This sequel to the animated hit Kung Fu Panda brings back all of your favorite characters for another exciting, fun-filled adventure. While the first film focused on Po’s (Jack Black) journey to find his destiny and become a kung fu master, Po’s latest quest is to find inner peace, and learn more about his past.

The Valley of Peace finds itself under attack as a band of wolves are on a mission to gather up every piece of metal in the city. Po and the Furious Five seem to be making progress fending off the attack, but Po gets distracted—he sees a symbol on the Wolf Boss’ (Danny McBride) arm and this gives him a dizzying vision of himself as a baby with his mother. Po now starts to doubt whether his father, a goose named Mr. Ping (James Hong), is actually his father and wants to learn more about where he came from.

The group soon discovers that the wolves were sent by the evil peacock Shen (Gary Oldman). When Shen was younger his parents ruled China. A soothsayer (Michelle Yeoh) had warned him that a warrior of black and white would kill him, and so Shen used his knowledge of fireworks to preemptively kill off all the pandas. His parents banished him after this horrendous act, and now years later Shen is gathering all this metal to build a massive weapon to take back his homeland.

Can Po and the Furious Five stop Shen before its too late? Can Po find his inner peace while struggling with this new information about his past?

I had forgotten just how great this movie was until I rewatched it on this DVD I was sent for review. This sequel recaptures all of the fun an excitement of the original, but also expands the world. It builds upon the characters and relationships that were established in the first film. Po and Furious Five have a great friendship and work well together as a fine-tuned team—though Po still makes his stupid-turned-lucky mistakes and often embarrasses the rest of the team. The filmmakers have recaptured that same perfect mix of humor, heart and action the second time around.

Po continues to be this loveable three-dimensional character (and not just because he eats a lot of bean buns). While he’s still hilarious, we also get to see a deeper side of him in this film as he learns more about his birth parents. I loved that Po and my favorite character Mr. Ping (James Hong) got even more heartwarming and funny scenes together this second time around. Anything Mr. Ping says or does is comedy gold!

Kung Fu Panda 2 also lets us see a softer side of Tigress (Angelina Jolie) as she bonds a bit more with Po. (Though my favorite scene is her comedic reaction to Po’s realization that maybe the goose Mr. Ping is not actually his birth father.) And the film also introduces us great new pair of villains. Danny McBride is hilarious as the one-eyed Wolf Boss who has to deal with Shen’s unrealistic demands. Gary Oldman always makes a good villain, and his performance as the evil peacock is no different.

The animation is once again fantastic, and in this second film the filmmakers have amped up the action and the complexity of the sets. The new China setting looks amazing in its scope and detail, and the action sequences—from the explosions to kung fu fighting—are all really well done.

Over the years there have been a few home video releases of the Kung Fu Panda 2. To celebrate the upcoming release of the third film, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has once again re-released this sequel on both DVD & Blu-ray in a new “Ultimate Edition of Awesomeness” edition. The main DVD contains a small subset of the bonus features that were found on previous releases, including a filmmaker commentary, a behind-the-scenes featurette with the cast and a few deleted scenes. This release also includes an UltraViolet digital copy of the film plus a special “Kung Fu Panda Ultimate Secrets Collection” bonus disc which contains three 23-minute shorts (one of which is brand new), a sneak peek at Kung Fu Panda 3, two mash-up montages and a new music video.

I normally only watch things in HD these days, but the technical presentation of this DVD is quite good. The picture looks crisp and clear, and the audio track is phenomenal, surrounding the viewer with sound effects and bringing this animated world to life.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:30:24)

DVD:
• 480p / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Surround Dolby Digital 2.0, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Digital Copy (Redemption Deadline 1/5/2019):

• UltraViolet Digital HD Copy redeemable via Flixster or Vudu
  (Despite the insert stating “Digital HD”, when I redeemed this code it only gave me the SD version. I contacted both FOX and Flixster to try to find out what’s going on, and Flixster responded saying they fixed it in my account.)

Extras:

