Kung Fu Panda 2

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Long ago, a peacock named Lord Shen sought to harness the power of fireworks for a more practical use in weaponry, a cannon. His worried parents, the rulers of Gongmen City, consulted a soothsayer, who foretold that Shen would be defeated by "a warrior of black and white". To prevent this, Shen destroyed an entire nearby panda village, and returned home expecting appreciation, but his parents were struck with horror and exiled him. Shen, however, swore revenge and vowed to return to the city to complete his invention and see that the prophecy would not be fulfilled.

In the present day, Po, now a very skilled Dragon Warrior and the sixth member of the Furious Five, is trying to learn "inner peace" from Master Shifu. They're interrupted when a gang of wolves attack a village in search of metal to help in making Lord Shen's cannon, which, if successful, will make kung fu obsolete. Po and the Furious Five set out for Gongmen City to stop his plans. Along the way, Po learns about how he was adopted, and why.

The 2011 Sequel to Dreamworks Animation's Kung Fu Panda, this film opened only second in line, under The Hangover Part II, at the box office on its opening weekend. The earnings in the U.S. declined in the following weeks, but the international earnings went through the roof, especially in Asian territories, and set a new record in China. As a result, this film is the #1 animated feature film of 2011 worldwide, outgrossing Pixar's critically lambasted Cars 2. Furthermore, it's also the biggest box office earner for a film directed by a woman, in this case, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, who directed the traditionally animated opening of KFP 1.

For character tropes, see the Character Page.

Tropes used in Kung Fu Panda 2 include:
  • Acrofatic: Po exemplifies this trope.
  • Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Two major examples: the nighttime boat scene that shows how close as friends Po and Tigress have become, and Po and the Soothsayer in Po's home village where he remembers his horrific past and comes to terms with it.
  • Action Girl: Tigress and Viper.
  • Actionized Sequel: While the orginal is an action movie, there is a LOT more here thanks to Po getting out of training.
  • Actor Allusion: "Skadoosh", again.
    • Master Croc also pulls off Jean-Claude Van Damme's signature splits move at one point.
  • Advertised Extra
    • Master Thundering Rhino is shown in the website and press release. In the actual movie, he barely gets two minutes of screentime before Shen kills him. Masters Storming Ox and Croc have somewhat larger roles, but not by much.
    • The members of the Furious Five (save Tigress, and perhaps Mantis) still barely get any lines, as in the previous movie. Well worth hiring Lucy Liu and David Cross for fifteen lines each, guys.
  • All There in the Manual: The movie's official website offers far more detailed information about all the new characters, especially Lord Shen. Lord Shen's motivations are much simpler in the movie proper, and his obsession with weapons stems from a standard villainous unquenchable lust for power that forced his parents to exile him for the atrocities he committed. This leaves out the fact that his parents were ashamed of his albinism and poor health, and abandoned him to the care of his soothsayer nanny. The context puts a very different spin on some of the exchanges between Shen and Po: the movie only shows Shen's parents looking understandably horrified at the destruction of the Panda village, and Shen only references being wronged by the exile. You can see traces of this when he wasn't cruel to the soothsayer, who he simply set free before starting his armada.
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Ping when he packs Po a backpack with embarrassing old paintings and Po's action figures of his teammates... in front of his teammates. Though to be fair, he's just doing it because he's worried about Po's safety since he was about to go on a long and dangerous mission far from home, as well possibly losing Po to his real parents.
  • Animate Inanimate Object: The radish that Po's parents replaced him with in his dream sequence. It can do kung fu, too.
  • Arc Words: Arc symbol, more accurately. The red-eye-with-rays symbol for Po, and the Yin-Yang symbol for Shen. Po grows, and the eye symbol stops holding any fear for him. Shen doesn't, and Po eventually takes on the yin-yang symbol as he wipes out Shen's gunships with their own cannonballs.
    • The phrase "Who are you?" also qualifies.
  • Arrow Catch: Tigress dodges a bunch of arrows and catches the last one an inch from her cheek. Bonus points for the arrows being on fire. More bonus points for the fact that she wasn't even looking at it and didn't seem all that concerned by it, as she does it completely offhandedly.
  • Art Shift: The movie is primarily filmed in CG, but the opening prologue was shot in a style resembling metal shadow puppets, and Po's dreams and memories are animated traditionally.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Even though Po is now The Dragon Warrior, he still gushes like a kid about everything related to kung fu, even while being captured.

Po: No way! Eight-point acupressure cuffs? Just like the ones that held Tai Lung! The more you move, the tighter they get... YAAH! (gets yanked to the ground) These are the best cuffs!

    • Po still keeps his Furious Five action figures, too, even though he doesn't acknowledge that in front of his team mates.

Po: I dunno what those are, never seem 'em before in my life... Dad, you got scratches on my Tigress!

Monkey: (after dropping a dozen barrels of lit explosives) Here's your New Year's gift!
Mantis: Hope you like it, 'cuz you can't return it!
Tigress: (hears Po scream and sees him fighting Shen inside) Po!? What's he doing here?
Monkey: Return it! Return it! (starts snuffing out the burning barrels)

