Where
Kung Fu Panda explored the theme of the underdog,
KFP2 explores the theme of Destiny. Do you choose it or does it choose you? I really like the backstory they tackle here. In the first film, everyone wants to know how a Panda and a Goose can be father and son. From the very get-go, even though nothing is said, we all know that
Mr. Ping finds and raises
Po as his own. But since the first film is dealing with it's main story line, this relationship couldn't be explored in full until now. One thing I really dig about
KFP2 is how they marry traditional 2D animation alongside that of 3D CGI animation. Using 2D to flesh out the flashback scenes was the perfect way to go and it looked amazing. As before, great voice acting by everyone. Another thing I noticed is that this series thus far has tapped into the
Karate Kid franchise somewhat and that's fine with me since I love those flicks.
KFP follows the same beats of
Karate Kid and
KFP2 follows the same beats (somewhat) of
Karate Kid 2, especially with the plot device of
Po having to learn a new, very advanced trick that seems to be daunting at first, but comes into play at the end to take out the Big Bad Villain. If you haven't seen this yet, I highly recommend this as a
Rent. Great follow-up for sure.