, Tai Lung escapes because the movie needs a bad guy. At the ceremony that will dub one of the Five the "Dragon Warrior," Po tries to get in once the doors are closed for the proceedings only to, through a bit of jack-assery accidentally find himself to get "chosen" to be the Dragon Warrior, much to the Five's dismay, especially Tigress, who was really eye-balling that title. Po stays to be trained in the martial arts, not giving up because "there are no accidents" according to Oogway, and in turn, Shifu must learn patience when it comes to Po's training while the Five must learn tolerence and, to some degree, not to be cocky. So there's quite a bit crammed in here. Thankfully, the film doesn't feel like its bogged down in after-school-special messages, as they are pretty subtle, yet still clear. I might consider it one of the best animated films out there to show to kids of all ages, as it covers so much ground while remaining perfectly humorous and even kind of relatable, as far as Po's character goes. He is a clumsy, silly character whose humour comes from his weight quite a bit. But the idea that he's an unlikely hero is a part of it as well, and even though "zero-to-hero" is a bit of a trope, I still usually find inspiration in such stories if they're written well, and this definitely works. Apart from some good humor and a series of good moral messages, a lot of the film's quality also comes from the beauty of the animation, which, aside from making lovable characters, makes China look pretty picturesque and beautiful. In so many ways, this is just a solid, quality watch if only to escape for a bit into something more innocent and fun, but at the same time, kinda deep in its own way at points. Perhaps I look into it a bit much, but I really do consider this to be a one of the big modern classics when it comes to animated films. 4/5 |
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