    • Also an amusing accidental Call Back to Shen's declaration of the start of the Year of the Peacock.
  • Audible Sharpness: Pretty much all of Shen's blade weapons.
  • Awesome but Impractical: Turns out Shen's cannons can be a bitch to aim at moving targets.
  • Awesome Yet Practical: The Catch and Return technique to catch rainwater that Shifu tries to teach Po so that he might learn inner peace is very useful for returning cannon fire.
  • Awful Truth: Subverted in that Po is determined to find out what happened to his biological parents, and only Big Bad Lord Shen knows (besides the Soothsayer). As such, Po screws up a chance for the Five to destroy the cannon foundry to face the peacock, only to have him claim his parents abandoned him because they didn't love him. Of course, that's a Blatant Lies.
  • Badass Boast: "I am Po. And I'm gonna need a hat." It Makes Sense in Context.
  • Badass Crew: With Po as the new addition to the team, the Furious Five are, if possible, even more badass than in the first film with all the crazy combo moves they show off in this film.
  • Badass in Distress: The Furious Five near the end of the movie. While Po is presumed dead, they all end up as Shen's prisoners.
  • Bag of Spilling: Averted. Po still has the kung-fu abilities he learned in the previous movie and is able to fight alongside the Furious Five.
    • Except maybe the Wuxi Finger Hold, which destroyed Tai Lung and isn't seen or mentioned again. Though he may have just not gotten the chance to use it on something who deserved it.
      • Probably because Shen doesn't have any fingers...
    • Realistically as well, Po is shown to be less refined and technically proficient in his skills compared with the others, consistent with his status as the least experienced (though potentially most talented) member of the group. However, he's obviously getting better and his martial art innovations are leaving his comrades awestruck.
  • Bamboo Technology: Literally! Shen's cannon foundry features, among other things, a bamboo Conveyor Belt O' Doom.
  • Battle Discretion Shot: Po and the Five, hidden in a huge dragon costume, pull several wolf Mooks inside and rough them up before kicking them out the back, turning a string of rapid beatdowns into Toilet Humor.
  • BFG: Lord Shen's big freakin' cannons.
  • Big Bad: Lord Shen.
  • Big Badass Wolves: The movie is full of 'em as Lord Shen's Mooks.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Master Shifu and Masters Croc and Ox near the tail-end of the film. Po pulled it a short bit before to save the Five from Shen.
    • And Po's father in Po's flashback when two wolves were about to attack baby Po.
  • Big Eater: Subverted. Every time Po's father offers him a hearty meal, he refuses, and is generally shown to be much less of a glutton than in the first movie.
    • Baby!Po, on the other hand, is a pretty straight example, which Mr. Ping points out repeatedly as he fed the cub multiple times in a single day. And then there was the time he ate all the bamboo furniture...
    • Po eats when he's upset. As the Dragon Warrior, he's happier than he's ever been.
  • Big No: By Tigress before Po is hit by Shen's cannon-fire.
  • Black Dude Dies First: Rhinos tend to die early in the Kung Fu Panda films.
  • Blade on a Stick: When not using cannons or flurries of throwing knives, Lord Shen fights using a cross-breed between a Flamberge and a Naginata.
  • Blatant Lies: Shen's claim to Po that he was abandoned because his parents didn't love him. Presumably because, perceiving his own parents as having hated him, it's the most painful thing he can imagine to inflict on an enemy.
  • Blind Musician: The rabbit who keeps playing music during the fight scene in the Musician's Village seems to be blind, since he's wearing dark glasses and doesn't react to any of the violence happening around him.
    • Which may be a Shout-Out to the wuxia film Hero, which has a similar scene where two martial artists square off with a blind musician providing accompaniment.
  • Blue and Orange Morality: Mantis' mother ate his dad's head before he was born, but he sees nothing strange in this since this is normal for his species. He even imagined himself dying like this.

Mantis: I thought I'd meet a nice girl, settle down, and then she'd eat my head.

    • Bonus points for him remarking how sad it is that he didn't get his head eaten.
  • Break Them by Talking: When Po confronts Shen in the foundry, the peacock manages to gain the upper hand by claiming that Po's parents didn't love him and abandoned him.
  • Brick Joke: In the first film, Ping told Po that when he was young, he thought going into the tofu business was crazy. The second film begins with Ping having expanded his noodle business by adding tofu to the menu!
    • Another example: When entering the prison, Monkey promises to warn the Furious Five with a "Caw-CAW!" to which it is pointed out how much it sounds like Crane, who protests by saying he never says that. At the finale of the film, Crane uses his "Wings of Justice! Caw-CAW!"
    • Po notes in the first film that Mantis is about the same size as his action figure. This film, he swaps out Mantis for his Mantis action figure to fool Shen's men.
  • Bus Full of Innocents: Done by the wolf boss with a box of brand-new bouncing baby bunnies.
  • Call Back: A kid playing with a Po figurine in the opening scenes says "Enough talk. Let's fight!", which is Po's first line in his fantasy of the first film.
    • There's also several in the opening fight in with the wolves. Many shots and elements of the whole scene match up with the 2D opening dream sequence of the first movie, including Po's "Feet of Fury" technique.
    • The Soothsayer uses acupuncture needles to cure Po and mess with his facial expressions in the same way Mantis (unintentionally) does in the first film. It's the only way she can get him to take his medicine.
    • Also Mantis being as big as his action figure, which becomes a Chekhov's Gun.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Po does this several times, as well as some of the Furious Five like Crane. "Wings of Justice!" and "Feet of Fury!" come to mind. Though quite a few times it's relaying instructions to the rest of the Furious Five for a double team attack with him (such as a "Double Death Strike" with Tigress), so it's justified.
  • The Cameo: Tai Lung, the villain of the first film, actually appears for a split-second during the flashback of Po's life up to the events of this film.
  • Captain Obvious: Pretty much everyone knew Po was adopted. Some like Tigress even showed signs of Sarcasm Mode when Po shares that fact.

Po: I just found out that my dad isn't really my dad.
Tigress: Your dad? The goose?... That must have been quite a shock.

  • Cardboard Prison: Po and the Five have no problem busting into the jail where Masters Storming Ox and Croc are being kept. In fact, they actually have more trouble convincing Ox and Croc to escape.
    • Arguably justified. If Shen knows his prisoners have no intention of escaping, why not use a Cardboard Prison?
  • Catch and Return: Shifu practices catching rain drops and placing them on blades of grass without breaking them. Po uses this to defeat Lord Shen's cannon ships, by redirecting their cannon fire back to the source.
  • Catch Phrase: Double duty as Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: You know when Po says "Skadoosh!" the bad guy is going down for the count... or is just about to.
  • Cats Are Mean: Pretty much gone now for Tigress, who has become Po's best friend of the Five. Although the one scene where she's ordering Po to stay in the dungeon was pretty scary (even more so that Viper told Po to "stay down" after he was knocked around for a bit), she wasn't doing it to be mean; she clearly stated at the end that she was fearing for his safety.
    • The included bonus DVD, Secrets of the Masters, has the Wu sisters, a trio of cats who play this trope very straight. As in, "Live in a volcano fortress, openly proclaim their evilness, and try to take over all of China's crime gangs."
  • Clip Show: Unlike most examples, this is used brilliantly to show Po's Progression from a gibbering fanboy from the last movie to the kung-fu master he is now. It also symbolizes how he has come to terms with his tragic childhood and found inner peace.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Po's wooden action figures of the Furious Five, particularly Mantis's. This actually goes all the way back to the first movie, where Po comments that Mantis is about the same size as his action figure. In this movie, he swaps Mantis for his figure while they're all being locked in chains so he can help save them later.
    • One that goes back to the first movie - Po's recurring use of a wok as a hat, leading to the Disc of Destruction scene.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Master Shifu's water-catching technique in the beginning of the movie; during the climax, Po uses it to catch cannonballs.
    • And a "throwaway" gag about Crane turns out to be one as well.

