Kung Fu Panda 1 & 2
Never. Finally I went to a drive-in movie theater for the first time in my life, and the two movies they were playing at the Starlight Six was “Kung Fu Panda 2” and “Thor”. Since I don’t like watching sequels without seeing the original, of course I just had to see the first film in preparation to the big day. (In fact, I even disliked having seen “Intolerance” without seeing “The Birth of a Nation”, but in the end, I still have not seen the latter.)
Drive-ins are absolutely awesome. The feeling of sitting in a car, the slightly hot yet breezy air – just the general atmosphere makes you feel like a teenager again. It was quite an impressive experience actually. I wished we had grown up with drive-in theaters; I would have loved to go with Loris. Instead, we watched movies on our laptops and went to lakes and strolls through the neighborhood instead. How sad and bland is that in comparison? Even so, for a teenager everything feels intense, I suppose.
So, unsurprisingly, I loved “Kung Fu Panda”, both parts. This is how a kid’s story should be. Certainly the story is not too innovative, the first part was very reminiscent of “Mulan” with the seemingly uncapable who turns into a master and the second part is very “Lord of the Rings” in how the main character takes his little team and saves the world. I don’t mind, really. The characters are all incredibly lovely, the jokes are funny and the shortness of the films helps the fast-pacedness of the direction, which I thought was good but nothing special. It’s not like the characters nor the story need that much time to develop after all. Ultimately the films are just a lot of fun!
In comparison to the first part, I thought the second part was mostly more generic. The side-characters actually get even less screen time than before – very sad! They were so great, and it’s a shame since it is to be expected that their voice actors could have done wonders to the characters. Po’s past is clichéd but ultimately somewhat lovely, and heartbreaking (!) I also liked that Po is “just a normal Panda” but then turned out to become great. Well, I just enjoy these kinds of simple stories and actually totally think that the film would be worth to re-watch again. Maybe someday when I have kids? :D