Kung Fu Panda 2

The real subject of Jennifer Yuh Nelson’s 2011 film is Po’s adoption and the recovery of a memory of a massacre. A children’s comedy is carrying a backstory on the scale of a genocide, and the film keeps moving between slapstick and that weight. Anyone watching with a child benefits from knowing where the tonal floor sits. The second decision is formal. The flashbacks were made as hand drawn two dimensional animation inside a three dimensional film, so the memories look as though they come from a different material. Nelson gives the reason plainly: that style is the language of Po’s brain. It is not arbitrary either, since she was the person who directed the two dimensional opening of the first film. Nelson had been head of story on the original and became the first woman to solely direct a feature at a major American animation studio. The project carried the working titles Pandamonium and then Kaboom of Doom. Guillermo del Toro joined as executive producer during what Nelson called the miserable middle, and she credits him with restoring the crew’s confidence in what they were making. A good fit if a climax resolved by a change of technique rather than by escalating the fight sounds interesting. Less so if you want a sequel that stays cheerful throughout.