You must find your path to inner peace

It is ancient china, Kung fu is the art that protects the land. The furious five the renowned masters of their styles Tiger, Monkey, Viper, Crane, and Mantis each style tailored to their unique abilities and body styles. Tigress her quick ferocious strikes shattering all that stand in her path, Monkey his acrobatic, sweeping strikes can come at you from any angle, Viper she can snap, bind, and grab you from almost anywhere can your eyes keep up or will you be staring skyward by the time you realize she was even there, Crane he will swoop in from the sky wings blowing you aside talons leaving you seeing starry skies, Mantis small in stature but by the time you train your eyes on him this master will have spun you like taffy and darted through the nearest crack to waylay your next compatriot. Yet the furious five are not all that defend china, full of energy, deceptively built, eyes full of wonder and yet fists, belly and feet full of black and white justice He is the Dragon Warrior, Po the

Kung Fu Panda 2

We open over a wondrous city tall buildings, bright colors and then we look to the sky and see Fireworks. It seems the king and queen of the realm have discovered this visual treasure and planned to use it to bring joy to the people. Unfortunately their young son and heir to the throne Shen, sees a darker future for these magical lights and after consulting a soothsayer the king and queen learn of his diabolical schemes. "Shen will rise in tyranny and power, if he continues along his current path he will be struck down at the hands of a warrior in black and white", unbeknownst to his parents Shen had overheard the soothsayer and took his wolf troops to a near by valley filled with panda's. Shen was not foolish, a warrior in black and white could ONLY be a panda and he would destroy them all fire, swords clashing and screams could be heard coming from the valley and when he returned his evil dead done the horrified look on his parents face cut Shen deeply. Upon asking if his actions has changed a thing the soothsayer shook her head gravely informing Shen he had sealed his fate, banished from his parents kingdom Shen vows to return and fulfill his destiny.



Far away in the Valley of Peace children run around giggling knowing that all is safe. A great booming can be heard coming from behind the temple walls and the children cheer "The dragon warrior is training", this might be a small stretch as to the amazed looks of his compatriots Po is stuffing bean buns in his mouth. He is at 37, a record and as he places the 38th in his mouth Mantis and Monkey cheer, crane seems almost horrified but cannot turn away, and in jest monkey and mantis cheer for 40, to which Tigress pounds her fist "go for 40" the last two bean buns deftly maneuvered into his over stuffed face Po pounds the table once more in triumph and then proceeds to spray bean buns all over viper, monkey, tigress and mantis when Crane slaps him on the back in celebration and yet as if receiving a telepathic signal Po runs off to see Master Shifu.

Meditating on a rock in the middle of a mirror pool under the tireless gaze of a Mossy dragon statue Master Shifu chants inner peace, unfortunately as seems to be one of Po's many but possibly unwanted abilities he breaks into his masters concentration, yet we he arrives Shifu stands and shows Po something amazing(again, though amazing Po does not seem to be that hard especially if one is a master of Kung Fu) after making a short sweeping half circle with his foot Shifu catches a droplet of water along the blade of his hand, and without missing a beat passes the droplet along his arms, and hands until finally depositing the drop along a blade of grass to drop quietly into the pool. Now having Po's undivided attention Shifu explains to him his own personal journey to inner peace, while not very flattering at first to Po Shifu explains "when I realized the problem was not with you but with me, I was able to find my way to inner peace". Amazed at the level of skill the passing of the droplet showed Po asks how can he learn to do that, to which Shifu responds "one might reach inner peace through meditating for 20 years while consuming not a morsel of food or a drop of water", when Po's stomach growls in protest Shifu says "or one could endure great pain and suffering and then come to inner peace" as Po contemplates which path to take Tigress appears there seem to be bandits in a nearby village racing to the rescue Po promises to come back and learn the path to inner peace later.