Main Disc:
(All of the bonus features on the main disc have been ported over from previous releases of the Kung Fu Panda 2 DVD)
• Kickin’ It With The Cast (12:43)
  Head into the recording studio to meet the cast behind the voices—Jack Black (“Po”), Dustin Hoffman (“Shifu”), Seth Rogen (“Mantis”), Lucy Liu (“Viper”), Angelina Jolie (“Tigress”), Jackie Chan (“Monkey”), David Cross (“Crane”), James Hong (“Mr Ping”), Gary Oldman (“Shen”), Danny McBride (“Wolf Boss”) and Jean-Claude Van Damme (“Master Croc”). Also includes interviews with producer Melissa Cobb and director Jennifer Yuh Nelson.
• Deleted Scenes (4:22)
  Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson provides an intro for each of these deleted scenes, setting up the context. Scenes are presented in black and white animatic format. Play All or select from “Fight Club – Bartender Scene (Test)”, “Po Chasing the Crow (Test)” and “Po in Gongmen City (Test).
• Audio Commentary by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Melissa Cobb, Raymond Zibach and Rodolphe Guenoden (1:30:24)
  Producer Melissa Cobb, director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, production designer Raymond Zibach and supervising animator/fight choreographer Rodolphe Guenoden provide an entertaining commentary throughout the film. They provide a lot of interesting behind-the-scenes information about the production. The participants have great chemistry with one another, and the joy they have over their project is infectious. Commentary subtitles are offered in English, Spanish and French.
• The World of DreamWorks Animation
  A collection of trailers and music videos from various DreamWorks features. Select from:
  • Shrek – “I’m a Believer” Music Video (1:17)
  • Madagascar – “I Like to Move It” Music Video (1:04)
  • How To Train Your Dragon – “Fly High” Music Video (1:52) & Dragons Continues promo (1:04)
  • Kung Fu Panda – “Kung Fu Fighting” Music Video (2:08)
  • The Croods – “Shine Your Way” Music Video (3:39) & Trailer (1:00)
  • Turbo – “The Snail is Fast” Music Video (1:02) & Trailer (2:27)
  • Mr. Peabody & Sherman – Trailer (:31)

Kung Fu Panda Ultimate Secrets Collection Bonus Disc:

This bonus disc is new to this “Ultimate Edition of Awesomeness” release.
Subtitles are offered in English SDH, Spanish and French
• The Secrets Adventures
  This trio of animated shorts feature the voice talents of the original film cast. The animation starts off in a 3D style and then changes to a more washed-out 2D look for the flashbacks, just like in the films.
  • Secrets of the Scroll (23:14)
    Po’s father accidentally gives away Po’s Furious Five action figures. This leads to a recounting of the story of how the Furious Five first came together. Master Shifu asks his apprentice Tigress to summon the other four warriors-to-be—master cleaner Crane, master comedian Monkey, master dancer Viper and doctor Mantis—to the Jade Palace to help defend the valley from the unstoppable Boar, who’s been defeating the Masters one by one.
  • Secrets of the Masters (22:59)
    Po, Tigress and Mantis break into a museum to get an early look at the new Master’s Council exhibit. This leads to Po recounting the tale of the notorious Wu sisters, who brought Masters Ox, Croc and Rhino together for the first time. We see how this unlikely trio went from using their kung fu skills in the fighting ring to combining their talents for a noble purpose. (This animated tale had previously been included on the 2011 Kung Fu Panda 2 DVD & Blu-ray releases.)
  • Secrets of the Furious Five (24:33)
    Shifu asks Po teach a kung fu class for a group of rabbit children. The children want to learn how to fight like the Furious Five, but Po wants to teach them about other virtues, so he recounts stories of how each of the Furious Five’s members overcame his or her faults to become a kung fu master. In his stories, Mantis learns patience, Viper learns courage, Crane learns confidence, Tigress learns discipline and Monkey learns compassion. (This animated tale had previously been included on the 2009 2-disc deluxe Kung Fu Panda DVD release as well as on a stand-alone DVD.)
• Sneak Peek — Kung Fu Panda 3 (2:57)
  Jack Black provides an intro to this sneak peek at a scene from the upcoming Kung Fu Panda 3.
• Mash-Ups
  • Mash-Up of Awesomeness: Slo-Mo (3:05)
    A fun montage of slow motion sequences from the the first two films.
  • Mash-Up of Blunders (2:53)
    A fun montage of Po’s most embarrassing moments from the the first two films.
• Martial Arts Awesomeness Music Video (2:39)
  A new “Kung Fu Fighting” music video featuring fight sequences from the first two films.

Final Thoughts:

Kung Fu Panda 2 is just as delightful and entertaining as the original—it expands upon the characters and relationships of the first film, and pushes the limits of the animation even further with even more detailed locations and action sequences. This sequel contains the same mix of action, humor and heart that made the first film so enjoyable.

This new “Ultimate Edition of Awesomeness” re-release includes a small subset of the bonus features from the previous DVD releases, as well as an UltraViolet digital copy and an all-new “Ultimate Secrets Collection” bonus disc. (The same DVD disc is included in all of the DVD & Blu-ray re-releases of the first two Kung Fu Panda films.)

Fans of the franchise will definitely appreciate all of the new extras on the bonus disc, so a double-dip of at least one of the two films may very well be worth it. However, I would recommend picking up the Blu-ray version over the DVD. The Blu-ray combo pack includes the DVD, even more HD-exclusive bonus features on the main disc as well as upgraded picture quality.

At the time of this review the Blu-ray can be picked up for just $9 at Target with a Cartwheel offer, plus the Blu-ray comes with $7.50 movie cash towards a Kung Fu Panda 3 movie ticket, which makes it a no-brainer purchase at that price!