Monkey: At the first sign of trouble, I'll give a signal: "Ca-caw, ca-kee!"
Po: You mean like Crane does?
Monkey: Yeah.
Crane: 'Scuse me, when have I ever made that noise?

    • (later)

Crane: Wings of Justice! Ca-caw!

  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: As in the first film, gold is used to symbolize heroism, while red is used to symbolize power and/or violence (a rather ironic twist, as red is associated with love and positive emotions in China while gold is traditionally more associated with power). This is especially apparent in Po's last confrontation with Shen, with Po standing in golden sunlight and Shen standing in the red glow of a cannon. A golden aura can also be seen around Po's mother when she makes her Heroic Sacrifice for him.
    • Here's an example towards the end that might've gone by too fast for a few people: The cannonballs that Shen fires are red. The cannonballs that Po catches turn gold.
    • Fire Is Red: As a consequence of this colour motiff, most fires on the film glow with an unusual crimson tone. Possibly justified as Shen is explicitly stated to be working with fireworks, hence the fires are in that colour due to the usage of specific metals (although Fridge Logic kicks in when you realise that Shen would perhaps find more use in magnesium, which glows white).
  • Combat Pragmatist: In a world where strength is determined by kung fu prowess, Shen has no problem with using cannons and hidden weapons.
  • Combination Attack: While Po is not a slouch in the kung-fu asskick department in this movie, all his best moves are performed in tandem with the rest of the Furious Five. Most of them are some variety of tossing him in the right direction and watching the fireworks.
  • Continuity Nod: Among other things, when Po and his friends are manacled by Shen's minions, the panda mentions that similar devices were used to imprison Tai Lung.
    • A subtle one: Oogway, in the first movie, notes how Po eats when he's sad. Here we found out that he was hidden in a crate of radishes as a cub, right before his mother was supposedly killed. By the time the crate got to Mr. Ping, Po had eaten the entire contents of the crate.
    • Which also explains why Po is slightly thinner and less hungry than before. Ping even worries that he's lost weight.
    • "Wow! The Furious Five! You're much bigger than my action figures! Except you, Mantis... you're about the same size."
    • Master Flying Rhino is mentioned, for donating his armor to the Jade Palace in the first movie, and as the father of Thundering Rhino here.
    • Oogway once said "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why they called the Present." That is what the movie's theme is. Po let go of his parents' and species' massacre when the Soothsayer told him that fate balanced the scales and eventually gave him a happy life with Mr. Ping, who cares for him and loves him as if he was his own blood himself, and his friends. What happened in the past is history and he might not know what will happen in th future, but his life in the Valley of Peace is a literal Present.
  • Cooldown Hug: Tigress gives one to Po so that he won't go against Shen again, much to the shock of the rest of the Five.
  • Creative Closing Credits: That of 2D images of Po's childhood after he's sent away on the radish crate.
  • Crucified Hero Shot: When Tigress (along with the rest of the Furious Five) is chained to a mast.
  • Darker and Edgier: Although there are still plenty of laughs and sweet moments, this film is much more violent, mostly thanks to Lord Shen and his use of cannons to get rid of every problem he has, and deals with difficult situations such as adoption. Not to mention how most of the movie is literally darker -- it takes place in locations with dramatic or no light.
  • Deadly Dodging: Done by Po as he's dodging and returning cannonballs at the end of the movie.
  • Deadly Fireworks Display: Lord Shen goes out with a bang in 2 when a cannon falls on him. A pretty fireworks display follows, with actual fireworks.
  • Death by Looking Up: Lord Shen is killed when his own cannon falls on top of him, having enough time to look up and see it. Justified, however, in that by that point, he'd accepted his fate since he makes no attempt to get out of the way.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Tigress started to thaw a little in the first movie, but here she can be downright affectionate to Po, even giving him a Cooldown Hug.
  • Deleted Scene: Not vital to the plot, but one scene that was cut was an alternate introduction of the protagonists to Masters Croc and Ox. Originally, they were going to all meet at a street fighting ring, but was cut for various reasons. The design of the jail strongly resembles the arena that they were supposed to fight in, and the whole scene was later recycled into the bonus DVD Secrets of the Masters, which talked about Croc, Ox, and Rhino.
  • Demoted to Extra: Shifu, who barely gets any screentime at all. Thankfully averted with the Furious Five, who appear much more this time around, and all of them actively help Po out this time around throughout the film.
  • Did You Think I Can't Feel?: Hinted at for Tigress. Maybe the sequel(s) will expand on this?
    • Also literally. Where Tigress can't actually feel pain. As in, nerve endings.
  • Disguised in Drag: Po, during the Stealth Mode sequence, pretends to be a woman very briefly. Doubles as Paper-Thin Disguise, since it consists of only a kite, two watermelons, and a fan.
  • Disney Villain Death: Averted. (The death scenes involve getting blown to bits by a cannon, getting schlucked in the body with knive(s), and having a BFG fall on the villain).
  • Doomsday Device: Lord Shen's cannons are viewed as the ultimate weapon that is going to end kung fu, and, possibly, the world as we know it.
  • Door Step Baby: Po was found by Mr. Ping in a crate of radishes.
  • The Dragon: The Wolf Boss.
  • Dragons Up the Yin-Yang: In the first film, the dragon was a more prevalent image; here, the Yin Yang is a much more prominent symbol.
  • Drama-Preserving Handicap/Worf Had the Flu: Po's traumatic flashbacks and inner turmoil cost him several battles he might have otherwise won.
  • Dream Sequence: Po's nightmare, in which he meets his true parents only to find they've replaced him with a radish that has better kung fu.
  • Drop the Hammer: The Wolf Boss, Thundering Rhino and Po's biological father.
  • Dropped a Bridget On Him: The Soothsayer to Po, who claims he was "misled" by the Soothsayer's beard.
  • Dynamic Entry: Parodied. Po has a Not Quite Dead moment on the Conveyor Belt O' Doom... only he's got to wait several seconds until a giant cogwheel returns him into a position to actually follow up his Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner. Also, the I Can't Hear You moment on the roof during Po's Big Damn Heroes.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Master Ox, Croc, the wolf bandits, and even Shen's symbol were in Po's opening dream in the first film.
  • Empathic Environment: The color red accompanies Shen's presence very often. Sometimes justified, due to all the forge fires and torches; but sometimes the sky itself turns blood-red, even if it wasn't minutes ago, like when Shen marches in to challenge the Kung Fu Council.
  • Empathy Doll Shot: The little panda plushie that Po finds in the remains of the Panda Village. At the end of the movie, the plushie is seen in a crate of vegetables that Po is carrying into the restaurant.
  • End of an Age: Averted in that it seems like it is the end of kung fu as a relevant skill in battle with the advent of the cannon, but Po proves that wrong when he develops a kung fu Catch and Return technique that can stop cannoneers in their tracks.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Out of all Shen's hostages, the Soothsayer is treated the least cruelly (though that's still not saying much), as she raised Shen when he was shunned by his family.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The Wolf Boss, Lord Shen's second in command, has no problem with theft or genocide, but firing on his own men? That's where he draws the line. He gets killed for it. Justified in that wolves are pack animals and he is pack alpha.
  • Everything's Worse with Wolves: Lord Shen's minions are ruthless wolf brigands.
  • Evil Albino: Lord Shen. Remember, in Chinese culture, white is the color of death.
  • Evil Brit: Lord Shen (voiced by Gary Oldman), in a parallel to Tai Lung (Ian McShane).
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Shen fits this trope rather nicely, and is willing to kill or hurt anyone who gets in his way, even if it's his own men. He also continuously ignores any advice that the path he's taking will only lead to his eventual defeat by Po.
  • Evil Tower of Ominousness: Shen's ancestral home and base of operations for the first part of the movie until he destroys it trying to kill Po and the Five, who are all trapped inside.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Even after crossing the Moral Event Horizon in the prologue, Lord Shen seems like a pleasant enough fellow.