As they race to the nearby village Shen's wolf forces can be seen plundering for metal, terrified villagers run and hide some try to hold on to prized possessions, others pound bells and gongs in hope of bringing help as soon as possible, a rabbit begins strumming an instrument as Wolves stalk up to him, the shiny face to his instrument their intended prize but with a thump the dragon warrior and the furious five arise. A tornado of coordinated strikes, throws, and maneuvers follow as it seems in the time since Defeating Tai Lung they have trained well together an eased precision amongst them depending on the partners almost a dance, some rigid some fluid but all destructive. The wolves seem to stand no chance and even as then attempt to escape with their cargo Crane and Po thwart them, finally the wolf general faces off against Po "I thought I destroyed you all but now let me finish it for good". Po is unphased he charges forward ready to lay waste to his foe like so many others until his catches the red sun emblem on the wolves shoulder, it seems to awaken some long buried memory in Po and leaves him helpless to the wolves strike. The Wolf Boss escapes with a single mesh net full of metal and returns to Shen's ship, Po is confused the memory now haunts him, who was that large woman he saw the feathery touch bringing memories of happiness and yet stinging pain to him.

He hastens to his fathers noodle shop, the Gray goose serving his excited customers his famous noodle soup and tales of Po's mischievous childhood, after shooing a young rabbit away from Po's old broom he turn to see his sun return. The hero kissing babies and smiling to patrons as he follows his father into the kitchen sits down on his old familiar chair. Po does not know how to ask this question, and his father back turned ready to feed his somewhat slimmer gargantuan son is worried to hear the words "I'm not hungry" coming from Po. Passing it off as silly politeness at first he continues chopping carrots and celery for noodle soup until Po finally asks "Dad how did I get here", the gooses chopping becomes frenzied. He finally turns and with quivering beak recounts to his son a tale of a normal night at the noodle shop, as he begins to bring in supplies he hears a rustling from his radish crate as he creeps over towards it cautiously the crate tips over to expose a young baby panda and some half or fully eaten radishes.  The young dusty panda seems happy enough until as the goose is walking away a radish rolls to far out of the youngsters reach and he begins to cry. Something about this child warms the gooses heart and after kicking the radish closer to makes a trail of sweet dumplings to coax the child into crawling in the shop. After coaxing the panda into a bucket with a radish the goose washes him thoroughly and falls in love with his innocent face. "And that day I made two famous decisions, I decided to make my noodle soup without radishes and to raise you as my son", he recants a few anecdotes about some bamboo furniture that Po eats as a child and hugs his son, before they could finish the touching moment though Po is called back to the temple.

It seems that while gathering that small amount of metal at the one village where they encountered Po Shen had gone back to his parents Castle and confronted the 3 masters Master Ox, Master Croc and Master Rhino(son of Po's favorite martial artist Flying Rhino). After a brief confrontation Shen admits the greatness of their Kung Fu but reveals a weapon long no other, he aims it at the 3 Masters and the Rhino steps forth holding his hammer steadfast against any attack that he can imagine. The explosion that proceeds leave both Master Croc and Master Ox with horrified looks upon their faces. The reason Po was summoned back to the temple was to inform them all of the death of Master Rhino, none is more shocked than Tigress who exclaims "but his Iron Horn defense is impenetrable" Shifu tells his students he was defeated by a weapon that destroys kung fu. Po is almost heart broken, he has just received the gift of Kung Fu and was not yet ready to give it up. After returning to his fathers noodle shop to say good bye(for possibly the last time, upon which the concerned father begs him to stay) he is sent off with supplies and rushes off to save his beloved martial arts.

In the castle Shen has two mighty gorillas place his devastating cannon where his fathers throne used to be, and after asking the soothsayer(she seems to be making a point of eating Shen's silk robes and annoying him) to now predict his future hears the same prediction that set him on his current path to terror. "All the pandas are dead I made sure of that, you are wrong", to which the soothsayer points to the stairs and says "He knows I'm right" up comes the Wolf Boss with a tale of the black and white warrior who with his furious friends dispatched his troops as easily as blowing confetti. The shocked looks on Shen's face says it all, he must now face his destiny the black and white warrior is coming.

In keeping with the them Po seems to be more at ease with his "soft style" while the other animals use Kung Fu styles based upon their animals the panda uses a variant of Tai Chi Chuan, which makes use of Po's water balloon like body movements to return force sent into him. Yes Po can throw fists and kicks but Po is usually more effective when he uses your force back against you. Almost a rubber band effect or holding a ball filled with air underwater if you try to punch center mass on this panda watch out for his fists.

Also we learn more about how a goose came to be the parent of a huge kung fu loving panda. If you loved the first movie(whether you have kids or not) come on back and watch this one, you still have Jack blacks humor, great animated martial arts and a story that rivals the first movie. He may be the dragon warrior but he still has a lot to learn about Kung Fu and himself.