I have to admit that KungFu Panda was a delight and a seriously good time at the theater. I was already tiring of Jack Black but he nailed it in this movie. If you haven’t seen this yet. GO. Find a way. I will wait here.
And not surprising with the Hollywood machine, if a movie makes a pantload of money there is a little overflow button that triggers the thought process that leads to a sequel. Rumours said this was already greenlit, but Dreamworks is just getting close to making an official announcement on it
“We’ve started conversations about it, and I think in the next 30 or 60 days, we’ll be able to talk completely about that,” Katzenberg told Reuters, when asked about a follow-up to a film that has raked in $560 million in global ticket sales.
My knee jerk reaction to this falls into what I call the Highlander theory.
Sometimes a movie is SO GOOD that it needs only one chapter. One installment. There can be only one. Highlander.
But then because the movie did so well and had such a good reception from fans, they push on and make more, and more. Some movies are great and deserve a sequel. These are usually stories where the main characters are continuing their job that is due to bring them into new confrontations. Cop movies, superhero movies, detective agency. There will always be another case. Its part of the job. So movies based on a new and interesting case make sense. But even those have potential to fail.
But when you have a story where an isolated event brings years of history to a peak and it is overcome with a “happily ever after” type ending, there is just no need for another.
But Hollywood will invent a new threat, and new conflict, all just to give them a reason to do the same movie over again.
Kung-Fu Panda had that type of an ending. A “this is the way it is now – and its all good” type resolution. So I fear for a new movie. However if it is even half as good as the first, I still think I would like it.