Lord Shen: Good afternoon, gentlemen. Now, we've got the pleasantries out of the way. Please leave my house.
Thundering Rhino: Your house?
Lord Shen: Yes, didn't you see the peacock on the front door?

  • Face Palm: Tigress does one of these upon seeing Po first using the goofy dragon costume during the Stealth Mode sequence.
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: Compared to Oogway's poetic ascension and the ambiguous fates of Tai Lung and Commander Vachir, the deaths in this film are a lot more disturbing, sadistic, and visceral. However, the one that really takes the cake is the Wolf Boss. Shen throws a knife in his stomach. On screen. Given that up to that point all deaths happened off camera and the generally cartoonish and larger than life violence, it was very shocking to see such a graphic, cold blooded killing.
  • Fastball Special: Tigress performs this twice with Po in a move he calls "Double Death Strike".
    • And, the second time, Mantis performs this with Tigress so that she can get up enough momentum to pull the same trick with Po in a broken rickshaw. The force is so strong it leaves a trail of flames in the road. BAD. ASS.
  • A Father to His Men: The Wolf Boss counts when he stands up to Shen for ordering to fire on his own men.
  • Feather Fingers: Mr. Ping and Lord Shen.
  • Flash Step: Shifu is shown doing this several times, once even to avoid a hug from Po.
  • Foreshadowing: The first film actually has hints of several things in the film.
    • Crane's Wings of Justice move was used early on in the first film.
    • Also, somewhere in the middle of the first film, Master Shifu is chanting about Inner Peace.
    • Po's dream about fighting alongside mighty warriors actually occurs in the end of the film.
      • Even early bird cameos like Shen's symbol and the wolves that appeared previously in Po's dream appeared in the film. Po's memories may have been repressed but even little things like that still affected him.
  • Foe-Tossing Charge: In the climax battle against Lord Shen and his forces, the kung fu masters pulled this off, but it's Master Shifu who pulls off the most classic version, sprinting through several ships' worth of wolves and gorillas before we even see him.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Look closely in Mantis' cage when Po is holding it. A couple of times he moves enough to cause "Mantis" inside to rock slightly but not move a muscle, making it clear that it is an inanimate object.
    • When Po is running on the conveyor belt, the wok pan with Tai Lung's Face indented in it from the first movie goes over the side right before Po himself falls and catches himself with the tuning fork
  • Freudian Excuse: Big Bad Lord Shen's family never loved him. From his perspective, anyway.
  • Futile Paw Reach: By Tigress.
  • Genocide Backfire: Sort of. Lord Shen heard a prophecy that a black and white warrior would defeat him, so he destroyed the village of pandas close to his city. He later finds out that there was a survivor; Po. And a hidden village of pandas, including Po's biological father. Unlike most examples of this trope, this wasn't what directly caused the confrontation between Po and Shen, and traumatic memories of his early childhood actually weaken Po, instead of motivating him.
    • As noted further down, though, Po would never have been in a position to become the Dragon Warrior if Shen hadn't destroyed his village.
    • Shen fully expected this to be Po's reason to come stop him. It's played for laughs when Po has no idea who Shen is or what he has done. Even in the end, Po seemed to mean no ill will against Shen.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: Remember when Po asked Mr. Ping on where he came from, Mr. Ping said this:

Mr.Ping: Well, son. Baby geese come from little eggs. Now don't ask me where the egg comes from!

    • Shen's talk about old and new has shades of Mao Zedong's own beliefs, and was especially prominent during the Cultural Revolution. Yet, it appears to have been unnoticed by the Chinese censors.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: Part of Po and the Five's battling the wolf Mooks in the dragon costume involves hurling the last few victims (out the back end) into oncoming Mooks.
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat: Po and Shen's first scene together.

Shen: The only reason you are still alive is that I find your stupidity...mildly amusing.
Po: Thank you, but I find your evilness extremely annoying!
Shen: Who do you think you are, panda?
Po: Who do you think I am, peacock?
Shen: *laughs*
Po: *also laughs* Why are we laughing?

