Kung Fu Panda 2/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: Wolf Boss.
    • Lord Shen. After a very miserable and empty life, he finally faces the warrior destined to defeat him whose entire species he tried to destroy...and the warrior has found inner peace, and doesn't want revenge. He cannot grasp how that is, how he could be free of all that pain, and tries one last time to kill him...only to accidently kill himself. But he accepts it gracefully, because death is the only peace he could find.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Lord Shen. Is he just a power hungry Complete Monster and cold blooded killer who will do anything to get what he desires? Or a tragic character who truly felt unloved by his parents and is taking out his pain on the rest of the world?
    • Why can't he be both? A villain who is driven to increasingly wicked acts by his flaws and traumas is not exactly a novel concept.
      • It's a question of whether his Freudian Excuse and Pet the Dog behaviour are enough to disqualify him from the Complete part. There is little doubt he's a monster, but he's got sympathetic traits and is really a lot more miserable than any of his victims. That it seems to be pathological, that he didn't see what was wrong with his actions but is vaguely aware that he's the cause of his own problems, and is even more miserable thanks to that than he already was, is another pitiable point.
    • Also his death, being either a defiant attempt or being a total Death Seeker.
    • The creator's commentary also heavily implies that he has some sense of morality, continuining his destructive path because he knows he can't just turn around and render all his genocidal actions as "accidents".
  • Angst? What Angst?: What finally stuns Lord Shen at the end is not Po countering cannonfire with kung fu to singlehandedly destroy his fleet, but the fact that Po is neither permanently mired in a Heroic BSOD believing the lie that his parents abandoning him because they hated him, nor charging in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge for the extermination of his people.
    • When Po discovers what Lord Shen did to his parents, and for that matter species, his response is to...let go of his pain and find inner peace. Shen, who has never got over his own deep-rooted issues, is utterly shocked.
    • Played with when the Soothsayer and Shen first meet Po. They know that Shen attempted genocide against the Pandas, and assume that the reason that the Panda is here is to a) avenge his family/species, and b) destroy Shen once and for all. Both are shocked when they learn that not only had Po never heard of Lord Shen, but had no idea why he should have. The look on Shen's face when Po just brushes him off, totally ignoring the well-prepared speech upon their first meeting, is priceless.
  • Artistic License: Biology: In the second movie both of Shen's parents are referenced as peacocks. Peacocks are called peacocks because they are male. A female peafowl would be a peahen. (Unless...). Probably because of Rule of Perception.
    • Lord Shen uses his tail to help him glide while flying. Peacocks can't do that.
    • Cows are referred to collectively as cows, male and female. An individual male is a bull. Peacocks are referred to collectively as peacocks. An individual female is a peahen. The more artistic license bit is that both his parents seemed to have the huge tails. Only the males do; they're mate-attractant. The species is, according to The Other Wiki, referred to as Peafowl, but much like cows/cattle, the name people use generally is different.
  • Award Snub: Lost to Rango.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: Po's nightmare in the boat before the team's arrival in Gongmen. He reunites with his parents, only to find that they've replaced him with a radish which is quieter and better at kung fu than him. Said radish then proceeds to kick his ass.
    • Also a minor one. While trying to convince Masters Ox and Croc to escape the prison, Po delivers a Rousing Speech about how they will defeat Shen and destroy his weapon. A random prisoner then enthusiastically agrees, but he's never seen again. Oddly, he was a boar and had a completely unique character model.
  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Tigress giving Po a hug after he tells her she couldn't possibly understand what he's feeling. Cue everybody else's shocked expressions and Crane's lower beak dropping. Later inverted with Po hugging Tigress to the same reaction of the rest.
