Kung Fu Tigress

KE and I watched the Kung Fu Panda sequel this afternoon. We were both surprised by how good it is-- and we're both fans of the original and of animation and of over-the-top stylized martial arts sequences. We just weren't expecting this level of quality animation or a mostly coherent and rather touching story from a sequel to a children's movie that didn't really need a sequel. (There was a blatant bit of further sequel bait tacked onto the end of this one, but the first one was pretty self-contained.)

Master Tigress is more my hero than ever! <3 She was even more awesome in the sequel than she was in the original. She's amazingly badass, and she gets more character development/depth than anybody except Po. Now, her role in the story is pretty traditional for some of the genres KFP riffs on/pays homage to, but she's quite well-written (Tropes Are Not Bad, after all) and it is very much NOT traditional for her type of character to be female except in an all-female cast. In the context of the US-based movie industry's gender problems, I was happily surprised by how openly Po admires and fanboys Tigress for her sheer badassery. I've followed enough discussions about genre movies or children's movies in past few years to know that Tigress won't get her own spin-off movie like Puss-in-Boots from Shrek. I have no hope that the executives who decide which projects get funded would go along with an action/fantasy animated feature with a female lead who doesn't have a love interest, doesn't have long hair, and isn't even a princess. But it's not because the writers wouldn't be on board.

I think what I like best about these movies is the animal kung fu. It's not just human fight choreography with fur/feathers/scales painted over the figures, and I like the way the characters' non-human traits are incorporated into their fighting styles. Monkey isn't Jackie Chan with a tail painted on, he's animated to move like an AU Jackie Chan who effectively fights with five hands (monkey hands+monkey feet+prehensile tail). I like how Viper is a kung fu master with no limbs who wraps her opponents up or lashes them like a whip with her own body. I like how the crocodile master has had his tail turned into a morningstar and the peacock opens and shuts his tail during fights, using it to distract opponents and obscure their vision. This really appeals to my science fiction nerdiness-- it makes me think about alien fighting styles and what might be possible with a few departures from the human norm that don't fit into the done-to-death "They're stronger and/or faster than humans" category. If I get into alien anatomy this summer, I'm blaming it on cartoon animals.