  • Happily Adopted: Po and his father both admit that Po is adopted at the beginning. Po is okay with this by the end of the film.
  • Hard Work Hardly Works / Instant Expert: Played With. Po's kung fu has improved a lot since the last movie, but he's still somewhat clumsy and has a lot to learn. He was able to master Inner Peace and the redirection move rather quickly, though.
    • Though to be fair, he was only able to master Inner Peace so quickly because he was able to come to terms with the destruction of his village and the deaths of not only the villagers, but his parents as well (as far as he knows).
      • Lampshaded by Shifu. Noting how Po was able to achieve inner peace at a young age, as opposed to him who had to wait a lot longer. To be fair, Shifu had Tai Lung to worry about during that time which was certainly enough to disrupt his peace.
  • Heroic BSOD: A certain symbol used by Lord Shen and his forces causes Po's most traumatic subconscious memories to suddenly flare up in his mind and overwhelm him. It's even worse when he sees all the eye spots on Shen's tail feathers, since they match the symbol almost exactly.
  • He's Back: Po, when he comes back to fight Lord Shen and save the Furious Five, after he discovered his background.
    • Let's Get Dangerous: Subverted. For a second Po looks Badass, but he blows it by overestimating how far his voice travels.
    • Badass: Subverted. Immediately after the above scene, Po throws the hat that he's wearing at the chains that contain the Furious Five. Overestimating his throwing power of a very ordinary straw hat, followed by a very awkward and embarrassing moment by everyone watching. But he picks up the ball and ultimately makes it count afterwards.
  • Hidden Weapons: Shen. He keeps a multitude of blades in his sleeves.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard/Self-Disposing Villain: Lord Shen is crushed by his own wrecked cannon because he tried killing Po and ended up cutting the ropes holding it up.
    • Shen also insisted on firing on Po, even though he's deflecting and returning the cannon balls pretty well.
  • I Am Not Your Father: Mr. Ping finally admits the incredibly non-evident fact that he's not Po's real father.
  • I Can't Hear You: Po shouts a challenge from a rooftop to Shen. Unfortunately, the distance is too far for anyone to make out what Po is saying.
  • If I Wanted You Dead...: The soothsayer says this to Po after fixing him up.
  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: Shen does this briefly toward Tigress near the end of the movie while she's chained up with the rest of the Five and Po is presumed dead.

Shen: (leans in close to her face and strokes it) You are going to be part of something beautiful.
Tigress: (bares her teeth and growls at him)

Tigress: What's your plan?
Po: Step 1, free the Five.
Viper: What's Step 2?
Po: To be honest, I didn't think I'd get this far.

  • Jaw Drop: Twice by Crane, when Tigress first gives a Cooldown Hug to Po and when Po hugs Tigress near the end.
  • Killed Off for Real: Master Thundering Rhino dies early in the film, while Lord Shen and Shen's right hand man, the Wolf Boss, are likely dead. Po's mother is hinted at having been killed as well, but it's not entirely confirmed.
  • Knife Nut: Shen. Even though he's got cannons as his main thing, his fallback weapons are loads and loads of sharp, pointy objects.
  • Last of His Kind: Subverted. Both Shen and Po think that there are no more surviving giant pandas. However, the Sequel Hook at the end of the movie shows a whole panda village, including Po's real father.
  • Last Second Chance: Rejected once again. Po tries sharing the secret to inner peace with Lord Shen, but even if Shen understands it, he attacks Po anyway. Although by that point Shen almost certainly wanted to die (you can see Shen accepting his fate as the giant cannon falls on him soon after), choosing self-destruction instead of redemption probably still counts.
  • Last Villain Stand: After Po destroys his entire armada and he's killed his own Dragon, Shen is left with nothing. Po finds him on the ruins of his flagship in the middle of a Villainous BSOD. Po offers him a Last Second Chance, but Shen ultimately rejects it (either by not understanding or just wanting to die) and does the one thing he'd spent the entire movie running from, fighting Po one on one with everything he's got.
  • Laugh with Me: Shen and Po.

Po: Why are we laughing?

  • Light Is Not Good: Shen, both in regards to chinese and western iconography, being white and red (the latter being the colour of love in chinese culture) as he is, not to mention him being a peacock (which is basically the animal that most resembles the chinese phoenix) and given what the possible readings of his name mean (神, "divinity", and 焴, "flame"). Although him being white feathered goes to Obviously Evil territory if you consider that white is the colour of death in most asian cultures.
  • Look What I Can Do Now!: Po. In regards to the first movie.
  • Made of Iron: Subverted and played straight. Subverted in Master Rhino's death. Played straight in that everyone else also got hit with a cannon. Although to be fair, they weren't direct hits and the one that hit Po dead-on was stopped mildly by the iron pot that he used to block it with. Also played literally with Tigress, as due to her punching ironwood trees near the Jade Palace for 20 years has allowed her to take Po's hardest punch and not feel a thing, even hurting Po himself in the process.
  • Meaningful Echo: When Po finds the truth, the Soothsayer repeats a line said by Mister Ping in the beginning of the film. "Your story may not have such a happy beginning..."
  • Mega Manning: Po learns the moves necessary to do the Catch and Return technique to manipulate rainwater after watching his master do it once, and then circumstances teaches him how to achieve the inner peace necessary to execute the technique. At this point Shifu is a tad jealous since the aged Kung Fu master only recently mastered that himself.
    • Consistent, of course, with how he figured out the Wuxi finger hold all on his own in the first movie. (Po is pretty talented).
    • Then again, we don't know how much time passed since Shifu first showed Po the technique and the day he sends him off to fight Shen, so he could have been trying to learn it in between.
      • Doubles as a Call Back, since both are techniques Shifu told Po about in the beginning, and later used to dispose of the villain of the respective movies.
    • A Chekhov's Skill if you take into account the TV show. He's shown several times in that seeing a move once and being able to duplicate it.
  • Meteor Move: Performed by Po on the Wolf Boss at the end of the Rickshaw Chase.

Po: Alaka-squasho!