    • Crane's jaw wasn't the only one that dropped. Tigress hugging Po was the biggest case of mood whiplash I've seen in a while. Literally a second ago, she was growling at Po. Viper's shout of "Tigress, no!" made me think she was about to tear Po apart. The hug was a pleasant surprise.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Many are expanded or shrunk versions of pieces from the first OS. Though changes sometimes made them even better. "Ancient China / Story Of Shen", "Inner Peace", "My Fists Hunger For Justice", "Save Kung Fu" (epic-er version of the already epic music "Sacred Pool Of Tears"), among many others, come to mind.
    • Don't forget "Po Finds The Truth"! Everything in that track from 1:00 on is absolutely chilling!
      • Followed by the powerful overture starting at 3:55 as Po realizes that Fate balanced the scales after his loss with a life filled with new fathers, friends and soaring achievements he never dreamed he would gain.
      • And let's not forget the most powerful part of that song that played during a certain tearjerking moment: Po's mother hiding baby Po in a radish crate and then drawing away the wolves and Shen.
    • If you prefer more action-y music, "Zen Ball Master" and "More Cannons!" are for you.
    • Of a completely different kind, but still awesome, here's "Gongmen Jail" or "Funky Kung Fu Panda"!
    • Also in the "funky" category is "Dumpling Warrior Remix," which plays over the end credits.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Lord Shen. Any surprise?
  • Even Better Sequel
  • Evil Is Cool / Evil Is Sexy: Unsurprisingly, Lord Shen's many fans definitely think so.
  • Fridge Logic: In the final fight scene, you might wonder how the cannon was held up by ropes attached to the ship's deck - the ropes actually held up the pieces of debris supporting the cannon's base. When they broke, the wood shifted enough for it to overbalance and fall.
  • Foe Yay: Sure, he was talking about his cannons, but there was just something about the way Lord Shen stroked Tigress' face with the tip of his wing, whispering, "Beautiful..." that invoked this in so many creepy droves.
    • Boss Wolf mentioning how "Cuddly" Po is on a few ocasions.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: For all the good reviews and the high Cinemascore audience grade of the film, the film unfairly underperformed at the box office in North America. However, internationally, especially in China, the film became the #1 animated feature film worldwide of 2011.
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: The flashback to Po's past in 2-D animation makes the wolves and Shen look like real monsters.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Lord Shen, as mentioned in Alternative Character Interpretation, could be considered one if you pity him enough for his Freudian Excuse.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Lord Shen.
  • Memetic Mutation / Fan Nickname: "That goddamn peacock..."
  • Mood Whiplash: At times it's hilarious. At times it's action packed and rousing. At times it's even dark as hell and emotionally powerful. Of course, that's what makes it so good.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Lord Shen, as far as he appears on the screen, always was a power-hungry murderer, but he really crosses the line when he kills the Wolf Boss for refusal to fire on his own troops. Keep in mind, that according to the supplementary materials the Wolf Boss was Shen's oldest (and probably only) friend since Shen was a child and was a member of the palace guard who defected with Shen when Shen was banished.
    • How about in Po's full flashback when Lord Shen orders two of his wolves to specifically attack the panda as a baby? Sure, Po's father bats them away most effectively, but the sight of such fearsome creatures being determined to kill a helpless infant is the soul of evil itself.
  • The Problem With Licenced Games: The video game for this was sub-par at best. The Play Station 3 version, however, stands out, resembling a meeting pitch prototype shown to the publisher to continue work, but was released as a finished product instead.
  • Sequelitis: General consensus? Thankfully averted. Some critics (Roger Ebert, for instance) even deem it better than the original.
    • It helps massively that the original film left a couple plot points unresolved, such as Po's parents.
  • Tear Jerker: Po finally remembering how his mother was forced to hide him before she lured away Shen's forces and he never saw her again. This is hands down the saddest moment in a Dreamworks Animation film.
  • Values Dissonance: Shen, like Tai Lung, also disobeys his parents' will and expresses scorn for them on every suitable occasion. In addition, kicking down his father's throne implies disrespect for authority. In short, he is a walking (flying?) blasphemy of Confucian ideals.
  • The Woobie: Po, dear lord Po.
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