有隻熊貓叫山姆

Kung fu fanatic Po, a chubby, cute Panda with a Hollywood birthmark, now comes back to his supposed homeland China this week.

In Kung Fu Panda 2, the lovely beast is living his dream as The Dragon Warrior. This doesn't come easy since the panda already has gone through all the tough training and challenges in the last installment from 2008. This episode starts from where the first one left off. Viewers who were assailed with doubts as to how a panda has a goose father will finally have an answer in this latest movie.

While Po (Jack Black) investigates who he is and where he came from, he embarks on the quest to defeat Lord Shen, who is banishes as the prince of Gongman City and is poised to rule all of China with a destructive new weapon. Alongside Po are the Furious Five, including a Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Crane (David Cross).

We often describe a movie as "exciting," "interesting" or "dull". But this work can be called "beautiful." Incorporating symbols from Chinese culture, such as Tingcheng Mountain, Taoism, Shadow Plays and a lot of others, the movie presents a beautiful utopia that's truly beyond our imagination. It's long been believed that Pixar provides a master course in stunning visual art. But Dreamworks Animation, home of the Kung Fu Panda franchise, is no second with this visually arresting picture.

The production team obviously has had a good study of Chinese kung fu and culture. Some action scenes are no different than those of Jackie Chan movies. To dig deeper into the essence of kung fu, the movie introduces the philosophical concept of inner peace, with which the panda finally understands in order to win a battle.

However, the whole story still seems thin and a bit too straightforward. Adult viewers may only have an easy time with those cute animals and busy scenarios, but will barely remember some plots or twists to ponder over after the screening.

The movie is in generally amusing, but the jokes are stale and only reinforces stereotypes of what a typical Hollywood animation consists of.

"Yes, I laughed. But for what?" I murmured as I walked out of the cinema.

On my 1 to 10 movie scale, I give Kung Fu Panda 2 a SEVEN.