  • Mickey Mousing: The first fight with the wolf pack certainly has a lot of action in sync to the music.
  • Misplaced Wildlife: Shen's gorillas, which are native to Africa.
  • Missing Mom: Well, at least we know what happened now. Sort of.
  • Missing Trailer Scene: In some of the TV Spots, there's a scene where Po is 'holding his breath in anticipation', then Tigress tells him finally to breathe. Never happens in the movie.
    • Another trailer moment that doesn't happen in the movie is Shifu telling Po he's received a message. Po thinks it came from the universe, then Shifu says it came from a messenger.
  • Mook Chivalry: If they'd all just fired at once Po would have been floating panda pate. Of course, the instances we see multiple shots fired at Po, he simply dodges most of them before catching one and throwing it back.
  • Moses in the Bulrushes: Or more precisely, Baby Po in the radish produce crate.
  • My God, You Are Serious: When Po realized that Tigress wasn't kidding about no snack stops on the way to stop the wolf bandits.
  • My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Master Shifu collapses after sensing Po being shot by Lord Shen's cannon.
    • Also shown at the end of the film when Po's biological father senses that he is alive and well.
  • Eucatastrophe: Lord Shen leaves the harbor of Gongmen City to conquer China with his armada armed with cannons. Everyone else has been defeated while Po is about to be shot, his only hope a technique he has yet to master.
  • Never Found the Body: Po's biological father.
  • Never Trust a Trailer: Much like with its predecessor, the trailers mostly showed the comedic aspects of the film. Perhaps it was Dreamworks's way of not giving away any of the surprises.
    • A TV Spot has Po declare "I'm not the last panda!" while showing the panda village seen at the end of the movie, making it look like this will be a big part of the plot. It...wasn't. Po didn't say that and while the village appeared, it was just a teaser at the very end of the movie.
    • Similar to the above TV Spot, the DVD Release Trailer basically tells you something completely different from what ACTUALLY happens in the movie. Someone must be playing a joke on the marketing department or editor.
  • Never Say "Die": Averted. That and "kill" may be Shen's favorite words.
    • Played straight in one case. He tells Po that he 'took away' his parents. Justified in that Po's father at least isn't dead.
  • Nice Hat: Though not fancy or complicated in any way. Po's line preceding his gain of the hat should qualify. Also, it does look pretty cool up on that roof.

Po: I am Po. And I'm gonna need a hat.

    • It doubles as a Continuity Nod as well, since Po wore a similar hat in his kung fu dream from the first movie.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Had Po listened to Tigress and remained in the prison, the Five's idea of blowing Shen up alongside with his foundry would have worked without a hitch.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: Lord Shen strove to be very thorough trying to avert the prophecy, with the usual amount of success.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Lord Shen attempting genocide on the pandas not only enabled Po to complete the prophecy, but also ended up providing the village with a way to stop Tai Lung in the original film.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Averted, thankfully. It's a good thing that Tigress is VERY disciplined, and compassionate. And another reason why that "fight" was not in the first movie.
  • No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Very, very averted. We don't see any prototypes for Shen's firework cannon, but there are a looot of backups.
    • Played with as well, as the heroes thought there was only one cannon in existence and formed much of their plans on stopping Shen. Double on Po, who thought the tiny figurine was the actual weapon. Shen then subverted this hard in both that the cannon in the room (while formidable as it can hit anything in the city) was just a diversion to protect his foundry and he was halfway done arming a whole armada of ships with them.
  • Rice Incident:

Tigress: I hope this turns out better than your plan to cook rice in your stomach by eating it raw and then drinking boiling water.
Po: This plan's nothing like that plan.
Tigress: How?
Po: Because this plan will work.

  • Oblivious Adoption: Confronted and answered. The ironic part is that Po already knew but his dad thought he didn't.
    • Some people, including Roger Ebert when seeing the first film, just assumed this is a universe where whatever animal you happen to be is not dependent on your birth parents. After the second film, he admitted he was wrong.
    • This is mercilessly lampshaded whenever given the chance. Especially given the Un Reveal in the last movie.
  • Of Doom: For the sake of rhyme, the sequel was at one point named Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom.
  • Oh Crap: When Po and the Five destroy Shen's cannon in the palace, only to find that the peacock has a whole arsenal of copies and they are about to fire a whole salvo at them.
  • Offhand Backhand: Po does this rather effectively to the last wolf guard protecting Master Ox and Master Croc. It was the only move he did the entire fight and even Tigress complimented him on it.
  • Older Than They Look: Shen spent thirty years in exile, so he (and the Wolf Boss) must be around fifty, with Po being close to or slightly over thirty.
  • Only Six Faces: This movie adds goats and sheep to the mix of rabbits, pigs, and geese to the cast of civilians from the first movie.
  • Papa Wolf: Po's biological dad, as it's shown that he directly confronted the wolves that were massacring his village. Maybe Po's badassery is In the Blood...
    • Shifu as well. His first instinct when Po gets shot is to travel to Gongmen City at breakneck speed in order to pull a Big Damn Heroes and kick the collective asses of those responsible. Granted that he's only the victim's father figure, but it's still badass.
      • The sub-boss, possibly a literal example since he was a wolf who refused to fire on his wolf underlings despite his Boss, Shen's orders. The wolf might even be A Father to His Men in a literal sense too, given that leaders of wolf packs tend to be the daddy to the lot of them.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: For a brief moment, Po disguise himself as a woman, using a kite as a wig. Irony to the trope's name, the kite is made out of paper!
  • Parental Abandonment: Lord Shen claims this about Po's parents; however, Po eventually remembers that his mother did that as part of a Heroic Sacrifice of intense love to give him one desperate chance of survival.
    • Shen himself sees his parents banishing him as this, ignoring the fact he'd just committed genocide and deserved to be punished.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Mantis, once again, such as when he throws Tigress to give her an extra boost.
    • This movie goes out of its way to establish that Mantis is the strongest of the cast, regularly doing feats of strength that would be impressive at full size. Truth in Television, as insects really do tend to have the most impressive liftable-weight-to-body-mass ratio.
    • And Shifu, who is even tougher since he gained 'Inner Peace' in the previous film.
  • Play-Along Prisoner: Po's plan to get close enough to Lord Shen's cannon to destroy it.
  • Post Hug Catatonia: Tigress, of all people.
  • Prophecy Twist: Another possible interpretation of the prophecy is that "warrior of black and white" who will defeat Shen is Shen himself. His primary colors are also black and white. Note that the cannons and the gunpowder are black. There is a brief, stylized shot showing Shen with half his face black paralleling the ying-yang symbol, and it is the smoke figure of Shen that transforms into the yin-yang symbol when the Soothsayer tries to predict his fate. And in the final confrontation, some of Shen's white feathers are covered in black soot. Over the course of the movie, including the backstory, Shen loses his parents, his right to the throne of Gongmen city (and eventually destroys even its symbol, the throne itself, upon returning), his old home, his surrogate mother, and his oldest and only remaining friend, all through his own actions. Even the destruction of his remaining forces in the finale comes from deflected cannon shots he ordered to fire. Finally, in the last battle against Po, he directly contributed to the wreck of his cannon falling on him by accidentally cutting the ropes during the fight. Indeed, it can be argued that Shen defeated and destroyed himself quite thoroughly, and maybe he even realizes the irony, when he calmly allows the cannon to crush him.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Played straight by Lord Shen's red eyes and his sigil, a red eye with sun rays at each side. Justified because he's an albino, which naturally have red eyes.
  • Red Sky, Take Warning: Shen's introduction. Ironic, since red is the color of luck in China.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Subverted with Master Croc.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Baby Po. So cute and fluffy.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Lord Shen thinks Po will do this once he realizes Shen performed a genocide on the pandas and is left absolutely stunned when this trope is subverted.
  • Running Gag: Po and his mortal enemy: stairs. Kept going in that it takes a Gorilla Mook to carry Po up the rest of the stairs part of the way. Also, the Soothsayer eating Shen's robes.
    • Po repeatedly leaps into battle from a fatal height - only to be caught and gently lowered by Crane at the last second.
  • Scenery Porn: And this time with the addition of cities!
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Soothsayer said in the intro that a warrior of black and white will defeat Shen. Because of his actions, Shen ended up fulfilling the destiny. If he hadn't attempted genocide, Po never would've ended up where he could learn Kung Fu and come back to defeat him in the first place. Alternately, it's outright said in the prophecy that if he doesn't change his ways, this is what will happen.
  • Sequel Escalation: While the first movie centered on a small mountain valley, and the villain had mostly personal motivation and acted alone, the sequel involves a big city and a villain who wants to Take Over the World and has an army of wolves, gunpowder cannons, and a freakin' river fleet at his disposal.
  • Sequel Hook: When Po makes it clear that he has accepted Mr. Ping as his father as well as being the last Giant Panda, we see that Po's biological father is alive in a far away hidden village of Giant Pandas and senses that his son is alive as well.
    • According to The Other Wiki, there's supposed to be a total of six films in this series.
  • Shining City: Gongmen.
  • Ship Tease: Po and Tigress have a lot of... friendly interaction in this film, definitely more than in the first movie. A few highlights:
    • Tigress hugs him tightly to demonstrate that "the hardcore do understand".
    • The moment they share floating on wreckage in the water where it looks like Shen might escape with his boats.
    • Enough of it went on that Roger Ebert mentioned the interactions in his review.
    • Also, the fact that Po is annoyed that his Tigress action figure is scratched.
      • Even the DVD commentary from the first movie stated that Tigress was Po's favorite out of the Five.
    • On the other hand, Viper also seems rather friendly with Po, and she kissed a doll of him on the cheek in the (non-canon) credits sequence of the first film. However, she wrapped the doll in a ribbon and cradled it as she kissed it. Given that she's the most compassionate of the five, it could be a "Motherly Love" kind of thing.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The sequence where the Furious Five hide in a dragon costume and "devour" wolf minions (It Makes Sense in Context), filmed from a top-down perspective, is an obvious Pac-Man allusion.
    • In the Smoke and Fire Factory showdown, when Po suddenly appears behind Shen mounted on a huge turning cogwheel. Hi there, Terminator!
    • The final river fleet showdown is possibly inspired by Red Cliff, where clever strategy triumphs over a bulky fleet of clumsy yet heavily armed ships.
    • One part of the scene with Po redirecting fire from all cannons at once is a visual shout-out to a scene in Shaolin Soccer, with the entire Team Evil lined up and kicking the same ball at the Shaolin goalie over and over.
    • When Po redirects the last cannonball, one might almost expect him to shout "HADOUKEN!"
    • The blind rabbit musician who continues to play through the initial battle with wolves is most likely a reference to the battle in the rain from Hero, which was accompanied by a blind musician.
    • The scene where Po is riding the rickshaw to catch a wolf (also in a rickshaw) and ends up going up and falling off some scaffolding of a building is reminiscent of the chariot racing scene in The Prince of Egypt, another Dreamworks film. They even used some of the same camera angles!
      • Also, other than the obvious factor of Moses in the Bulrushes, Po's mother sending Po away is very reminiscent of the scene in Prince of Egypt when Jochebed sends Moses away in the basket, right down to when they kiss their children on the forehead.
    • Possible The Lord of the Rings references: not only does the whole plot of weaponry vs. kung fu seem to partake of Saruman's "the old world will burn in the fires of industry" technology vs. nature mindset, but a number of the shots within Shen's foundry are reminiscent of the forges under Isengard. (Not to mention him slaughtering peaceful villagers/farmers.) Also, the Sinister Silhouettes moment with Po being carried up the stairs by the gorilla seems like a homage to Samwise's assault on Cirith Ungol.
    • Pretty minor, but Po getting discovered as a baby in the radish crate is pretty close to how baby Alex was first found after being sent adrift at sea.
    • The musical score takes some cues from How to Train Your Dragon at the end, as the camera sweeps from the Valley of Peace to the last panda village.
    • This is not the first time Jack Black has fought using combination attacks. Though it is decidedly less metal.
    • One scene showed the Furious Five using a string of lanterns as a zipline, similar to the one at the end of Mulan.
  • Shown Their Work:
    • In addition to the architecture, the movie opens with a brief history of Shen's childhood, which is presented as a stylized shadow puppet play. The musician troupe that Po and company try to save from bandits carried large prayer bells.
    • Tigress talking about punching ironwood trees to deaden her hands is a direct reference to the same type of conditioning done by Muay Thai fighters on their hands and legs.
      • Not just Muay Thai. Karate practitioners condition their hands a lot. Kyu Kushin Karate being the most famous example. Also Chinese Martial Artists.
  • Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness: More on the serious side than the first film, but there's still plenty of silliness going on here.
  • Smoke and Fire Factory: Shen's cannon foundry. Needless to say, there is no OSHA in ancient China.
  • Sorry I Left the BGM On: A self-explanatory case in the fight at the Musicians' Village. Po actually Invoked this.

Po: Tell those musicians to start playing some action music, cuz it is on!

  • The Stinger: Surprisingly and sadly averted.
  • Squee: Po, when meeting Masters Croc and Ox.

Po: Master Ox? Master (spots Master Croc) [GASP] The ferocious Master Croc! And Master... Storming Ox! I can't believe we're rescuing actual legends of Kung Fu!

