Kung Fu Panda 2 4K 2011 Ultra HD 2160p

The long-awaited sequel to the animated comedy from the creators of Shrek and Madagascar. Po the panda will finally fulfill his dream of becoming the Dragon Warrior and, together with his friends and kung fu masters—the Furious Five—will defend the Great Valley from a terrible villain and his legion...

User Review

I recently stumbled upon a disc I bought back in 2013. It contained the third full-length Futurama movie (Bender's Game, 2008), Cars 2 (2011) (I'd rather not remember that one!), several cartoons from unknown studios, and the sequel to Kung Fu Panda. The last one was the most interesting for me. Films that are directly related to our childhood are the most dangerous, because revisiting once-beloved cartoons at a conscious age can turn into a real shock (listen to someone who was a fan of Luc Besson's Arthur and the Minimoys (2006-2010)). However, this process can also be pleasantly surprising. The continuation of the adventures of the “huge cute kung fu warrior” is just such a case. Let's take it step by step:

Characters:

Po:

Speaking of the original, I noticed how successful the idea of gradually revealing the main character was. In the first part, Po is the only panda in the entire valley, his father is Goose, and we know nothing about his mother—it all seemed like a ridiculous joke, which by the middle of the film was perceived as commonplace, because the plot did not attach any importance to Po's origins. However, in the subsequent sequels, the creators decided to explore the central character's past, and I want to believe that this was the original idea — to fill in the gaps in Po's story with each new animated film, giving us more and more information so that by the end, we would have a complete trilogy. And if not, I can only praise the writers for their responsible approach to their brainchild. Our chubby guy has grown up and now, together with the Furious Five, stands in defense of all of China. While beating up another gang of thugs, Po sees a strange mark on his enemy's armor. The relaxed atmosphere in which Po and his friends were beating up their enemies immediately evaporates, and the confused Dragon Warrior goes home to his father with a bunch of questions, and then we are shown a flashback of Po's meeting with Mr. Ping, i.e., Goose (it's hardly worth calling the scene of Goose's adoption of Panda a revelation, but given Po's appealing naivety, the moment turned out to be very funny and touching). And so, throughout the film, the authors take us through the childhood of the unusual Panda, all the while heating up the atmosphere and thereby evoking empathy from the viewer.

Lord Shen:

Looking ahead a little, Lord Shen is, in my opinion, the best villain in the trilogy. I like his conflict, I like that he played a very important role in Po's fate (without context!), I like his psychosis and maniacal tendencies, which the director tries to gently veil due to the age rating restrictions of the project, but this does not prevent the young ruler of Gunmen from being as charismatic and unbalanced as possible. Tai Lung (the antagonist in the original) is a martial arts master who relies solely on his years of honed skills and brute force, while Shen has other advantages: a sharp mind, ingenuity, and leadership qualities, all of which are evident when he is calm, which is quite rare. At the same time, Shen is extremely superstitious. Gary Oldman's voice acting adds extra points to Shen.

Visual component. With the arrival of Jennifer Yuh, the amount of two-dimensional animation has increased significantly. The director uses this technique skillfully. Switching between formats is an ideal tool for adding dynamism to the narrative, and the single smooth transition from 2D to 3D is a dramatic episode that sends shivers down your spine. With a budget of $150 million, the picture as a whole is polished to a shine—remarkable combat choreography, a wide variety of locations that change as the characters approach their cherished goal, expansion of the lore (we are taken far beyond the Valley of Peace), and all of the above is accompanied by an energetic soundtrack by John Powell and Hans Zimmer, which is sometimes interrupted by quiet and sad melodies, allowing Po to slow down and dig deep within himself.

The result: Kung Fu Panda 2, contrary to the established law of the entertainment industry – “sequels are often worse than the original!” — is an excellent sequel, because it has something to offer its audience besides repeating itself and parasitizing on the merits of its predecessor, and it is all the more painful to watch DreamWorks — a studio founded on love, hate, and creation — now descend to the level of Illumination (don't get me wrong, I respect Chris Meledandri and his undisguised hypocritical slogans about his spiritual money-making strategy. Good old Chris, at least he's honest with us!)! I got carried away, probably because this feeling of resentment got the better of me for a second — don't pay any attention!

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (68.8 Mb/s)
Resolution: 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Info Audio

#English: Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos 7.1
#English: Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos 5.1
#French: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Spanish (Latino): Dolby Digital 5.1
#Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Danish: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Greek: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Korean: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Norwegian: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Finnish: Dolby Digital 5.1
#Swedish: Dolby Digital 5.1

Info Subtitles

English SDH, Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (Cantonese Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, French (Canadian), German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin American), Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese.