Kung Fu Panda 2

Kung Fu Panda 2 is a 2011 American animated martial arts comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is the sequel to Kung Fu Panda (2008) and the second installment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise. It was directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson (in her feature directorial debut) and written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. The film stars Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, James Hong, and Jackie Chan reprising their character roles from the first film, with Gary Oldman, Michelle Yeoh, Danny McBride, Dennis Haysbert, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Victor Garber voicing new characters. In the film, Po and his allies (Tigress, Monkey, Viper, Crane, and Mantis) travel to Gongmen City to stop the evil peacock Lord Shen from conquering China, while also rediscovering Po's forgotten past. The film was released in theaters on May 26. The Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus says it "offers enough action, comedy, and visual sparkle to compensate" for its familiar plot. It grossed $665 million worldwide against its $150 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing film directed by a female director until Frozen (2013), as well as the highest-grossing film solely directed by a female director until Wonder Woman (2017). It is also the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2011, and the highest-grossing animated feature film of the year. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 84th Academy Awards, losing to Rango. Nelson became the second woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, after Marjane Satrapi for Persepolis (2007). It was followed by Kung Fu Panda 3 in 2016. Plot Years prior before Po became the Dragon Warrior, the peacock rulers of Gongmen City invented fireworks for peaceful purposes, but their son, Lord Shen, discovered that the gunpowder used in firecrackers could be used as a weapon. Worried by Shen's obsession, his parents consulted a soothsayer, who told them that if he continued too far down this path, he would be stopped by "a warrior of black and white." Overhearing the prophecy, Shen deduced that the warrior would be a panda, and led his wolf army to exterminate the local panda village. Horrified by the genocide, Shen's parents banished him.