WORLD TOUR Day 48 - China
BEFORE: This would have been a good time to insert a film like "Seven Years in Tibet", but I don't happen to have a copy. Instead I'll move on to China, and the 2nd of 3 animated films in the World Tour. Ahh, a direct link from "A Passage to India" finally presented itself - Judy Davis was also in "Absolute Power" with Dennis Haysbert (last seen in "Heat").
THE PLOT: Po and his friends fight to stop a peacock villain from conquering China with a deadly new weapon, but first the Dragon Warrior must come to terms with his past.
AFTER: I'm thinking I must be pretty burned out on movies for the year, if a thrill-ride of an animated film like this didn't really thrill me, it just felt like a ride. In my defense, the film is pretty fast-paced and frenetic, which works well for the fight scenes, but not so much in the other parts. This is entertainment for the A.D.D. generation, which needs a fight or an explosion, or at least somebody dropping something, every 30 seconds or so.
Still, I can't fault the animation, which is gorgeous, and the characters and voice actors, which are darn nice too. The story - eh, I don't know. It definitely advanced Po's character arc, but also set him up for ANOTHER sequel, so you have to wonder about the motivation, I think. Do the filmmakers care about the character, or do they just see him as a money machine?
Po and his cohorts continue to dazzle with their martial arts techniques - here they even combine panda-style and, say, tiger-style, for even more complex stunts. You really have to pay attention, or watch the sequences several times, to really pick up on everything they did with the different animals' bodies in the fight scenes. I'm sure there's a lot of innovative stuff that I missed.
This film presents me with a problem where the mileage is concerned - I'm guessing there's no real Gongmen City in China - but Wikipedia tells me that Dreamworks staffers visited Chengdu, China, which is known as the "panda hometown", and worked many visual elements of Chengdu into the film. Good enough for me.
Also starring the voices of Jack Black (last seen in "The Fan"), Dustin Hoffman (last seen in "Little Fockers"), Angelina Jolie (last seen in "Life or Something Like It"), Gary Oldman (last seen in "The Scarlet Letter"), Jackie Chan (last seen in "Shanghai Knights"), Seth Rogen (last heard in "Paul"), Lucy Liu ("Shanghai Noon"), David Cross, James Hong, Danny McBride (last seen in "Due Date"), Michelle Yeoh, Victor Garber (last seen in "The Town") and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
DISTANCE TRAVELED TODAY: 2,084 miles / 3,354 km (Bangalore, India to Chengdu, China)
DISTANCE TRAVELED SO FAR: 22,210 miles / 35,746 km
RATING: 6 out of 10 peacock feathers
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