  • Suicide by Cop: Subverted toward the end. Lord Shen assumes Po wants this when he stands up in front of Shen's cannons, essentially a firing squad taken Up to Eleven. Po is only finding a firm place to stand so that he can deflect the cannonballs, but he might have anticipated that Shen would come to this conclusion. And with good reason, because if he can't pull this off, he really is dead. ...Dark.
  • Super Sentai Stance: Parodied with the help of Po's clumsiness.
  • Super Strength: Master Rhino was described to basically be this. Tigress and Mantis are way up there, too.
  • Take Over the World: Shen's ultimate ambition.
  • Taking the Bullet: In the climax of the film, Tigress pushes Po out of the way of a cannonball and takes the hit herself. She survives, but is too weak to stop Po from taking on the rest of Shen's fleet by himself.
  • Tennis Boss: A rare non-video game example.
  • Toilet Humour: While Po and the Five are wearing the dragon costume disguise, it appears to 'eat' a wolf (Po pulling the wolf inside through the dragon's mouth), digest him (the Furious Five beating him up), then excrete the remains (tossing him out the back), much to the disgust of a watching child.
  • Took Another Level In Badass: Although Po still cannot hold his own in a fight with Tigress (admittedly, very few warriors can), and his fighting style is somewhat clumsy, he kicks much more evildoer butt than in the original movie.
  • Totem Pole Trench: The aforementioned dragon costume.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: More like T.V. spots always spoil, but one commercial showed Po's father and the secret panda village at the end of the film.
  • Tranquil Fury: Lord Shen during the final battle at the end of his Villainous Breakdown. It makes the fight much more even and if he hadn't ended up crushed by his own cannon, he might have won. Though to be fair, Po wasn't trying that hard to fight back.
  • Travel Montage: Po and the Five travelling across China from the Valley of Peace to Gongmen City.
  • Trojan Horse: Po and the Furious Five use a Dragon costume to sneak around Gongmen City. Also Shen's "gift" for Master Rhino and co.
  • True Companions: Since the last movie, Po and the Furious Five have become much closer, with Tigress becoming his best friend out of the bunch.
  • Twist Ending: Po's biological father lives in a distant panda village, and suddenly realizes Po is also alive.
  • Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: With the cannon vs. Master Rhino. The cannon won.
  • Villain Opening Scene: The movie begins with a prologue describing Shen's Start of Darkness before cutting to the Valley of Peace and showing the title.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Po appearing as Shen is about to sail to triumph seems to result in the peacock finally losing it; while he remains sane, he kicks the Attack! Attack! Attack! strategy he'd employed with his cannons up to 11, even willing to fire on his own fleet to clear out all obstacles and casually knifing his own Dragon when he refuses. This results in Shen refusing to cease using his cannons even when Po has perfected the catch and return technique, resulting in a pretty epic Oh Crap when Po's final returned shot makes a yin-yang symbol before striking his flagship. When Po confronts him on his ship after crippling it, he finds Shen completely stunned by both the fact everything he created has been destroyed and the fact that Po managed to overcome his traumatic past and find inner peace. When Po explains it to him, he snaps and tries to kill Po. Unlike Tai Lung, however, Shen doesn't lose his head, managing Tranquil Fury despite his breakdown, resulting in a much more even fight.
    • This is most likely due to the Soothsayer's prediction starting to come to pass, and by this point Shen is getting desperate to change it. His Mind Screw didn't work and force is his only option. You can pretty much sense it in Shen's voice when he asks how Po overcame his trauma. Even if it's calm, his ambition has been left in ruins and he's got nothing to lose, leading to the final assault and ultimately death at his own hands.
  • Visual Pun: While flinging wolf Mooks out the back end of the dragon costume, the Five somehow fling out Monkey by accident...
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Po and Tigress is a mild case of Type 1.
  • Was It Really Worth It?: The Soothsayer asks Shen if everything he's done so far, and everything he's planning to do, will be worth it in the end after he destroys his ancestral home in a failed attempt to kill the Five. Shen's response implies even he's not certain if it will be or not.
  • Weaponized Headgear: Played for Laughs and Subverted when Po proclaims that his straw hat is actually the "Disc of Destruction" and throws it at Shen's ship. It works as well as you'd expect.
  • We Have Reserves: Lord Shen is not averse to firing at his own ships and killing his own minions if it helps to destroy Po. Which even convinces The Dragon to turn against him.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Like in the first movie, this trope is invoked during the final battle. Shen professed his hatred of kung fu and desire to eradicate it more than once, but in the end, when told by Po that he should do what he really desires to do with his life, instead of being controlled by his past, Shen chooses to have one last kung fu battle with Po, and actually manages to fight Po on even terms, proving that he wasn't just attacking in a blind rage (look how well that ended for the far more powerful Tai Lung). Then the wreck of his cannon interrupts the fight and crushes him, in the far less subtle application of the same trope.
    • The floor of Gongmen Jail has a curved line running through its circular center. When Tigress confronts Po there, she is standing at one point and repeatedly tossing him to another, causing them to form a yin-yang symbol when viewed from above.
  • Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him: Averted. While a skilled martial artist, Shen's preferred method of combat is death by giant cannon.
    • Played straight, too. Ironically, when the Furious Five and Po was all chained up before him, instead of just tearing them to pieces with those blades of his, Shen decided to go for a dramatic, meaningful, but much slower death by said giant cannon. Needless to say, that cost him his victory.
  • Why Won't You Die?: "How many times do I have to kill the same stinking panda??!"
  • Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Used several times, usually displaying dismay or sudden surprise.
  • Working Title: First, Kung Fu Panda 2: Panda-monium. Then Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom, which makes more sense after one knows what the movie is about. They eventually went with a simple 2 at the end of the original title.
  • World of Funny Animals
  • Worst Whatever Ever: Apparently to Shifu, not even Tai Lung's fall from grace compared to the day Po was chosen as Dragon Warrior. It did, however, help him achieve inner peace.

Master Shifu: The day you were chosen as Dragon Warrior, was the worst day of my life. By far. Nothing else came so close. It was the worst, most painful, mind-destroying, horrible moment I have ever experienced.

    • Well, there's letting your pride destroy your son and best pupil, and then there's a panda you consider extremely unworthy becoming what you always thought the aforementioned son/pupil would be, shoving your mistakes and failures in your face once again after years, twisting the knife in the wound. Given Shifu's past, it kinda makes sense that Po being chosen as Dragon Warrior was his worst moment ever.
  • You Are Too Late: Po and the Five come to destroy Lord Shen's cannon thinking he only built one, only to realize that they are far, far too late considering he's already built a whole arsenal of them.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: Lord Shen appears to be well aware of this trope even through he strives to avert it. Likely the explanation for his Death by Looking Up.
  • You Can't Thwart Stage One: Po and the Furious Five were unable to destroy the cannons at the foundry or stop Lord Shen from bringing the cannon ships out of Gongmen City. Still, they succeed in thwarting Lord Shen's plans and defeat him.
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